Are We Ready To End Discrimination Yet?

I'm reading a pretty good book about the hunt for John Wilkes Booth right after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln called Manhunt by James L. Swanson.  It mentions that Emancipation had been in place a short two years, and this was 1865, just after the Civil War.  It's now 2011, so that makes it.....(let's see 2011-1865=146), 146 years.  It's unfortunate that in all that time living without slavery, we still have not done away with racial discrimination.  Discrimination happens in many forms not just racial.  We should be ready to end it.  Ending discrimination is hard but I believe it's doable.

We should all know what discrimination is.  Many of us have been its victims and many of us have used it.  If there is one root that discrimination has that would be its ties to social status and social acceptability.  People don't usually discriminate based on personal feelings, but rather based on social status feelings.  There was a young white boy who loved to play with his friend who was African American.  One day the boy told his mother that he did not like black people.  He said this because he heard it on the radio.  His mother told him that his friend was black.  The boy responded with surprise, "He is?"  So this issue is really socially based.  That is people discriminate in order to fit in to their society.  This means that the problem will not go away even if you convince people to love everybody on a personal level.  It's one thing to change the mind of one person but totally another to change the behavior of a generation.  That is why I think that one of the best ways to end discrimination is to do it with a generational change.  What I mean by that is that the next generation ought to adopt a policy of no discrimination, as the old generation dies off.  This requires parents and educators to teach that discrimination of any kind is not acceptable.  It also requires the new generation to hold to it and actively fight against discrimination comments and acts of even the older generation.  I want to say I do believe there are those who are racist on a personal level.  These individuals hate for personal reasons, but I do believe they are a small minority compared to those who are racist for social reason.

Racial discrimination has been historically held up by culture.  It used to be so acceptable that the racial marriage between like Germans and Italians was considered unacceptable is some societies.  This was true even in the early half of the 20th Century.  As an example I will point to a fellow blogger and her talk with her father about race in her 38-ways and Kingsley Plantation, where her father and mother were regarded as an interracial couple even though they were both white.  Today were mostly concern with racial concerns between whites, blacks, hispanics, middle-eastern, or asian.  Perhaps this means we made some progress with the efforts in the 1960's and thereafter.  Yet it took generations to make that progress.  I feel and hear that today many young folk deem racial discrimination as anathema.  I feel that is is also a good sign of progress.  To further my point, I dare you to talk to any baby boomer at length and you will find some form of racial discrimination still in their social thinking.  Incidentally, the Tea Party Movement that is rocking the politics in the United States is made up of people of about 45 and older (see link).  This means that they are baby boomers and some older gen-X-ers.  They are going to have some form of racial discrimination as a social movement.  It will be interesting to see the clash of the Tea Party Movement and the younger generations as they grow older on the subject of race and discrimination.  President Obama did not argue against the notion that the Tea Party Movement had some racial underlining motivations in the US News article titled Obama Says Race a Key Component in Tea Party Protests.  The social racial attitudes persist in any given generation.

Bullying is discrimination.  How can I say that when bullying is just child's play?  I dare you to think about it.  Why does a child bully?  More often than not it's to gain social status among his/her friends.  Who do they bully?  The bully anyone who is believably different.  That includes different race, hair color, interests, handicap, ...etc..etc.  You name it, it's probably a difference that is bullied.  Well these are the same reasons why people discriminate.  Schools are doing a poor job of stopping bullying.  These days I have witnessed schools that only stop racial bullying but laugh at other forms of bullying.  Everyone who has gone through a public school in the United States can understand how much bullying and discrimination goes on in High School.  I remember deciding to be a part of the "nerds" of the chess club.  These happen to be the brainiacs and socially free students in my High School.  They had no faculty support, unlike the preppy and polished cheerleaders and football players.  In the 80's "nerds" were discriminated against.  Today we see people being called "dorks".  Whatever name calling is used you can rest assure that there is bullying that will lead to discrimination.  The only difference between bullying and discrimination is the fact that bullying is not a legal offense while in only some cases discrimination is a legal offense.

The World is growing up.  Global economics is taking hold.  Europe is united.  Middle East citizens seek democracy.  These are a few signs that the World is becoming more organized and united.  There is also a world culture growing.  With that world culture, discrimination must be abolished.  Now is the time to start shaping it.  Some fear a united world, but if you look at history you see that it's inevitable.  The real issue is what kind of world culture to you want?  I for one would like to see a united world that repudiates discrimination of all types.  In my lifetime I have been discriminated against because of my hair color, my religious beliefs, my medical needs, my learning disability, my vocal accent, my nationality, and for thinking differently.  Some incidents were on the job, some in education, but most were comments and jokes.  Does this surprise you coming from a white guy?  It shouldn't.  More people are victimized by discrimination than we care to think about.  It's a disease that permeates society.  How can we change it?  To change something legally you get a politician to make a law.  To get the politician to make a law there has to be popular support.  To get popular support there has to be many people supporting the issue.  To get many people to support the issue it takes talking about, opening up conversations, fight for it.  To do all that it first takes one step.  The one step is to believe in it, to adopt it in your personal life.  I made a conscious effort many years ago to abhor discrimination.  I did this when I found out how the social fabric of a particular country resulted in the systematic homicide of a people, and that my family came from that guilty society.  There is a sense of shame in that, and there is an intent of repentance.  So I determined to counter the discrimination.  I did so to the behest of my family elders.  What am I getting at?  Own an anti-discrimination attitude, fight for it.  Fight yourself for it, fight your family for it, fight your friends for it.  Then you can make open dialogue.  Then you can create a ground swell of support.  Then a politician can grasp your vision, and a law can be created.  It all takes that first step.

I ask again, are we ready to end discrimination yet?  Only you can answer it.  I for one think it's possible.  It's possible one person at a time.  Then it takes social effort, then a law, then and educational effort to end it.  You may ask what is the opposite of discrimination?  The direct opposite of discrimination is empathy.  That is to relate and respect another person's situation and emotion.