A form of wrongdoing about which very little is said is that of using the pain of injustice as an excuse to do wrong or to ignore the suffering of others. Be it sexism or antisemitism or racism (against whatever group) or homophobia, there is no gainsaying the truth that the wrongs involved in either instance have been horrendous. In each case, the personhood of the victims of has been diminished in some significant way. Perhaps a rank-ordering is possible. However, I am not interested in that. What intrigues me is a wrong of a very different kind, namely the wrong of using the fact that one has been wrong as an excuse to wrong or belittle others.
Another way of putting the point is that we should never be so pre-occupied with elevating the wrongs that we have suffered that we thereby feel that we have an excuse to diminish the suffering of others. This is a way of privileging the wrong that one has (or one’s people have) suffered; and that is truly objectionable and inhumane.
Indeed, I would go so far as to say that we trivialize the incredible richness of humanity when we suppose that our experiences of wrong constitute an excuse to wrong others or ignore the suffering of others. Indeed, this in effect is to privilege our suffering over the suffering of others and that it is entirely objectionable.
I shall not say anything about the Shirely Sherrod scenario because it is fraught with complexities. Besides, I am sure that everyone already has a view and nothing I could say would change what each person already thinks about the matter.
For me, alas, the real lesson to take from Ms. Sherrod is precisely the importance of bearing in mind that when a person is suffering, our own history of suffering should never be an excuse to belittle what that person is going through. Likewise, for the wrong that a person is suffering vis-à-vis our own history of having been wronged.
There is a dignity of which each and every human being is capable; and one aspect of that dignity is the wherewithal to be responsive to the suffering of or wrong done to another notwithstanding our own history in either respect.
Whatever else is true, pride in who we are does not require that we diminish the humanity of the other; and diminishing the humanity of the other is precisely what we do when we use our own suffering as an excuse to wrong others or to ignore their suffering.
Here is a very clear example of the point being made. Suppose that I lost my 11-year old child because the child was murdered by one of them. That, obviously, is just horrible. But now suppose that it turns out that one of them has a 9-year old child who is murdered. It does not matter who committed the murder. For the more important point is that it would be quite despicable of me to take delight in the fact that one of them has also lost a child to murder.
Bitterness is the most common explanation for why people take delight in the suffering of others or the wrong that is visited upon others. And bitterness is like rust to metal: absolutely corrosive.
I shall end this blog-entry by pointing out that at no point have I made a comparison claim of any sort regarding which wrongs against which group are the worse. If it is possible to establish a ranking, this much is clear: Being ranked the group that has suffered the most or that has been the most wronged would not in any way be an excuse for the members of that group to use the wrongs that its members have endured as an excuse to take delight in the suffering of others or to wrong others. To have moral integrity is to be mindful of just this truth.
Not only is living with others nightmarish in the absence of integrity, it is also true is that living with ourselves is nightmarish in the absence of integrity.
