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Only we, the youth, have the power to stop discrimination. Most of our parents already have fallen victim to it.
I grew up with racist parents. My dad is particularly expressive of his prejudice, though only at home, and readily acknowledges it to his family. I owe to him the prejudice and racist remarks that sometimes float into my head. I try hard not to think such thoughts, and I know how wrong they are. I scold my father every time he utters an angry, racist remark, trying to save him and perhaps, unconsciously, myself, from the black hole of hate.
From my experiences and my friends’ similar ones, I believe that hate is taught to children and discrimination is kept alive through families. Children are not born hating anyone, but when they hear their parents - their idols and source of truth - insulting and criticizing a certain group of people, they burn it into their minds that that group of people must be as bad as their parents say they are. Thus discrimination infects children’s innocent minds.
Discrimination is the mountain of which the much-talked-about problem of racism is just a part. It is the ultimate obstacle. There are several –isms to overcome: sexism, ageism, and many others. Even some seemingly harmless comments can be discriminating and wholly untrue (“All Jews are rich”). Discrimination is the problem, and we are the solution.
Our generation is much more open-minded than any other. We know how horrible discrimination is, and I know that I myself try not to be racist and stereotypical, as do my friends. We are open to people of different origins and try not to judge someone before meeting them. Maybe this is because we have learned from history the consequences of discriminating and how horrible it is. Remember the Civil War? Holocaust? Slavery? Segregation? Apartheid? Discrimination’s presence has reduced greatly since Susan B. Anthony’s protests for women’s rights and Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights marches, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. We can attempt to persuade others already under discrimination’s evil hand to change and subdue the hate and the prejudice that has already taken shop in their minds. We can aim to improve ourselves. Most importantly, we can teach young kids now and our future kids later to not hate and discriminate. By doing so, we can help pave the way to a generation greater than ours and usher in a better world where discrimination no longer holds a high position.
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Andi
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I Agree But.... Jello | Aug 25th, 2002
I agree with you, Andria, but let us not fall into a trap of self-righteousness. While it's true that our parents can begin to instill in us a seed of prejudice, they are not the only source of such negative input. Our own minds commit subconscious errors which can lead to racist and prejudiced thoughts and actions. Realizing these errors (as well as taking action to correct them) is also crucial to overcoming prejudice and its various -isms.
Another thing is that many stereotypes within our own minds stem from some sort of truth. For example, a person whose contact with blondes has revealed people who are shallow and ditzy can lead them to generalize and apply that stereotype to all blondes. It's important that we realize that we generally have limited interactions with people and that one person of one group that acts a certain way doesn't prove that the group as a whole acts the same. It's also important that we look at ourselves and wonder if any of our own behaviors may have attributed to the way some people stereotype people of our same age, gender, culture, religion, etc.
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