Now, I have been at the receiving end of all kinds of abuse that it is a waste of mental energy to begin to find categories or classifications for those different types of abuse. What has mattered is how I dealt with abuse, the ones I could to run from, the ones that caused harm, the ones for which I was equipped to withstand, or the ones for which maintaining my counsel was the higher moral ground. Abuse, in the end, will not define me.
However, on reading a
story and commenting on it on Twitter, I thought giving my views a bit of flesh
on a blog can be useful. Some might say, having seen some of my blogs that I
have opinions and many of them. I probably have many more than I have dared
express and I hope that is the beginning of wisdom.
Be at home with your
thinking
A football player
based in Canada decided to go on a homophobic rant on Twitter, reinforcing his
views with more deeply held opinions, and don’t we all have the urge to say
just what is on our minds without let or hindrance? It is a free world. [Queerty:
Football player goes on antigay rant, says he doesn’t care about getting fired,
gets fired]
I would have felt
that his being on a football team meant that he understood the rules of
football and he was a good player. Also, as a Canadian resident, and I do not
care to check if he is native or immigrant, this is a matter of knowing where
you live. He could not have been unaware of the societal needs to accommodate
diversity, no matter how diverse from his worldview.
Know when you’re
mouthing away
I was a bit surprised
that as a football player, he appeared not to know the difference between
playing home and playing away. I would even aver that, in Canada, when
expressing homophobia, you're quite dangerously playing away and not at home
where your supporters would cheer you on to score a goal.
Basically, as I continued
my Twitter thread, I stated, there are certain antics you never get up to when
playing away, the consequences of which might be dire and grave for your team
and the little troop of supporters that showed up for the away game. Therein is
my lesson in football etiquette.
The unerring winds of
social backlash
We live in times of the instant consequence for the slightest infractions, not to talk of the gravest
sins of commission that would land in the docket of the unforgivable. By all means,
you are free to have any opinion, it takes another force of providence,
insight, intuition, or just reticence to realise you just need the discipline
not to express every opinion you have.
I concluded, speaking
more to myself than to others, in terms of expressing views that are
discriminatory, exclusionary, or hateful, know the law of the land, the sway of
moral outrage, and anticipate the unerring winds of social backlash that can
dispossess you of your livelihood and make you a pariah. Be a fool quietly. Be
not intrigued, I write first to adjure myself, whether it relates to others can
only be an unfortunate coincidence.
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