Meryl Streep: "Disrespect Invites Disrespect"

During the Golden Globe Awards Meryl Streep received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement.

She also gave an impassioned address on behalf of human rights advocates everywhere.

Here's some of what she said:

"Who are we, and what is Hollywood anyway? It’s just a bunch of people from other places. I was born and raised and educated in the public schools of New Jersey. Viola [Davis] was born in a sharecropper’s cabin in South Carolina; Sarah Paulson was born in Florida, raised by a single mom in Brooklyn. Sarah Jessica Parker was one of seven or eight kids in Ohio. Amy Adams was born in Vicenza, Italy. And Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem. Where are their birth certificates? And the beautiful Ruth Negga was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia... 

So Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners...

...An actor’s only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us, and let you feel what that feels like. And there were many, many, many powerful performances this year that did exactly that. Breathtaking, compassionate work.

But there was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good; there was nothing good about it. But it was effective and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh, and show their teeth. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter. Someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart when I saw it, and I still can’t get it out of my head, because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life. And this instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kinda gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. And when the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose."

Streep was referring to the president-elect's mocking of a disabled reporter in a public forum which happened during the presidential campaign.

While this isn't new information, or even shocking anymore, one thing that Streep said really stuck out. That is her reference to the trickle down effect of intolerance and bigotry.

It would behoove us all to pause a moment to consider what Streep is telling us.

She's saying when a person in a position of power models intolerance, that intolerance goes way beyond the intended victim and effects us all. There is no safe zone to avoid or excuse it.

The door is opened as Streep says, giving permission for other people to mimic this abhorrent behavior.

So, "disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence," and so it goes.

What can we do in the face of racism, xenophobia, racism or other forms of intolerance?

1. We can be diligent, checking ourselves first, and then those in power to be sure such behavior is challenged and doesn't become 'the new normal."

2. We can refuse to be intimidated into silence. That's how aristocracies and dictatorships are born.

3. We can volunteer at organizations that will place us side-by-side with people who don't look or think like us, providing an opportunity to learn and grow.

4. We can model positive, affirming behavior. It's the "Bambi Rule." If you don't remember the Disney animated classic, here's what I'm referring to.  "If you can't say something nice [about someone] don't say anything at all."

Much of this may be outside of our comfort zone. But most of the leaders of the major religions of the world didn't live comfortable lives. They challenged us to look beyond ourselves to the common good.

Maybe this is as good a time as any to heed their call.

Here's a link to Meryl Streep's Golden Globe address.

Photo Credit: Paul Drinkwater/NBC