Saturday, February 8, 2014
Discrimination/Racism
We all define people by the way they look or groups they belong to. Many of us do not like to think that we define people by these two things. It seems to me that discrimination and racism go hand in hand. Our society is always trying to make an effort to eliminate these things. President Lincoln gave an executive order to eliminate slavery. Even after this order, African Americans were still not treated as equal to whites. Not very long ago in our history, we had the civil rights movement. African Americans now have more rights than they ever have had before. Now, it seems that there is a gay rights movement. There seems to always be a group that wants more rights. People from the Middle East are often discriminated against at airports and many places within our country due to the World Trade Center attacks. Most of these people are completely innocent yet are discriminated against. Our society sees the flaws that a person has. Do you believe that racism will ever die out in our country? Will discrimination ever disappear? Even though many consider discrimination to be a bad thing, is it important to our national security? Could our country still be safe without discrimination? What rights battles do you see in our nation's future?
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Of course we all want to live in a world where everyone is completely equal, but due to the human nature to judge others, this is highly unlikely ever to be. Even the people who fight for equality still discriminate, they discriminate against those who do not agree with their views. I think that it is nearly impossible to completely kill racism and discrimination, because we cannot control what others think. We can influence them to see the issue in a different light, but for now our thoughts are entirely our own. The best we can do is encourage people to stand in other people's shoes and see that we are not all that different. I definitely agree that our country could easily be safe without targeting any specific ethnicity. Recently,it seems, there have been more threats and shootings by Americans than any other nation. There is no need for discrimination, but because of human nature, it happens all the same.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. We can't do anything about other's views, so why try to discriminate based on that? To make progress we first have to get over that others don't think the same way as us. Many recent shootings in the US have been done by whites, so discrimination is proving to be ineffective. While those of color are searched, many whites walk straight through security.
DeleteYour reply is very similar to what I said. You talk about how it is pre-wired into us, as humans, to judge others and that is discrimination. It is so true that it would be basically impossible to completely end discrimination and racism. Human nature is hard to fight. Each battle of human rights is a fight against humans for humans. People have strict morals and beliefs that each one holds differently from others. When someone strongly believes against the rights of others, it takes a whole mound of others who do believe to combat that opinion. The complexity of humans is hard to understand, but each day we fight to keep it under control.
DeleteI believe that the struggle to end discrimination will never end because it is ingrained in so many people's minds that if someone does not think the same way as them, that person or group of people is wrong and should believe what they do. Many religious people degrade or bash on atheists, as well as people of other religions because they do not believe the same things. Same goes for atheists to religious persons. It's a constant disagreement between the two and many refuse to accept other's ideals. Feminists bash on men and even women that do not believe the same things as them, and treat them as though they are below them. Homosexuals bash on people that are not when they say something even remotely close to homophobic. It all leads back to people's thought process and their thought that they should find a reason to be offended instead of looking the other way. Blacks are extremely racist toward whites and vice versa. Everyone looks for their specific reason to be offended or for others that think differently than them and are willing to argue with them rather than accepting their views and going on to live their own life instead with their own ideals. Until we can fix that, there will never be progress.
ReplyDeleteI agree Andrew that in today's time people are always looking for the worst in everything or in this case something that makes them different by discrimination. People looking for this is the reason on why is may never go away this and in some cases if you make a big enough deal about what you are discriminated on then it is possible to make money or become famous. Which I feel is not the right reason to say one is discriminated but the right reason is to make a change and go unseen but nowadays no one wants that.
DeleteI feel there will always be some sort of discrimination no matter how hard we try to get rid of it. Everyone has the goal of not being discriminated and being equal and we all are fighting for equality but even us who fight for equality discriminate. Everyone over the years will come up with something they feel isn't right and start a group to argue against the unfair rights. Colton covered examples of discrimination through history and some of now a days. I feel discrimination will always be around for the fact that we are all different and have different ideas which leads us to having different beliefs. I think that our country uses discrimination as a reminder of past events and maybe also to keep ourselves safe. Everyone discriminates and this is as simple as judging somebody before getting to know them. By doing this we automatically have a conclusion that may or may not be true and in my eyes this is discriminating.
