In a chat with some friends yesterday, I mentioned that one of my co-workers recently got her GED. I was a little surprised by the reaction of my friend. It was not a reaction of disdain, but rather of uneasy surprise. It is quite possible my friend has never (knowingly) met a person with a GED and the reaction is merely another validation of the power of tacit knowledge exerts over behavior. I suspect she was simply not exposed to the type of knowledge acquisition necessary to have any other reaction. Her reaction reflected her solidly middle class socialization experience, one that largely created her social reality. (The assumption here is class has a powerful influence on all behaviors. I just happen to be talking about a friend who is in the middle class.)
This got me to thinking about the relationship between acceptance, understanding and equality. Is it possible to see people as equals in the absence of acceptance? Is is possible to accept people in the absence of understanding? I find myself continually amazed at the reaction of people to stories I tell about people I interact with in my current position. Most come from the lower class and from a social reality quite different from my own social sphere (not sure this is the right description). This is the "other" I have referred to in different posts. The more I interact with the "other," the more the other is demystified and, for me at least, understood and accepted. In the absence of these two learning opportunities, equality as a core value one really believes in will remain quite elusive.
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