I understand the “Celebrate our differences” concept. My skin is a different color than his skin which is different from her skin, or my personal beliefs are different than his, or any other obvious difference. It seems to me that a lot of these differences have been addressed (a lot have not but that is not my point) but what of our similaritys? As an example: Christians, Muslims and Jews. The differences in faith are fairly obvious as are the differences in dogma, practice, traditions etc. But what of the similaritys? How often does it come up that all three share a single common ancestor in Abraham? How about the common denominator of Noah or Moses and the 10 commandments? This is only one example (albiet a huge and widely debated example) but there are many different common cultural experiences shared by persons of diverse cultural backgrounds and I tend to think that if we stop focusing on “Celebrating our Differences” and start focusing on “Aknowledging our Similaritys” we could make a lot more progress toward accepting each other.
Heck, even within “similar” groups are violent schisms. In fact, if you’re a member of Group A, it’s easy to be calm about how different members of Group B are. They can’t help it. but if you see another member of Group A betraying all that is A and selling out A and delivering A into the hands of B, better get a rope and some pitchforks.
…insofar as we’re the same. People who are different would still be screwed.
I think the truth is that celebrating everybody’s similarities gets boring after a while. And not a long while. Also, celebrating similarities can be creepy, and it has a way of highlighting differences - sometimes in a negative way. Similarities, because they’re obvious, tend to get taken for granted after a while, which is another reason they’re not celebrated. It’s neither entertaining nor interesting to acknowledge the obvious.
Too often, acknowledging similarities is really about acknowledging similarities to the dominant group. Getting told “Hey, for a Black woman, you sure do have nice hair” or “I’m surprised how well spoken you are- not like those other jive talking folks!” left a bad taste in too many people’s mouths.
We have all sorts of rites of intensification that serve to bring us together as Americans. Thanksgiving parades, 4th of July picnics and fireworks, Halloween, and even St. Patricks Day.
Somehow I think you’ve missed the entire point of the OP. Your examples are those of people who seek to point out differences not those who attempt to point out similarities.
[QUOTE=Marley23I think the truth is that celebrating everybody’s similarities gets boring after a while. And not a long while. Also, celebrating similarities can be creepy, and it has a way of highlighting differences - sometimes in a negative way. Similarities, because they’re obvious, tend to get taken for granted after a while, which is another reason they’re not celebrated. It’s neither entertaining nor interesting to acknowledge the obvious.[/QUOTE]
I think you have a good point, celebrating similarities would be kind of creepy in a sort of Sci-Fan-Trek-Con way, and would get old fast. My point was more of a general acknowledgement of similarities that, as you say, do often get taken for granted. Sometimes we fail to see what is right in front of us.
