Historically, some people have been real jerks. This, of course, is still true today. When an extreme bigot self-identifies as a Christian, when socially oppressive people adopt the name of fiscally responsible politics (“conservative”), when priests molesting children makes the front pages, when terrorists proclaim that they are Muslim… at what point do we get to shift the burden? If I say something like, “Muslims are terrorists” I’d rightfully be called out for a rather pathetic generalization. Not all Muslims are terrorist. Or someone would say, “I’m a Muslim, and I’m not a terrorist.”
But there are a few out there making headlines, and more than a few forming a support network. Jokes about priests molesting kids have never been uncommon in my lifetime (and in other people I know of various ages and nationalities), so apparently there’s some sort of collective stereotype there that people have been aware of for some time. History stands as a testament to atrocities committed in the Christian God’s name. Is it safe to say that others who self-identify as Muslim, Christian, Catholic, etc., are free of the burden of getting those people out of the headlines?
Mostly, I consider myself an atheist, but that’s probably because it isn’t worth getting into my metaphysical views which change fairly rapidly whenever I come across new ideas and new information. But it seems to me that if I cared enough about my views to slap a common name to them, then there must be a point where I accept responsibility for keeping that name good.
As an American, I am more or less proud of my country and its short history. More or less. But if the rest of the world starts stereotyping Americans as brash, arrogant, power-hungry, imperialists, etc.… well, doesn’t it become incumbent on me to either remove that label from myself, or do something (like vote differently, become more active in politics, etc.) to make the label “American” mean something more positive, something closer to what I think it means?
I don’t think I can simply disregard the accusations leveled against Americans by the world at large just because the policies that brought those accusations about go against my own opinions. “Oh, yes, some Americans are like that.” Were I a Catholic, it would shock my very soul that these scandals are coming out (no one knew?!).
But it seems that we don’t take the name back, we let it fade into meaninglessness by fracturing. Christians become Catholics+Lutherans+Methodists+Protestants+…+Baptists. There are various fractures in the Islamic faith, in Hinduism, in Buddhism… Conservatives are “social” and “fiscal”, and now there are NeoCons which describes who knows what.
When should a group of people take their name back? When is it no longer the “fault” of the generalizers?