Quote:
Originally Posted by sophie
Saying that Israeli dancers suffer a conflict of interest when their government bombs Lebanon is like saying that American dancers suffer a conflict of interest when their government bombs Iraq.
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Exactly. And I do think most people here realize this.
I'm American. I've done a lot of traveling and living abroad and have very often found myself in the position of being assumed to agree with -- and called upon to defend -- actions and positions of "my" government that I didn't support at all. This struck me as anything from naive to ignorant to narrow-minded to downright offensive to frightening, depending on how it was presented.
Knowing how much diversity there is even within our own little social circles, how can we conflate the character, attitudes, and opinions of an individual with what we know (or think we know) about the country that issued her passport, or worse yet with that country's government? It's unfair and uncalled for, whoever the target and whatever the context.
Suzana