“THEY” Cripple Society Volume 1: Who are “THEY” and how do they do it? An Expose in True to Life Narrative Exploring Stories of Discrimination. Cleon E. Spencer
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Collin could have finished that story for Leo, but he remained silent, and Leo continued, “‘well professor’, I said, no doubt you can tell me what critics I can read on the works we are covering in this course. Especially since I am just a first year student, I would say it would be in order for me to allow myself to be guided by them, would it not?”
“‘Yes of course” the professor responded quickly, and defensively; then leaning forward again and in a slower, colder tone he added, ‘but the critics too can be very ambiguous. No! ‘he said sharply, ‘it will depend mostly on your own ability to discern. As for the critics you should read, the names of these will be given in class at the appropriate times to cover each author we study.’”
“‘Yes of course sir,’ I replied. I could not help but feel at the time that there was prejudice involved, but I wasn’t sure. I would give him the benefit of the doubt. ‘I will try my best sir to develop the skills necessary to get a better grade in this course. Thank you for your time. Good night,’ I said as I rose to leave.
“‘Good night’, he said, with a churlish smile as I turned and walked out of his office.”
The group remained silent, waiting for Leo to continue. The pause was broken by Albin with a premature and ill-constructed question. “Why was he prejudiced against you Leo,” asked Albin. “Was it the quality of your work, or was it you yourself?”
Leo was embarrassed. Collin jumped to Leo’s rescue, “Albin, I would say it is too early in Leo’s story for us to discuss whether there was prejudice involved, although at present it certainly seems such is the case. Why not wait until he has related his whole story. Then we will in all probability be better able to determine and understand more surely whether prejudice was definitely involved and why. If we do eventually determine that it was prejudice, I would suggest that the ‘why’ of it - the motivation for it, be explored at that time.”
“What do you think, Dr. Eldren,” asked Owen courteously.
“I think Collin has a good point there,” responded the doctor. “After all, you people seem to have a basic problem in common. So then there is a good possibility you all have something in common when it comes to the ‘why’ of it - in fact I suspect already that you truly have.
However, I agree with Collin, leave the whys and wherefores, so to speak, or the analysis, until we have heard more experiences to give us better understanding. Is that what you had in mind Collin?”
“Yes, Dr. Eldren, plus the fact that by waiting until more stories are told, the whys and wherefores of the matter will be clearly illustrated, I feel sure,” replied Collin confidently.
Dr. Eldren nodded approval.
“Sounds super to me,” remarked Owen. The others expressed agreement also.
Dr. Eldren was pleased. “It seems we are off to a good start folks, and we are getting our format in order as we proceed. The experience Leo has just related to us took place nearly a year ago. I talked to him about it at that time. Now I think it will be interesting and helpful to our purpose to hear the remainder of the experience as it progressed through the university year. Would you mind continuing the story Leo?”
“Not at all sir,” replied Leo. “I continued in the course and worked very diligently at it. I could not help but feel that the professor was cold toward me in classes.”
“Was that a feeling only?” asked Gilda Emerson, “or were there some actions or tangible attitudes to cause you to feel that way. It’s difficult to describe attitudes, I know, but not impossible.”
“It turned out to be more than a feeling,” responded Leo, “there were actions and attitudes throughout the year to substantiate my feelings.”
“Can you describe these actions and attitudes?” pressed Gilda.
“A-h-h-h, he was just a screwball,” Leo replied in disgust.
“Maybe so,” came back Gilda, “but you are falling into the very common booby-trap that allows such screwballs to go on their miserable way, trampling on whomever they choose, according to their own whim and fancy. Then good people like yourself simply walk away from them and stay away from them, shrugging them off as funny or ill-natured characters with whom you want nothing further to do. Such an attitude as that by you and many others like you in similar circumstances, just serves to allow them to set up and rule their own little domain. In it they can include and exclude others at will regardless of the havoc it wreaks on other peoples lives and careers. Just so that their little kingdom isn’t upset is all that matters to them. Then you, a victim, just shrug them off as being of a funny makeup or ill-natured and do and say nothing further about it. Come on Leo,” urged Gilda, obviously moved to deep feeling on the matter, “put it into words. You can do it. Let’s get to the root of the matter and bring it out into the open. Describe to us those funny, those ill-natured, those screwball, if you wish, actions and attitudes. We’ll help you,” she added, now beaming with excitement. “Come on, let’s do it!”
Leo was held in amazement by Gilda’s challenge. After a brief pause he looked around at the other group members. There was no response from them, for they too were somewhat amazed, but more than that, they stared at Leo, as if in support of Gilda and her demand that he take up the challenge. There was silence.
“Describe with words a screwball’s attitudes!” repeated Leo slowly and thoughtfully-then after a pause added quickly, “sure, sure why not.”
“As you tell of your experiences with this professor throughout the year,” came back Gilda, “Let’s try to describe his attitudes toward you; I can help you with it, and I’m sure some others present can as well.”
“I think I can help with that” agreed Owen.
“I can too” responded Collin.
“I’ll try” joined in Brett Culver, “but it’s a brain drain. I usually try to ignore or avoid such mind boggling exercises, but this case can be an exception.”
“I guess it is possible” pondered Donna Coyne aloud. “I’ve never bothered, but it would be an interesting experiment among friends. I’m for it.”
Albin Anders and Dr. Eldren remained silent. This was unknown territory for them. Hopefully Albin will learn from it; but more important if Dr. Eldren will take a positive attitude towards it, thought Collin again to himself, then we will all come out unscathed.
Everyone in the group looked toward Leo, waiting for him to try. Leo began, “The outstanding thing that comes to my mind concerning the remainder of the year in that course is his behavior towards me in class. I’ll try to illustrate that behavior throughout the year, then between us maybe we can describe it more fully, and make some sense out of it.”
“There won’t be much sense to it,” quipped Collin, “mostly nonsense, NON-SENSE, he spelled it out, emphasizing the hyphen.
There was a chuckle.
“But we can describe even a weird attitude enough to better our understanding of the matter,” insisted Gilda. “nonsense isn’t always easy to understand. It can drive you right out of your mind if you let it. But if you learn to take it in your stride, then understanding such behavior in other people can be a great asset in enabling you to cope with them. At least you can cope with them after a fashion.”
Collin shifted uneasily in his chair, but said nothing.
Brett shook his head, “understanding is one thing, coping is another.”
He intended to continue on that aspect of the matter, but Collin interrupted, “maybe we can extend our format here to accommodate the matter of coping. Earlier we decided to leave the ‘whys’ and ‘wherefores,’ the analyses, until later. Perhaps now the coping aspects can come after that again.”
“That sounds reasonable” offered Dr. Eldren, “we certainly need the full story from each one before we can adequately cope with coping,” he said