I had to go to a cabinet meeting today, which I initially considered a chore but which ultimately brought me some new knowledge...not about the way the graduate student assembly is run, but about--for lack of a better word--humanity.
It came up that the CT (school-associated but not affiliated newspaper) had been attracting really cruel and racist comments and not moderating them in any way except to 'hide' those that were overtly sexual or used inappropriate language. Curious to see exactly how bad these comments were, I went onto the CT website once I got home...
And they're worse than I could have possibly imagined. I didn't realize that such people actually existed, especially within an "intellectual" community. As I read through the comments I felt my faith in humanity falling. If people like this exist, how can we hope to create a better and more tolerant world? The rampant racism and ignorance (as well as terrible grammar and references to "tenants" of Islam [tenets, people...tenets.]) embarrassed me as a member of the Virginia Tech community and as an American. I wanted to tell them all how they were, comment by comment, breaking my heart...
It overwhelmed me. I thought extreme anti-Islamists were rare, I thought they were abnormalities within a normally tolerant society. I suppose I should have known better.
To be fair, there were several comments reflecting my own sentiments (generally with better grammar and syntax than the others), and one series of comments ended on a hopeful note that saved me from having to entirely despair at the state of my fellow hokies' morality.
Can't we all just deal with people individually rather than make generalizations about entire cultures based on the actions of a few? Can't we all just get along... [see title]
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