Covering, again

The University of North Carolina's Summer Reading Program, where incoming students are encouraged to read a book and discuss it during orientation, has selected Covering for next year's freshman class. I bring up this news because I posted my reaction to Covering here.

I disagree that covering is any form of threat to minorities or to civil rights. I'll again post my conclusion on the subject:

Covering is the civil thing to do. If we didn't, we'd be at each others' throats. If you're strongly anti-tobacco, you don't get in the face of the smokers. If you love cats, you don't try to convert everyone into a cat lover. And if you think homosexuality is a sin, you don't send protesters to a gay man's funeral.

(A few people don't follow these standards of decency. We call them "assholes.")

To elaborate, very few would defend exhibitionists. But those who make no attempt to cover at any time are participating in a different form of exhibitionism. They enjoy parading their differences, even if it hurts other people. As I mentioned in the comments, the polite thing to do is acknowledge another's interests, but don't talk on and on about a topic that someone else isn't interested in.

One of the other books considered for the Summer Reading Program, and unfortunately not chosen, is Escape from Slavery by Francis Bok, a novel that I believe is more important. The book, a recounting of a black Sudanese boy's enslavement by Arabs in modern times, is relevant to important issues for America and the world, particularly the impact of slavery on current race relations and the struggles between Western and Islamic cultures.