Like Kathleen, I should preface this by stating a few things about my background. I'm white. I was born into an upper middle class lifestyle. I'm male. I've had a lot of opportunities for success in my life, and I feel like I've made an effort to take full advantage of them.
I'm going to primarily focus on the issue of gender, because I have incredibly strong (some may even call them extreme) opinions on issues of gender equality. Those of you that read my personal blog have already heard a lot of what I'm about to say before, but hopefully this'll be a little more focused and organized.
A while back, there was a wonderful constitutional amendment that nearly got passed. By that, I mean that the only thing left was for three states to ratify it, and it would've been official. It was called the Equal Rights Amendment, and this is how it went:
Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.
I don't know about you, but this sounds like a pretty kickass idea to me. I mean, what could go wrong? It couldn't be much more explicit in saying, "Discrimination based on gender is bad. Stop that." Why would people choose not to ratify it?
The answer to that is rather heartbreaking: people didn't actually want equal rights based on gender at the time, just protection for women. The possible implications of this amendment seemed absolutely absurd at the time. Women being drafted? Men being treated as equals in issues of custody of children and alimony? Worst of all, same sex couples being allowed to get married?
...Yeah, I kind of think that's all a load of shit. Wanting to not lose your special privileges is a terrible reason to fight against the equality that you claim to want so badly. Honestly, this is why most feminists today just kind of piss me off. I love the idea of equal rights, but equal doesn't mean, "Women should have all of the same rights as men... plus special rights that only women should get."
My issue with most forms of anti-discrimination laws is that they don't really seek to solve the problem as much as provide a quick and dirty patch to try to make the injustices on either side cancel out. This is a poor strategy, and I really think that the best idea for handling that is to try to start everyone off with a blank slate as much as possible. Maybe it's just because I've been fairly privileged, but I honestly believe that we all make our own successes and failures. Maybe those things come a little more easily in certain circumstances, but I really feel like the ultimate result is largely affected by our own actions.
However, one of the most tragically omnipresent issues for any minority group still existing today is the issue of hate crimes. People are terrible. People have a tendency to harbor discomfort toward that which is different, and because of this, people have the potential to be full of irrational hatred toward a group or idea. Because of this unfortunate piece of human nature, hate crime laws are still necessary. Special measures do need to be taken to prevent harassment based on race, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, social standing, and more. It's a sad truth, and I hope that we as a society can overcome it someday, but until that day, we need laws to protect these groups.
The most important point that I think I can make is that we really just need to do about discrimination is to figure out how to handle it on a personal level. If you find yourself discriminating irrationally based on one of the above factors, you need to make an effort to change your ways. If you see your friends or family doing it, you should try to educate them and get them to change their ways. If you find yourself becoming a victim, come out of it stronger by defending yourself and demanding equality. Most importantly though, you need to understand that you're not perfect, and you need to not be a self-righteous or self-important asshole. As long as you follow these general guidelines, you're doing your part in a fight that will hopefully be irrelevant in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment