Every man and woman in modern society has been placed in a situation where inequality was present. Whether it was when they were young and attended high school, or when they found a career and in the workplace, every single human being cannot deny being familiar with inequality. Perhaps, it wasn’t them personally who was experiencing the inequality, but rather the nerdy Asian kid in the cafeteria, or the African American in the workplace. So why does inequality exist if it only creates complications? And when are we responsible for protecting our pride, or our friends, or just a random stranger? And when it is time to speak up, how do we deal with the unjust and unfair situations? I have personally ran these questions through my head countless times. Whenever I feel like a peer has gone too far in speaking against a friend or I, I question myself. Is this the way it has to be? Should I speak up, or will that just make it worse? What should I say when I speak? I, and many others, run these questions through my head before I do anything in a situation. I would advise anyone who is placed in a situation where a individual, or group, thinks they are inferior to another, to think of these questions before doing anything.
Discrimination, or inequality, does not only occur between different races, but also between different genders. I was recently watching a TV show on MTV and one of the commercials that came on during the break really made me think. I do not remember the exact words but it was something like this. “Because I am a girl, I stay home while my brothers go to school. Because I am a girl, I take care of my family.” There were many more references starting with the phrase because I am a girl. It made me think about how different it is to be a female in this country as apposed to a place like Africa. I am privileged to be able to go to school, and to play sports, and all the other luxuries I enjoy. Sure, my life isn’t perfect and my family has to constantly worry about money, but at least I can go to school and get an education so I can get a high paying job when I am older. For the girls in Africa, or any other 3RD world country, it is an entirely different situation. They do not get the necessary education, if any education at all, to go to a post secondary school. So instead, they help their mother with providing for the family, until they are old enough to have a family on their own, and then the cycle just repeats itself. Have you ever noticed that the doctors that we do get from India, or the Middle East, are male? I have not seen a female doctor since I moved from Edmonton, and even then she was Caucasian. Another example of gender inequality is in child toys. I already did a post of the significance of this, so I will just briefly cover it. When we are younger, girls play with girl toys, and boys play with boy toys. Girl toys teach them to be loving and caring, while the majority of boy toys teach them to be touch and about guns. And then we wonder why men expect women to stay at home at take care of the kids and the house, while they go be the big boys of the house and make the money. We are teaching them at a young age to put a barrier between what males and what females are supposed to do. Now is this the way it is supposed to be? Not in my opinion. There are many resources out there that the wealthy people of this country could put their time and effort into. They could donate money to the Because I Am a Girl foundation and help them get an education. Then maybe we would have more female doctors around. There is always a way to help, and society needs to learn this.
The most popular, or publicized, version of discrimination is, of course, race. I am currently reading a book called Finding My Voice by Marie G. Lee. The book is about a Korean girl named Ellen Sung, and although she is physically Korean, she is not mentally. She does not speak the language, eat the food, or partake in any of the Korean traditions. She was born and raised in a little town in Minnesota, so when others ask her where she is from, she tells them Minnesota. Ellen considers herself a regular American girl, and does not like the barrier that her appearance builds. She is constantly called a ‘Chink’ and it has made her grades slip from A’s to D’s. When I was reading this book, a certain event stuck out to me. I had to read it over again, because I could not believe the nerve of a teacher. I have read enough, experienced enough, and seen enough current event to know that name calling because of race happens very often among peers. But I was not expecting a teacher to be so blunt. In chemistry, Ellen has broken a pipette and offered to pay for it. Her teachers response? “Oh you don’t have to do that, you Orientals are always trying to save money.” And if that wasn’t enough, he continues, “Are you Chinese or Japanese?” Ellen tells him Korean and then he says the punch line in his mind. In my mind, that would have been the point where I almost smacked him in the face. “Oho, you Koreans! You Koreans wok your dogs!” and then he walks away. Like honestly, who does that? What kind of teacher is so dumb to not even realize what he just did to Ellen, and to top it all off, in front of the whole class. When Ellen tells her friend Jessie about it later, I can relate to Jessie. She encourages Ellen to tell the principal, which Ellen insists she cannot do because she needs to get an A in that class to live up to her parents expectations. This really bugs me, and I hope when I finished this book, Ellen will have told someone who can do something about that teacher.
