Generational Anger: the systematized destructions we live out every day

When we work within a system built on anger or prejudice, we have to tap into that same anger or prejudice in order to make the system feel reasonable. 

When we justify the prison system, we tap into the anger of people who were afraid that crimes would destroy their towns. But they may not have known about the links between environmental factors and criminality or cared about the school-to-prison pipeline that they were creating. 

When we justify a sexist dress code to "maintain order" in uniformity, we tap into the prejudice and hunger for power on which its creators operated. When we justify or ignore ableism, we are tapping into the anger that has been held for so long against disabled people because of myths and miscomprehensions of disability as evil or straight-up inferior. 

When surrounded by these angry and prejudiced systems, we get to choose between two existing angers: 

1. to feel supported by a whole society when we choose the anger that the institution has chosen (like a classroom's anger toward "disruptive" disabled people)
2. to cope with our anger toward the institutions that ultimately harm us all with their generations of anger systematically doled out.

The first is easier than the second. Even easier is to claim #2's anger, but to feel and live in #1's. What makes #2 easier is doing it with a friend. Pick just one other person and challenge the anger of oppressive ancestors, then channel the anger of all whom they oppressed. 

Every day, we pick a side. We're all born on a particular side, particularly when "neutral" benefits destructive systems. Look around, see where you've landed, and decide where you'd rather be.