Sometimes its easier to advocate quietly, nor never take sides

I was watching an ad by Shaquille O'Neal, it was your typical "guy being scared of being hit on by another guy" kind of bit...nothing we haven't seen before.

Well, because of that ad he was called homophobic. The ad was about sports of course. But anyways...

The irony is that he said a long while back that he had no problems with playing b-ball with gay guys and whatnot.

It made me think about how some people will advocate for a cause that would never affect them. Such as straight people advocating for gays, or whites advocating for blacks.

Obviously the minority race would need someone of the majority to help them get heard because the majority tunes out the minority.

But sometimes you can see why some in the majority shy away from advocating for something that doesn't affect them.

1. They know they could never truly understand so they feel they have no right to speak for something that doesn't affect them.

but most of all is

2. No one wants to advocate on behalf of an oppressed group, only for that oppressed group to immediately turn on them due to misperceptions about an action or word.

I used to support gay rights, albeit quietly. But when I kept dealing with snotty gays and worse, racist gays, I just stopped supporting them. It wouldn't bother me if they got marriage rights or not.

But when you advocate on behalf of the oppressed and they turn on you quickly, you realize that you and them are fighting different causes. You are trying to fight for their rights, and they are just trying to find problems every where even ones that may not be existent.

You have to be careful about vocally being an advocate for something that does not really affect you much because the oppressed group is never going to have a full alliance with you and will eventually turn on you at the first mishap.