Tolerance of Intolerance

I have recently realized how intolerant I can be of people who do not believe that viewpoints other than their own could be valid. Maybe I shouldn’t be shocked at assertions like, “No self-respecting Muslim woman would ever wear a head scarf,” or “Feminists say they’re strong, but, at the end of the day, they still wouldn’t mind being dominated,” but they still leave me in a state of disbelief.

What concerns me is the tendency of disbelief to become dismissal. “Oh well, what can you do? Some people just don’t get it. Let’s avoid the topic from now on.” If I go into a conversation thinking someone is, to put it bluntly, crazy, then I am doing everyone a disservice.

If I claim to be a tolerant person, who is open to all viewpoints, it would be hypocritical of me to write off what I consider to be intolerant ideas. Democracy relies on a plurality of political views. Conflict, in this sense, is a fundamental part of what makes democracy work. Believing in democracy as well as diversity means accepting—and valuing—the existence of viewpoints that are different from my own. Even the crazy ones.

I am reminded of Daryl Davis, author of Klan-Destine Relationships: A Black Man's Odyssey in the Ku Klux Klan. He first met Klan members through his music, and through getting to know them, now has a dozen Klan robes hanging in his closet, from members who left the Klan. But Davis never met with Klan members to try and promote tolerance: “My goal was not to convert anybody at all, because if they want to be in the Klan that's their business…But what I learned was that while you are actively learning about somebody else, you are passively teaching them about yourself.”

Davis’ story is not to say we should pretend to be tolerant of people only to convert them, but rather that we should engage with those who disagree with us, and let them form their own opinion. And if we still have different views at the end of the day, then I can still appreciate the democracy that is strengthened by the existence of our differences.