Keep It Off My Wave

I hope I'm applying the meaning of the old Soundgarden song properly by using it as the heading for this entry. In any case, you'll get one interpretation of that meaning (mine) if you keep reading.

A few recent events have left me puzzled as to why people with certain strong political or social beliefs automatically assume that, because one might share their ethnic or class background, geographical location or even last name, one agrees with those beliefs. It's not the beliefs themselves that I'm talking about here - although in the cases I'm about to cite they are deplorable - but the assumption that I would be complicit with them.

One of the recent instances involved someone with whom I had a connection, however tenuous, due to genetic circumstance. After having not been in contact with this person for several years, I had occasion to get in touch. Soon afterward, this person saw fit to forward on an email that viciously maligned people of Arab descent. Leaving aside the matter of this person's prejudice, I wondered why he would presume that I would agree.

The other instance occurred during the pickup of a piece of furniture from a stranger's house (side note: screenwriters and authors in search of inspiration for rich characters are hereby advised to go on a Kijiji or Craigslist buying binge). Immediately upon introduction, this person began moaning about her health (imagine the odds of having not one, but TWO rare spinal diseases) and lamenting that she was "the only white person in this apartment building." The racial comment was not merely an observation of fact, believe me. And again, I was left to wonder why she presumed, because of the colour of my skin, that I would nod in agreement.

Of course, bigots aren't the only ones guilty of this. I was reminded of the two real-life instances while watching Year of the Dog, a decent-but-uneven movie about an animal-lover's mental collapse. In it, Molly Shannon's lead character goes to ever-greater lengths to fight for animal rights, including browbeating her family and coworkers into joining the cause. Because she believed in the nobility of her cause, she also believed everyone around her shared that passion.

Whether motivated by hate or love, people need to get out of their own heads and understand that others might not feel that way. Keep it off my wave, unless you know it's the kind I like to surf.

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