Note: This is a very opinionated post. Research for this writing is mostly centered around reading other’s opinion pieces and historical storytelling, I’ll link throughout. I will attempt to convey my evidence and recommendations with all four of Aristotle’s modes of persuasion. As with many of my other posts this is specifically about the USA. These issues are felt worldwide, however different in their ways. Since I know this place the best, and it’s a prime example, we are going to use America.
Side Note: I have been super bust applying and interviewing with companies, which is why this post took so long to make. Hopefully the next one comes quicker.
Summary and Outline
Racism and sexism are bad for society, plain and simple. They create and perpetrate misunderstandings which have historically lead to conflict, sometimes violent. Even if the institutionalized manifestations of racism and sexism are ousted, it’s still alive and well in persons and communities. Those people who choose to subscribe to a hateful mentality that blankets judgment based solely on characteristics determined pre-birth are bad people. It divides us unfairly, and more often than not the people who are oppressed develop a hatred for the class perpetrating the oppression. (Understandably)
This doesn’t have to be the case. We as a society can address this issue head on and change the future of humanity to eliminate hatred forever, if we wanted to. The problem is, for generations on generations the people with the most power to attack the problem were the main perpetrators. They successfully institutionalized inequality, with the power always given disproportionately to white men.
I often feel guilty being born a privileged white male in America. I wish I understood what it would be like to live in another’s life, how would something I can’t control, affect me so negatively so often? The least I can do is ask questions, listen, try to understand, then advocate and educate for the underrepresented.
The reason I am so decidedly against these unfair and often hateful ideologies is because I’ve seen the results, albeit second hand. Technically, I was raised in an area where I was statistically a racial minority. I had strong female influences in my early life through my two sisters and caring mother as well as consistently solid male influences through my father and friends. My experiences were relatively diversified, and I quickly Iearned there’s no difference between you and I. If you are a living being, you yearn for love. Your job as a living human is to give that love to your fellow creatures. Because, “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room on Earth.” – Muhammad Ali
It’s time for us all to start paying our full rent. Alas, with every large societal change, it will take the efforts of many … and a generation of cooperation.
Outline:
I will of course recommend solutions [Action], but first I find it important to understand how we got to this situation in the first place. Skip around if you’d like.
- Summary and Outline
- Brief History of Women’s and Minority’s Rights
- Evolutionary Byproduct Theory
- Necessity/Availability of Worldly Understanding
- Masculinity Complex
- Action
- Concluding Thoughts
Brief History of Women’s and Minority’s Rights
There are four main pieces of legislation that enable women and minorities to participate in government, namely the 14th, 15th, and 19th amendments as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. For those who don’t know how important these are let me remind you. After the Civil War, you know, that 1861-1865 bloodbath fought over slavery expansion into the west, yeah, the south had to agree to a few reconstruction amendments in order to be represented in Congress again. These amendments abolished slavery, guaranteed citizenship and equal protection of rights, and voting rights for non-whites. Women gained their right vote nationally later in 1920 thanks to the 19th amendment, and all the women and men who fought for the cause. Then finally, not until 100 years post Civil War did the federal government truly guarantee equal rights for voting, outlawing unfair Jim Crow Laws, with the Voting Rights Act. Now they are equal in the eyes of the law, right?
Sure, but oppression is still rampant, equal treatment goes far past the ability to vote, go to school, work, and pay taxes. In order to understand why, it’s important to look even further back, to the origins of our nation.
