Yay, I'm a fat disabled person

Dalilla Hermans, columnist at  The Standard, but professionally rather  advocate of outraged woke, wrote the following The Standard:

If you notice that your phone does not have at least five numbers of people of color, five numbers of people with disabilities, of people who are neurodivergent, belong to the LGBTI community or who are not between the ages of 25 and 45, there is a problem.

Now it is in the context of organisers, editors-in-chief and so much more, but I emphatically do not feel addressed by it. As a director at Ertsberg Publishers I am of course pleased with the diversity of authors that Karl Drabbe manages to attract as a publisher. But I was even happier that when we put our contact lists together, there were no fields for him or me that mentioned skin color, sexual preference, migration background, trade union or membership of a brass band. 

Does it matter?

Then why am I happy? Because in 2021 that simply shouldn't matter anymore. Why do I really care what color you are or what your sleep preferences are? If you are one of my personal contacts, my most important criterion is whether I like you and get along with you. If you want to be one of my professional contacts, my interest is limited to your professionalism and what you can do for me or I can do for you. I am willing to admit that self-interest. But the rest?  Et alors?

On Knack editor-in-chief Belt Buntinck is happy or worried (not always clear which he prefers) about people who are concerned about  woke. He does admit that there are indeed excesses that you can hardly do anything but laugh at. I belong to the camp that has a fundamental problem with woke. Firstly, because, as I say above, I really shouldn't be breaking up with it anymore. The fact that I have to write that sentence in the conditional manner proves that we are not all there yet and therefore, admittedly, partly invalidates my statement.

Discriminating twice does not make it right

Secondly, however, I think that in cases such as this it is important to ensure that woke is about raising awareness and not about revenge or recovery. Discrimination is not eliminated, but rather honored, when a majority is dismissed because of discriminatory characteristics. There is nothing wrong with an older, white, heterosexual man. If you divide society based on such characteristics, you discriminate, regardless of whether you ascribe to yourself a lofty goal (woke or white power, it doesn't matter).

If I rent an apartment and say, “I don't care who I rent to, but I'm still going to give preference to people of color,” I get applause. When I say “I'm not a racist but I prefer whites” I have Unia behind me. You cannot make up for discrimination by discriminating yourself. That is not a correction or recovery. That's copying stupid behavior.

Don't care, just don't look at it

Nowadays it even goes so far that if you belong to a majority, you are by definition suspect. The minorities get the attention and reward. There are support resources and subsidies for them. I regret the minority that will ever become a majority. And I am afraid if this concerns a minority that is now actively discriminating, because I fear that they will stop doing so if they gain the upper hand.

Luckily I'm overweight and disabled. But take comfort, even the thin, able-bodied people remain welcome. I don't care. Just be cool and interesting.