a year of silence

3/21/14

  Ideologies, rule books and preconceptions are intellectually lazy ways of confronting the world. It is much easier to rely on quick subjective preconceptions based on a mental checklist, than it is to form an objective view using cognition. We use labels to judge and categorize everyone conveniently, instead of trying to empathize with individual context.
  I am running into this kind of thinking again and again as my year of silence continues. I am observed and summarily labeled rude and/or "weird" by countless people who make snap judgments about my behavior without even looking into my face, much less taking taking a moment to discover why i am not vocally responding to them.
  I have experienced this kind of bias, based on my perceived "odd" appearance and behavior, long before i ever started this project. In one respect, it is a great source of insight. I think it is good thing for a white male to personally experience some form of prejudice during their lives.