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Being Offended
I often get into discussions with people who say that we should ‘respect’ other cultures. I’m not so sure about this, wondering whether different words might be better — perhaps tolerate, understand, reflect, consider, explore or critically evaluate. Every day there seems to be a report about someone being offended by something they have read or heard and the effects that this has had on the people involved. Culture, race, religion, politics, disabilities, gender, inequality, seem to cause the most problems when people say (frankly) what they think.
In the schools I have worked in, we encourage our students to use Critical reflexivity which involves “critically examining and challenging collective assumptions, values and frames of reference, understanding their contexts (e.g. cultural, societal, historical), how they shape perceptions and actions, how they impact others and how they might change in the future.” The implication is that we should be able to have differences without causing conflict, or as Barack Obama put it: “We need to extend respect and thoughtfulness to our fellow citizens even if we disagree with them, to understand that part of this democratic project is for us to sort through our differences in peaceful, legal ways.”
Recently, Sagal Abdi-Wali won the Holborn and St Pancras by-election where nearly half of the constituency’s residents were born outside the United…
