#this is me being frustrated at the absolute LEAPS people use this phenomenon to justify

[hestiasroom]

"diversity of thought" in the lgbt/black/insert minority here community

I literally hate this phrase.

I totally get the intention behind it. In online spaces, certain communities are assumed (key word: assumed) to be left-wing 9 times out of 10.

So because people only encounter one iteration of gayness/blackness/insert minority-ness online, they feel the need to demand proof that people with XYZ label are capable of thinking differently.

But that's exactly what drives me bonkers about it.

Why do black people, or gay people etc. have to prove to the outside world that we are a community that by default will include people with different opinions? Like, any time you get two humans together in a room, you have diversity of thought. Why does this need to be displayed to outsiders like some kind of circus act for you to believe it?

No one goes up to white people and ask them to "prove" that they think differently from one another. No one asks Christians to prove that they aren't all a hive mind.

Basically, communities that are respected in the mainstream don't have the frankly dehumanizing assumption applied to them that they MUST be a hive mind until proven otherwise.

I don't care what the fuck you saw online. Understanding that blacks, gays, etc. are humans should be enough to show that we think differently, that we are individuals.

I really hope that what I'm frustrated about here comes across clearly.

It just drives me crazy to see this, because the people doing it don't even realize the necessary step of dehumanization that they had to take in order to seriously believe some iteration of "XYZ people must all think the same unless I see direct evidence against it." like just stop you are dumb. Black people (just as an example of what I mean) don't need to prove to anyone that we aren't a monolith. We never were one, no matter how much Candace Owens insists that we're all trapped on some "democrat plantation" incapable of thinking past the next welfare handout together. Even if the next 10 black people that you spoke too all voted democrat, you STILL wouldn't have a hive mind, and diversity of thought would still be present, because that would have still been 10 individual black people with their own thoughts and worldviews. Consider that maybe she just tells you what you want to hear?