zero tolerance and forgiveness
I’ve been seeing a lot of missteps in different contexts, where someone says/writes/does something they shouldn’t, and they didn’t mean to cause a stir, but they do anyway. I’m not talking about intentional rabble-rousers. I’m talking about genuine ignorance—and I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt here. They just didn’t think, and no one has told them anything different. [I’m being intentionally vague because it honestly doesn’t matter (to me—it may very well matter to those affected) what the misstep was because I think this is an evergreen concept.]
After the offense is identified, though, I’ve been fascinated.
Because I’ve seen some things lately where the response has been “zero tolerance,” as in: we have zero tolerance for that kind of language/behavior.
I can see why people would want zero tolerance policies as a method of cracking down on unwanted behavior, especially if its condemnable. (Is that a word? Pretend it is.)
Zero tolerance, though, assumes that the person knows that what they did was something wrong.
But what if they don’t? For whatever reason, they unintentionally caused offense? (And my premise is that this is genuine unintentional behavior.)
I guess all I’m advocating for is education and forgiveness. Sometimes someone just needs to politely point out the issue to the offender what the issue is.
Of course, we’re human and some of us will get our backs up and be defensive. Double-down on the behavior, justify it, or minimize others’ concerns.
But how many won’t?
I just wish sometimes that we gave people second chances, especially for public mishaps
Again, I understand and am assuming that whatever they did was offensive, but they just didn’t know, or they just didn’t think about it from someone else’s point of view. I guess I’m just a perpetual optimist hoping that many, when the issue is pointed out, are decent people who will apologize and learn. I suppose I’m advocating for that opportunity.
For example, I’ll forgive the grammatical error in this photo.