Criticism 2018: 10

“Now, dialogue may seem like an overused term, and a facile panacea; but in fact, authentic dialogue is anything but easy. It needs empathy and it needs courage. It cannot proceed from the position either of putative superiority, or self-effacement. To condescend to our interlocutors in such encounters is of course to diminish and humiliate them; but to defer to others automatically because we perceive them as vulnerable, or less privileged, or as ‘our victims’ – is to assume that they are divested of agency and incapable of responsibility. From the minority side, such dialogue also requires an effort of openness and the courage to step outside the rules of the tribe. If we perceive our interlocutors merely as representatives of power, or as incapable of real understanding or change, we are guilty of prejudice too. And again, I say ‘we,’ because I have been on that side of the equation as well. Equality, it seems to me, is not only an economic, but an ethical achievement.”