Diverse Bigotry

February is Black History Month in the United States.  I recall Dr. Martin Luther King having a dream where he says "when we allow freedom ring", he was speaking of the Black People to live in peace without bigotry.  He was not just speaking of the Black People, but of all people of all forms of identity to live in peace without bigotry.  This day and age we live in a place that has made strides to this peace.  There is still a long road ahead for the Black People.  There are other forms of identity that have just started making strides toward that peace.  The Gay People are making such strides.  Then there are forms of identity that have not made any strides at all.  Bigotry is a huge problem in these United States and I presume in the World at large as well.

How many times have you seen people mock a stutterer?  How many times have you hear of people making jokes about overweight folks?  How many times have people complain about the elderly?  These are all examples of forms of identity that have made no strides in procuring the peace that Dr. King spoke about so many years ago.  There are other forms of identity as well.  Forms that perhaps you have not thought of as an identity.  We should be careful to respect everyone.

Often I am misunderstood or demeaned for thinking the way I do.  Co-workers, bosses, and acquaintances have mocked me for forgetting things they don't, for being passionate about things they are not, for having a different outlook on a situation.  I cannot change the way I think because its a part of me.  Its part of my innate nature just as my skin and hair color are.  This bigotry has caused me to be quiet about my opinions and to refuse to give an opinion when asked.  It has caused me to regard someone else's decision above my own.  It has cost me years of not taking control of my own life because I could not see myself fit to make decisions of my own.

Dr. King is an inspiration to us all, and yet his dream goes on incomplete today.  Bigotry is a subtle yet horrible way of discrimination.  It has real results and often its victims are powerless to fight back.  So please, think before you speak.  One day you just might be a victim of bigotry.