mattwie.be archives

Sometimes people use “respect” to mean “treating someone like a person” and sometimes they use “respect” to mean “treating someone like an authority”

and sometimes people who are used to being treated like an authority say “if you won’t respect me I won’t respect you” and they mean “if you won’t treat me like an authority I won’t treat you like a person”

and they think they’re being fair but they aren’t, and it’s not okay.

There’s so much at work here in this simple post by Austistic Abby.¹ It makes me think of Ferguson. It makes me think of the blindness of privilege. It makes me think of so many dynamics of power, and those who have it, and those who don’t. It makes me a bit angry, and a bit sad.