Influence

At this point someone is bound to say, oh, lighten up, it’s
just harmless entertainment.

Were the degrading, slanderous stereotypes of African
Americans in the past also just “harmless entertainment”?

Can some of us only see the things that harmed us in the
past, but are completely blind to the things that are harming
us now?

Does anyone honestly think that children and adults are not
influenced by what is in their environment?

Here’s a good example.

Why is it that those of us born in the United States just
happen to speak English? Did we consciously choose it, or
was it an accident, or what?

The answer is obvious. We speak English because we were
born into an English-speaking environment. I guess the
environment influenced us.

So does this “influenced by our environment” thing only
hold true for the language we speak? Don’t you think other
things in our environment influence us?

You’d probably prefer that your children not hang out with
criminals, perverts, and dope fiends, because they might be
a bad influence on them, right? ...