However, I grew up to become a straight white male. I’m also especially tall. Quickly enough people didn’t dare mock me as openly as before, if they even dared. Somehow it gave me the wrong feeling that it was all ‘over’. The struggle had ended. 2/20
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I went as far as to think that Good and Evil were relative principles, nothing more than made up stories to get children in line. To be fair I had believed it for I had always been bewildered by what people called “Good” and “Evil”. 3/20
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Could I have been more wrong, I wonder? Not only was the struggle not over, but Good and Evil are actual things, not mere abstract concepts, but real and concrete realities. My fiancée widely opened my eyes to it one night. 4/20
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My best friend had had a quarrel with his own fiancé and he’d vanished in the club. We couldn’t find him. His fiancé was already gone home. We got worried. I kept towering the dancefloor and my sweet beloved went to look for him in the bathroom. 5/20
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She found him there. He was being forced into a kiss by another man, who was making a pass at him. She couldn’t believe her eyes. She took my best friend’s hand and pulled him away. The sexual offender wanted to fight back. 6/20
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My fiancée is not a fighter. She couldn’t throw a punch. Nonetheless, when her eyes turn cold you better hide under a rock. She faced the assailant like he was nothing and escorted my friend back to me. I’d told her how he saved me from cocaine addiction in the past. 7/20
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There she was, my shy country Belgian girlfriend, rescuing my loud too-honest-for-his-own-good American friend. He told her it was no big deal, that he was used to that kind of assault. She burst into tears and hugged him. 8/20
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My best friend is from the U.S. of A. However, people in Belgium and Europe have already told him to “go back to Africa.” Could I be more ashamed? I don’t know… 9/20
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When I started my PhD in medieval literature, which I never finished, I was naïve enough to think that the Academic world would shelter the best and brightest of people. Open-minded and smart folks. Are you laughing yet? 10/20
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I met predators and narcissists. They give you compliments only to treat you like utter shit the next day. They pet you only for you to show your neck and then they go for the jugular. It’s a weird rope on which to find balance but it’s ultimately emotional abuse. 11/20
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Again, I had become a fully grown-up man. I didn’t face the blatant sexism one of my closest friend did. I was well received by people in “high places” that I didn’t suspect belonged to the far-right movement and studied the Middle Ages with a hidden ideological agenda. 12/20
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Most of the time bigots and far-right activists will think I’m one of them because… well… I’m white. It gives me an extraordinary access to their bullshit. 13/20
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However, I remember how I was treated when “they” thought I was queer, before I had a beard, measured over 6’5” and weighted over 230 pounds. Yes. I pretty clearly remember. Sometimes, my quirks show again and they dare poke at it again. 14/20
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That’s why I’m eventually convinced that Evil exists. It has nothing to do with the Bible or what Plato wrote. It’s even more vicious than that. I don’t know yet how to fight it because swords and magic wands just won’t do, but I’ll come up with a plan someday. 15/20
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I mean, they won’t see me coming. They’ll think I’m one of theirs. My great-grandfather—long story—even wore an actual Nazi SS uniform. Except for my Jewish name, I check all the necessary credentials. 16/20
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Racists and predators are not only disorderly drunks that ambush you in the streets at night. They also “sit at the table”. We think of them pretty highly. They have no problem to belittle us and make us feel ashamed because we granted them the keys of the realm. 17/20
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As a matter of fact, the struggle was never over. I see that now… I hate to fight and quarrel. I’m a soft soul but even my fierce fiancée says I scare everyone when I get mad. It’ll soon be about time to channel that dark energy I guess and aim it in the right direction! 18/20
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Maybe I’ll start by looking for evidence that Charles VII won the Hundred Years’ War thanks to the cosmopolitism of his armies. That’d be fun. 19/20
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This was a long thread. So here’s a gorgeous ass for you to look at.pic.twitter.com/lopmhOUfPl
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