So, I’m standing in the forest and there’s this bear barreling toward me and I’m pretty sure it wants to eat my face. Clearly, the most important thing I can do right now is listen to the bear and try to understand why it feels the way it does, right?
That’s what the people on the edges of the forest are telling me. They’re saying, “That bear that wants to eat your face is misunderstood, and you need to engage with it and figure out what YOU did wrong to make that bear angry.”
To which I say, “Umm … OK. But the thing is, it’s the bear that wants to eat my face, not the other way around. And I’m pretty sure no matter how much I understand about the bear, it’s still going to want to eat my face.”
This bear, you see, has not been shy about its feelings toward me or others like me. It has been angry and growling for years, clearly afraid of anyone different from it, as if some other bear is in its ear shouting, “YOU ARE THE VICTIM HERE!” I once saw the bear wearing a “F--- Your........