I just checked my info and found no location history for the times I've had my phone's location service turned off. Does anyone know whether there's another, hidden location-data-collection feature on our phones?

For me it happens if the other person is just kind of being there with me in the moment -- NOT if that person is obviously trying to fill the moment with smiling, looking me in the eyes, shaking my hand, asking me a bunch of questions, filling the 'dead air' with articulate 'wit.' Regardless of a person's appearance, if the person is understated in manner, I'm immediately more comfortable and engaged.

California, my entire life. Northern, to be more specific. a couple of counties north of San Francisco, not far from the Coast. Wine country, yeah, but more than that -- a place I'd like to live even if I didn't live here already. Nice to meet you.

I get that California isn't a country. It's just that it's different (culturally, etc.) from other parts of the U.S. , and Northern California differs from Southern California, and the Coastal region has its own cultural style, as well. The land, itself, along the Coast varies as much as the people who inhabit it. We are not a homogeneous group, for sure.

A discussion. Okay. As a newcomer, I'd like to hear this community's thoughts as to the cause(s) of systematic oppression. Then, once we have a view of the cause(s), perhaps we can entertain ways to remedy.

My thoughts (one of them): I notice that people belonging to groups who experience systematic oppression sometimes participate in behavior that may be said perpetuate the oppression of other people/groups. I am no exception, so calling out myself, here, pretty much. I can participate in the oppression passively, by doing nothing, as you say -- not calling out others -- or by some sort of active behavior. Either way, passive or active, that participation is -- at its core --based in fear.