Shift in my mental construct

Today I've been mulling over my attitudes toward Deaf people who are victims of dysconscious audism. I went through so much last month with the movement at work, and other situations have cropped up too involving cultural norms and being dismissed when I try to clarify what the Deaf cultural norm is. It's just been totally irritating and infuriating, not to mention frustrating. Somehow, last night introduced an unexpected shift in my attitude that took a bit of time to surface.

One of the big points that Genie Gertz made last night was that we are all constantly bombarded by messages created by systemic oppression coming at us from all sides, and it is no wonder that we have internalized at least a few of these beliefs to some degree. Thus, we are bound to express these feelings and thoughts in one form or another.

This is something I had already known, but for some reason, this knowledge went to a deeper level and affected me profoundly this time around. Last night, I was feeling vindicated and, dare I confess, a wee bit smug as I thought about specific people and situations that have occurred over the past few months. Today, I continue to feel justified, but that feeling has receded in intensity. The paramount emotion has become compassion toward these people. They have some work to do and some serious soul-searching to do, yes, but is it any wonder these issues have cropped up? In that case, I shouldn't be so irritated; rather, I should accept my role in their journey and do what I can to help them process their internal audism - even if my role is simply doing what I'm doing (being myself, doing what I believe in and expressing my thoughts).