I learned of another example of discrimination between cultures in social class this year. In 1994, Rwanda had a genocide but it was considers just a civil war, so no other countries stepped in because it was too late already. Ever since German and Belgian made Rwanda a colony back in the late 1800’s there were two social classes. There were the Tutsis who were the politicians and the doctors and all of those jobs that were high in society. And then there were the Hutus who were the shoe makers and the blacksmiths and the jobs that served the Tutsis. When Belgian came into power of Rwanda, they took the discrimination to a whole other level. They made citizens carry signs identifying themselves as either Hutu or Tutsi. Now eventually, the Hutu’s got sick of this unwarranted discrimination between the two groups, and started a mass killing. Hundreds of thousands died, most of them being Tutsis. When I was learning about this, I started thinking. I would guess that if the Imperial powers that claim Rwanda did not distinguish between the two groups, the genocide wouldn’t have happened. If the Hutu’s were treated equal, they wouldn’t have felt the need to start the genocide to try and claim equality. Another example of inequality because of race struck me when I was looking for an example on CBC. There was a news story questioning what the United States was doing about terrorist attacks. The first line read, “The United States government is not taking necessary steps to protect the country from the threats posed by weapons of mass destruction and terrorism.” I am sure that many others, including myself, are guilty of thinking of a man in a turban. I feel bad that this is the first thing that comes to my mind when the word terrorist is spoken, but it is like a reflex. I grew up in a very discriminatory society where it is considered normal to think that. All the peers that I have associated myself with, think the same way. We think of a Arab, or Muslim. I do feel guilty about thinking this way, and I am not going to try and defend myself further. I do not consider myself a racist person, nor do I consider my friends racists. I have friends from different cultures. But whenever I hear of a terrorist attack, it is always someone from the Middle East, so that is who pops into my mind when the word is mentioned. I claim responsibility for that, and I do not believe there is anything society can do that can change peoples mind about who terrorists are. Unless a Asian, or Russian, or German, or any other ethnic group attempts a terrorist attack on the United States, this is the way people are going to think.
Age is another factor that creates inequality in the world. Another book I have read recently explored this issue. The book is called Sold and is by Patricia McCormick. Lakshmi is a thirteen year old girl that lives in Nepal with her family. They live in a small hut and are very poor. To try and help her family get into a better living situation, Lakshmi is sold to this lady that promises her a job in the city. Little does she, or her family know, that she was just sold into prostitution. She is taken to a place called The Happiness House, and forced into the lifestyle. She finds refuge in the other girls there and forms some friends to help her through this. I read this book a couple weeks ago, and cannot remember the names but there was a mother, and her baby and daughter. Both the mother and the daughter were sold to the men for sex. Then there was another girl, who like Lakshmi, had been sold at an early age and had been in the House for a couple of years now. This girl had developed HIV/AIDs and was dying. One of the lines in book stuck out to me. It read, “In between, men come. They crush my bones with their weight. They split me open. Then they disappear. I am hurt. I am torn and bleeding where the men have been.” There were many more details and other situations like this that really made me feel sorry for this girl. If the girls refused a man, then they got a stick with burning hot coals stuck inside of them instead. The woman who ran The Happiness House took advantage of young girls living in poverty and used them. She knew that they were too young to try and escape the house and wouldn’t last long if they did. She knew that they would come back begging for their job. The most depressing thing about this book, is that this kind of abuse of children actually happens. It make me so sad that someone would take advantage of young girls, just because she is older and can control them. I think that this is an even bigger issue then inequality among races. But how can we stop this? There are houses like The Happiness House all over the world, and it is impossible to stop them. We cannot try and guilt trip the owners into giving up the children that make them so much money. And once these girls get to old, they are thrown out onto the street to fend for themselves. No money, no nothing. So being sexually abused for years was basically just a waste of time since no money was even sent back to their poverty stricken families. It is these stories that make me want to get a good job, and make lots of money, and do something about it. No child should have to suffer through that, or worse.
The last example of inequality that I am going to explore is with animals and infants. Just because it is a baby and cannot understand what is going on doesn’t mean it isn’t scarring them. When we receive a placement in foster care, it is like seeing what is happening to those kids in India up close. The children that come to us are abused, sexually, physically, and mentally. The parent do what they want and expect their kids to bend around them. If the parent does not come home at night because she is passed out from drugs or alcohol, the kids have to put themselves to bed and make their own supper, or if they are too young, just starve. If their mother brings home a guy that she met at the bar, and the guy is high and decides to try something with one of the children, they have to take it because their mother is so doped up on drugs, she doesn’t even realize what is going in. It is cruel to see how messed up some of these kids are when they come to live with us. And with animals, just because they are not human and do not speak, doesn’t mean they do not realize what is going on. The first post I ever wrote was about puppy mills. These dogs are kept in cages for years at a time. They sleep with their own pee and poop. They do not get fed, so they end up eating their, or another animals, feces. Their paws are permanently indented from the criss cross pattern of the cages. And through all of this, they are expected to produce healthy puppies for the owner to sell. These dogs are scarred, bleeding, and most can’t even walk anymore, all so that dog owners can get pure breeds at a low price. Sure don’t feed the mother, as long as the dog is $200 dollars cheaper. And when a female is unable to produce more puppies, she is simply left to die and then thrown in the trash. Many of the dogs die, and lay undiscovered for months and rot. Many of the buyers do not know that this is where the puppies come from, but if they put more effort into it they could. Insist on seeing the mother and father, and where they live. If anything raises suspicion, contact an organization that are able to help. Puppies mills should not be aloud to continue.
So whether it be with race, gender, age, or animals, inequality exists. Society passes by it every day, and doesn’t take notice. But we need to speak up, we need to do something about it. No matter what age you are, what gender you are, what race you are, or what social class you fit into, there is always something you can do. Maybe you are too young and cannot donate money because you don’t have a credit card. Well then raise awareness to the adult who do have the resources to help. If you are African American and do not think anyone will listen to you, write a letter or a poem or anything, and mail it anonymously to your towns newspaper. Just do something. One person can make a difference. If everyone put in an effort, the level and severity of inequality in modern society would greatly decrease. So do what you can, but don’t do nothing.
