Social media today allows us to connect with people on a level that wasn’t fathomable 10+ years ago. We can get to know someone on the other side of the planet (or even next door), from another culture, different life experience, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexuality.

We find our communities in the things that interest us: YouTubers we like, shows we watch, books we read, music we listen to, food, travel, activism, etsy shops and local artists we support—so many avenues.

This is why I feel like so many of us are so much more compassionate today than we might have been if we never gained access to that connection. We can form relationships, challenge biases, have hard conversations & realizations, and develop understanding, but only if we listen.

We get to curate our feeds. We choose who to follow and interact with. So even though the possibility of understanding is there, we could ignore it. This is especially true for people who represent any/all of dominant culture: white, cis, able-bodied, straight, male, Christian.

We have to make a conscious choice to keep an open mind. To admit we were wrong. To actively unlearn damaging stereotypes and misinformation. To listen to marginalized people and to take ownership of our mistakes. To dedicate ourselves to changing our mindset and our behavior.

And that process is ongoing. Even marginalized people can discriminate against other marginalized people. Being gay doesn’t absolve me of any biphobic or transphobic microaggressions just because we’re all letters in the same acronym.

I feel like right now we’re all holding a mirror to ourselves, individually and socially, and while it may be uncomfortable, facing our problems is the only way we can figure out how to fix them.