Although they are grammatically similar, there is a massive difference between the next two sentences. I do not like strawberries. I do not like black people.
For starters, I'd like to point out that both statements are generalities and both statements are false.
Strawberries are one of my favorite fruits. But I prefer some over others. For example, my preference for strawberries is that they are large and overly ripe, just short of going bad.
Those are the sweetest best tasting strawberries in my opinion. There are plenty of strawberries that I don't like though. Some are too ripe or have mold on them. Others aren't ripe enough or a rich enough shade of red. Others still host small creatures that eat them from the inside out.
Although I pick and choose which are acceptable to me and which are not, it is completely okay for me to make the blanket statement that I don't like strawberries. The reason is because it is just fine if I decide that strawberries have no place in my life, no value for me.Strawberries are similar enough that evaluating them on the whole as useful or not is okay. I can judge strawberries as worthless and nobody cares.
People, regardless of color are a different situation altogether. First off, if I make a blanket statement about race, gender or religion, you will probably immediately react by stating how you feel about my "prejudice" . Just like with strawberries there are rotten and deliciou... I mean good people of every color. In all actuality, to me, black people are no better or worse than any other race of people. There is much variety, but we are all people. And I love people.
Each person is different enough between their knowledge, experiences, skills, talents, thoughts and feelings, that it is unfair to judge any whole race or social grouping unless we have had experience with every member of that group. A case by case basis is needed to decide the value of a person within your life.
And that's another thing. Several of my previous discussions here have centered around how we should not judge people, that it isn't our right or our place. You might be feeling by now that I think we should just implicitly trust everyone and let them run rampant all over us because we aren't "allowed" to judge them.
That is quite different from how I really think. A distinction needs to be made here between evaluation and judgement. When I talk about judging a person, what I mean is weighing their overall worth as a person, deciding whether they are "good" or "bad" and worthy of our love and respect or not. When I talk about evaluating, I mean looking at a person and determining if they have the qualities and skills to fit within a certain niche. Their worth never comes into question, just whether or not they fit certain criterion.
I think an example is in order. A mildly unstable person who has a habit of pulling out a fist full of knives and juggling them whenever he gets bored is probably not the best person to hire as a babysitter for your three year old. He might be a great fit for the circus though, or anywhere that a high degree of manual dexterity is needed.
Just because he isn't good for the one thing that you need a person to do, does not mean that he is not good or even spectacular in other areas. We tend to not have the time, nor the inclination to learn enough about a given person to know them intimately enough to ever fairly determine their true value as a person.
Judgement is unfair and wrong because all people have value even if we fail to see it. When we judge a person we deem them useful or useless. When we evaluate a person we deem them useful in this particular circumstance or not useful in this particular circumstance. It is disempowering to ourselves and the people we judge when we do so. Evaluation on the other hand is fair and just and necessary if we are to get by in this world.
Do not judge. But if you must judge, judge fruits. Evaluate people.
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