In the essay “Don’t Just Stand There,” Diane Cole talks about ways to combat prejudice and inappropriate comments based on a person’s belonging to a certain group. She claims that it is important to speak out and convey to the other side emotions, feelings, and a clear position about the offensive joke or remark. Even made unconsciously, such comments may be mean enough to ruin the overall friendly mood of the conversation and make all the participants feel uncomfortable.
I fully agree with the opinions expressed by the author in the article. First of all, Cole assures of the need for a private dialogue to clarify the other side’s position, and this solution seems to be the most competent in such a situation. A privileged group who has never faced ridiculing their characteristics before may not realize all the rudeness of their words. Since many are not ready to sacrifice relationships due to their ignorance, they are likely to listen to the claim. Moreover, Cole also explains how to behave if an inappropriate comment is made in the company’s presence, and here I also agree with her opinion. Being very embarrassing and stressful, such conversations should be conducted privately to get an adequate reaction. It is important to stay careful with words in such situations, but still simply necessary to speak out.
The key idea of the essay is that it is difficult to convince people to reconsider their beliefs, but it is still possible to define boundaries in a conversation. Allowed to make unacceptable comments, a person may never learn to behave appropriately and not understand what they are doing wrong. Psychologically, people may find these conversations stressful, but at least they will listen to the words and know the limits of what is permissible.