Take your pick

serena williams racist sexist cartoon

"This image depicts whites as demure and feeble" "This is a typical example of a man telling a woman what to do" "The racism, what with the brown person so prominent and the white blond one as an almost irrelevant figure in the background" We notice what we have become attuned to notice. Once we have a grievance of sorts, we spot things that at every turn. One person is on the lookout for racism, constantly, another sexism or ageism etc. This mechanism is not too dissimilar to the way we see tyre repair shops all over the place not longer after needing one. It is a natural function to spot things that we have recently paid attention to. Unfortunately, things can go askew. We start to notice every little infraction now rather than let a lot pass us by.

Society has to contend with the noise problem. The more people making 'noise', protests, objections to how things are, the more each drowns each other out. We want the profile of our cause pushed higher up the agenda. We want greater media spotlight on it. This is great, but it is the detriment of other worthy causes too. Charities suffer the same issue. If you became a patron of a charity, you raise its profile. However, whilst it might lead to more money overall being given to all charities, it can force some to spend more on advertising to keep up. The proportion of money that gets spent on "doing good" can drop.

Same but different.

A burglar notices the properties that are empty and easy to enter. A gardener clocks a selection of trees on their travels. A car enthusiast is drawn to certain marques of cars on the highway. A pedant sees every spelling mistake. The righteous is dismayed by anything that seems immoral to them. We become adept at finding what interests us personally.

When some see a cartoon like the one above, we decide to make a fuss. We are on the ready to criticise and complain as that has become a regular habit. It is a fault in the human condition - to stop being balanced and tolerant.


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