ReplyDeleteI think that in the goal of not being discriminated against creates discrimination, but not intentionally, usually. All people that are fighting for equality have different ideas of what equality is and this creates friction when one group does not share the same ideas as them. I think that we also use discrimination to get things done such as passing laws. Like you said Jeff, it is also a reminder of the actions of the people in the past and what the people of the present need to do differently.
DeleteI think that discrimination roots from jealousy and misunderstandings. As humans, if we are jealous of another, generally we do not like them very much. This also applies if a person does not understand another. Every single person thinks in a different manner and that is what causes misunderstandings. If every person thought the same way there would not be much variety or ingenuity in the world. I do not think that there should be different "right" groups though, such as gay rights, religious rights, women's rights, or any others. I believe that all of these fall under one category which is HUMAN rights. Every human has the right to be treated equal and with respect. The different right groups all come under this. If we promoted human rights, we would be promoting gay rights, religious right, and women's rights in one go round.
ReplyDeleteSarah, I think that you are right. When we are jealous of someone, it stems a hatred for them. There is no right or wrong person in this world; everyone has flaws and everyone is different. Nobody can change another person, instead we can only influence them. We deserve all rights because we are humans. Even though we are all different, we ALL deserve to be treated equally.
DeleteI'm not sure I agree with this concept. I think back to our country during the time of slavery, and I don't think the slave owners and free people were jealous of slaves. Now this is my opinion, but I don't think white people were jealous of black people during the time of Martin Luther King Jr. Discrimination stems from pride. It is the fact that some human beings can't accept that someone has a different skin color or looks differently because people with the same skin color can still discriminate against each other. Discrimination is really a product of pride as is jealousy.
DeleteI think discrimination stems from fear. Humans are afraid of losing power and given the opportunity, we will squeeze power out of any situation. We are also afraid of change and differences because we can not predict what will happen. When we are afraid, we become vulnerable which causes anger and violence. So when a person is different, one may become frightened of them or threatened by them. We react by being discriminant upon them. I think that there will always be discrimination in our nation because the views of former family members can be passed down and carried through to those of the future. It is human nature to be frightened by change or difference. I think that as long as people are threatened by new ideas, they will continue to make violence and cause discrimination. Without discrimination, our country can remain safe. It is important to remain cautious and careful; this can be enforced in a respectful manner. Respect makes a greater impact on someone than harsh words.
ReplyDeleteI think we all wish that we could say there is no discrimination in our country, or even in our school, but it will always be there. Whether we like it or not, everyone is not the same. We wish that every person could be treated the exact same, but that is an impossible task because not everyone is the same. It is too bad that people from the middle east are discriminated against in airports and such, but that's just what happens when your country tries to take out the United States. I am definitely not a racist person, but if I were boarding a plane and saw that there were some people from the middle east on my plane my first thought would be of September 11th and I would be a little bit nervous. Now this is profiling, but there is a reason behind it. I'm glad that airports are protecting our National Security. We can all say that every human being should be treated equally, and I agree with that, but I don't ever see it happening because each person is different. As long as everyone has the rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness then I don't know what more people want. Happiness comes from within. I'm not saying our country and the world is right, but that is just the way it is.
ReplyDeleteDiscrimination is not only a problem on the national level. It takes place in places as small as a single school. Living in Salmon, we do not see this so much with the racism side because the fact is we simply do not have many races in our community, but that doesn't mean we don't have discrimination. People are persecuted for the smallest of things each day, no matter who they are. Each day in our school, judgement is passed just by seeing a person walk down the hallway. They are judged by their clothes, the people they are with, and even the conversations they have. This judgement turns into discrimination and before we know it, everyone in our school is divided. Discrimination is hurtful from national to local levels, but there is not just one group to blame. Every single person on this planet, whether black or white, poor or rich, they judge and they discriminate against others. Of course not each individual may attack an entire group, but sometime they will attack another individual. Discrimination is a problem that can start small and grow quickly. It will never go away because it is a part of human nature, but we can keep working towards our own view of others to make the world less hurtful.
ReplyDeleteI like how you pointed out that discrimination can happen on a local level too. It is important o remember that we can hurt people by stereotyping and judging then based on that stereotype. Each person is unique. I once heard someone say, "God made you and then threw away the mold". I'm not sure how accurate it is on the whole God making us things, but it definitely reminds us that we need to know someone before we judge their thoughts or actions.
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