Inaction is a term used to describe “negligence.” If a person sees a situation that they could fix, they become responsible to fix it. If a person chooses not to fix it and walk away, they are being negligent and indefinitely irresponsible. The negligent person is not only being irresponsible but the person is saying, “It is okay” to do this.
By someone not doing something, they are putting their stamp of approval on it by not fixing the problem. For example, if I am having a conversation with one of my best friends and they used a very inappropriate term such as “nigger” I would be offended. But even though my friend said the word and should be apologizing to me for offending me, it is my responsibility to fix the situation. I could handle this situation in multiple ways. First we begin with the bad way of handling the situation. I could easily just tell myself, “She didn’t mean that, just brush it off and keep talking like nothing happened, you don’t want to make your friendship awkward because of a poorly used word.” So in this case I would just avoid saying anything about the term and act like her words did not offend me. The ugly way, I could handle this situation would be to tell the person how awful they are to have said such words. I could tell them exactly how offensive the term was and say how embarrassed I am to know them as my best friend. The good way, would be to ask why they used that term and what it means to them. In order to gauge their understanding of the term and why they chose to use it and then explain to them that it is offensive and why.
The last option is the best option because the friend is being confronted and not attacked, like the second option. The friend is being informed of why the term is offensive and why it is not okay to use it in a derogatory manner. Overall, the term was not okay to use and the person was responsible to stand up to their best friend and say why they shouldn’t use it. Instead of brushing it off and being negligent to say anything. It is better to always say what is right instead of neglecting bad behavior; if you let one thing slide, all things begin to slide.
The person also has a responsibility looking out for their best friend. For instance, if the best friend had said this term to anyone else they may have become violent for the use of the term. When we as a people, are presented with a situation it is our moral responsibility to take action, to fix the wrong. If we don’t act, we are putting our label on the bad behavior. When we neglect something, we have just said to all other people, “It is okay.” But it’s not okay for injustice to keep happening, and if we allow it, we are morally wrong, because humans are not to mistreat others or cause harm in any ways. But we do, it happens, because people do not take action and fight for justice.
I agree that the negligent are just as responsible for injustice as the catalysts themselves are, but what if they are unaware of their negligence? More and more, I find that people aren't purposefully ignorant, they are just uninformed of such injustice. Maybe it is our responsibility as the opposers to inform the unaware and then let them form our opinions. Then we can truly hold them accountable for their inaction.
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