I’ve contemplated for a whole some of your comments about grant and reflected thus:
you are tolerant of and I thought understood the impact of multigenerational trauma and bullying on other indigenous people
there is clear evidence from his childhood photos that he was dark and interracial and he has reported the bullying he experienced
unlike some with that experience of racism as a child he managed to find a place for himself and that gave him a platform. I believe he felt that he had a responsibility to use that platform to draw attention to the experiences of others of his background. Many people with a platform use it that way. Others you have supported though their methods or statements are not always well judged or palatable. We don’t always agree with public figures and some put up with more than their fair share of garbage thrown at them.
In my view Grant has become an increasingly outspoken and strident. Maybe he also got to the point of getting fed up. I suspect that the sort of vile diatribes about him that we see on hotcopper are only a fraction of what he has experienced over the years. Direct. To his face. Consistent. Sustained and sometimes overwhelming. That, whether we care to recognise it or not is abuse and continued abuse is exhausting and alters one.
Yet we expect him to maintain a sense of balance? We expect him to be the adult in the room? Is that really reasonable in the circumstances?. Can we not have understanding and compassion for him? Can we not separate the man and the message from our beliefs about how he handles himself on occasion? Can we not be consistent in the way we judge? Or at the very least balance our judgement with compassion and an attempt to understand?
have you contemplated that maybe - just maybe - you too are holding him to standards that aren’t expected of others, and just possibly you are not being consistent.
