I was reminded of an incident that happened to me in the late sixties, (yeah, I was around then). We were participating in a protest/sit-in at my high school and we were advocating for a more inclusive curriculum and teacher hiring practices. The president of the high school encountered the protest participants with the often stated question, “What do you people want?”.
That question befuddled me then and now, when I occasionally hear the question today. Typically, the question is directed to people from different races or cultures. The seemingly harmless question, “what do they want?”, unfortunately presupposes that some people should be satisfied with less. As if, people don’t all want the same things or opportunities in life. We need to practice seeing each other’s humanity. Just think of what you want; (food, clothing, shelter, quality education, a decent paying job, fair treatment by police… etc) and you can be sure that everyone else wants pretty much the same things!
I was reminded of an incident that happened to me in the late sixties, (yeah, I was around then). We were participating in a protest/sit-in at my high school and we were advocating for a more inclusive curriculum and teacher hiring practices. The president of the high school encountered the protest participants with the often stated question, “What do you people want?”.
