Before this lesson, when thinking about the word tolerance, I think of the word acceptance. However, I learned through the readings that the two are not the same. Tolerance doesn’t mean you agree with something, it just means you put with it, for whatever reason. Bering tolerant is pretty much being on the sidelines while two teams, with differing views and goals, go back and forth with one another. In chapter 2 of Love the Sin, Jakobsen and Pelligrini write about how “tolerant” people do not act against hatred and violence towards others. They even state that “tolerance doesn’t allow us to address injustices.
With these readings, I see how being just “tolerant” can lead to a division amongst people, because it separates self from others and will create a “me/us” and “them”. I associate the word tolerance with the idea of there being something present as to why you “tolerate” others. For example, if a coworkers frustrates me, I tolerate them so I can keep my job. But what happens if I lose that job, now I have no reason to be cordial with that individual. So to bring that into context of this class, being tolerant of others in communities that I am not apart of may be temporary until I have no reason/benefits to continue putting up with them. Being tolerant does not get anything done and may continue to allow hatred and violence to grow.
