Folks.
Seeing as so many are missing the point from my blog post, I feel it needs to be said.
XENOPHOBA CAUSES AND CREATES HATE.
I personally do not care, how anyone wishes to spin the narrative. "Oh scroll on by" is like saying "ignore someone bullying someone", it NEEDS TO STOP.
Xenophobia for those who don't know is cited as the following; dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries.
This is not limited to comments like; "ever since they moved to CHINA" and so forth. I have seen far worse comments from various model horse hobby groups. While the admin and moderation teams are usually on top of such hateful comments, the fact remains; I REFUSE to 'scroll by' comments citing a COUNTRY as the problem for model horse flaws.
It is not the COUNTRY'S responsibility to make sure products are up to snuff; it's the company's control reps. Blaming an entire country for something the country has zero control over, is xenophobic.
And to break it down further to brass tax, xenophobia equals racism.
Now for some of you, you may be comfortable with moving on from comments that blame an entire nation for something, but I, and many others, are not. We will speak up and we will say something because at the end of the day, if you wouldn't say that crap to your grandparents, parents, or children, why the heck is it okay for you to say about an entire nation?
The old saying is "if you don't have nothing nice to say, don't say nothing at all" comes to mind and blaming a freaking country isn't speaking an "opinion", it's being disrespectful, it's being rude, and it's downright being racist.
If those of you who didn't agree with my blog post can honestly sit there and be comfortable with "scrolling on by such comments" then there is zero hope for this hobby as a whole.
This hobby is meant to be welcoming. It's meant to showcase that there are good people in this community versus the few bad apples that have cropped up over the years. Look how fast we stood united when so and so artist was sending out highly dangerous models? Look how fast we banded together to make sure others were aware of the issue.
If we can do that, why the heck is it so taboo to some of you, to call out those who CLEARLY portray themselves as xenophobes? Why is this such a taboo thing to do, but calling out an artist isn't?
Being a xenophobe is the same thing, if not worse for this community than being a crappy artist who doesn't care about someone's safety. At least with the latter, we can prevent injury or worse. But with the first, it's a harder issue to deal with and one we deal with daily.
How many of you get called rude remarks because of your skin color? Hair color? Eye color? Or in general, your ethnic background overall? How does it make you feel to know that literally NO ONE is saying something?
If it were me in your shoes, I'd be furious. I'd be upset and worst yet, I'd be sacred. Because being a xenophobic does generate hate and worst yet, this does lead to hate crimes which have lead to far worse.
Just because we've not had it happen in this community yet, doesn't mean that if we, as a community, continue to turn a blind eye to it, that it won't happen sooner or later.
And if my standing up for the minorities of our community makes YOU uncomfortable, than GOOD! It means I'm doing the right thing and it means you'll be less inclined to say such hateful things in the future because you now know, there is at least one person watching for such hateful comments.
And this touches close to home for me. I had people saying "just scroll on by" when people were making fun of my 15 now 16yr old little girl because she's of mixed ethnic backgrounds. I had people saying such horrible and nasty things about her. And worst yet, this came from a parenting group, I was apart of. Do you have any idea how heartbreaking it is, to see people saying racially hateful things about a child? No? Then go watch reddit. Go watch what happens when a bully picks on a person of a minority group at their school. Then come back and tell me, you'd scroll by that comment regarding someone else's country.
I get it, you hear rude remarks about the USA daily but at the same time, you hear far worse about other nations daily as well. Russphobia is a thing now. It's run rampant in the art communities. I see comments everyday about how Russians should drop dead, go die, etc. How the Western world should starve them etc. All because of one mad man's ambition and hate went unchecked. And that's what happens when you allow someone's xenophobia to go unchecked and unchallenged. Ultimately, if that person is able and capable of doing so, they can cause wars. They can generate enough hatred towards a minority group, that hate crimes can and often do, sky rocket.
If me standing up for a minority group within the model horse community makes me an outcast, oh well. If it makes people uncomfortable, again, oh well. It means I've done the right thing, versus just scrolling on by and ignoring a clear problem.
Excerpts;
"Cultural xenophobia is dislike or hostility toward different cultures. Assuming that products, foods, or movies from other cultures are inferior to one’s own is an example of this."
"But let’s focus on the fear of foreigners, because that’s potent enough. This takes a lot of forms in the media and conversation, but you’ll probably be familiar with at least some of the following:
Foreigners bring crime!
Foreigners spread disease!
Foreigners abuse the welfare system!
Foreigners bring un-American ideas!
Foreigners aren’t Christian!
Foreigners take our jobs!
Foreigners dilute the racial makeup of America!"
The people xenophobia affects most are not the people who hold xenophobic views themselves, but the targets of those views. This can include:
immigrants
refugees
religious minorities
people from different cultures
Signs of xenophobia
A person or institution may have xenophobic views if they:
express distrust or disgust toward perceived outsiders
express distrust or disgust toward that group’s food, music, or other aspects of their culture despite having little knowledge of it
avoid interacting with perceived outsiders
blame perceived outsiders for local problems, such as a lack of new jobs or inflation
believe that perceived outsiders think, behave, live, or feel significantly differently from non-outsiders
treat perceived outsiders differently from non-outsiders, such as by being rude or hostile to them
treat perceived outsiders as dangerous or criminal with no evidence that they are
Good reading
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