The Atlantic Slave Trade wasn’t originally racially charged. It was a byproduct of imperial capitalism. European’s created a high demand for the goods being created in the colonies. To keep up with demands and ensure the fattest financial returns – sorry, to ensure “growth” – the new American capitalists needed a large, yet affordable workforce. They tried enslaving natives, but they were either too proud, too dangerous, or would die to malaria. So, why not just ship in laborers from the already well established slave trade market in Africa? They had developed immunity to malaria, a major obstacle encountered in these slavery plantations a.k.a. labor camps. Poor whites saw their job opportunities diminish due to this process and resented African-American slaves, even after they got better jobs in the city. Rich whites needed to display their dominance in order to control their completely involuntary, outnumbering workforce. The owners were in constant fear of a violent slave uprising, so they institutionalized racism. After generations of this perpetual hatred and oppression, racism was ingrained in every white person, obvious hyperbole. Most whites were taught from a very early age that they were God’s children, and that black kids were destined to hell’s fury. They were told that they were a lesser species. This was accepted as truth and has now lived on in some form or another for generations.
Women have an even longer history of inequality that seems more ingrained in our society. Which is why it’s for sure hardest to be a non-white female. This I believe stems from a same sort of institutionalized patriarchy, just one that manifested in human society far earlier on. It’s cultural characteristics vs. a biological separation. Both critical for a healthy society’s survival, and elements of evolution, but one is recognizable before widespread multi-cultural understanding. Which I will talk more about in the next section.
Evolutionary Byproduct Theory
Two words, in-groups and out-groups. Evolutionary psychology tells us that we have always wanted to classify the people around us. There’s a reason why we are naturally prone to gossip: we want to know what type of person other people are. We tend to classify people by many things like economic class, culture, race, religion, and sex. All of us belong to a particular group in each of these classifications. And we naturally associate and advocate for those groups. Many groups form coalitions that sponsor negative rhetoric and action toward others. These often negative associations for people of a different class leads to the philosophy of in-groups and out-groups.
This is a mentality that seems universal to all creatures of evolution. Other species utilize different forms of class structure, most often seen in the separation in labor based on sex. For some reason, just about every culture in human history has exemplified some sort of patriarchal structure. However separate the workload, is it equal? I’d wager no. This is an idea I’ve grappled with for much of the past month, brought about by a few questions I had: When did motherhood stop being considered a better gig than practically anything else? Was it ever considered equal in the eyes of society?
Can we graduate ourselves out of this deeply ingrained separation of power? It seems like the only way we can, is to collectively realize the fact that we are developing a society who’s needs of gender roles are changing. Valuation of a person’s time spent contributing to society should not be judged with such narrow terms as often is done with money, rather by the happiness and fulfillment of the person. I stray away from evaluating a person’s value based on the number of other’s they impact, quality over quantity is a hard argument to fight sometimes. We are changing our own futures now, increasing our reach and speeding past evolution’s hand.
I believe this understanding and change is already in it’s early stages. Equality will grow due to the wide accessibility and understanding of out-group perspectives.
Necessity/Availability of World Understanding
Gaining a well-rounded world view goes a long way to increase the diversity of perceived in-groups. The environment you get raised in, that is the people you learn from and associate with, greatly impact what you think is normal. Growing up well attuned to the differences exemplified across the globe gives the best chance at understanding the myriad of cultures and customs. Experience fuels decision making. The larger breadth of experience, the greater acceptance of others. How romantic.
In recent times, due to the large accessibility of internet communications across the globe, people have been learning more and more about people completely unlike themselves. Honestly, since the era of television people have been taking note of the apparent different lifestyles – domestic and international. I firmly believe that the solution to these problems can come from improved and encouraged access to a wide range of diverse publications on the web. Not just written stories, but audio and video alike. Someday we will have sophisticated enough virtual reality to experience life from a truly alternate point of view. Want to see the affects of racism? -> Enter the perspective of a black guy at a traffic stop. Want to feel sexism? -> Enter the perspective of a woman in a board meeting getting shutdown by her male colleagues.
Access to these advanced technologies may not be widely available, but what should be is the core internet technology. I believe the web of knowledge we humans have created and called the internet should be free and accessible to all people as a right. I often say that people have a right to pursue knowledge, not always attain it depending on classification, but pursue it regardless.
However technology can sometimes foster exclusivity, certain groups will only continue the hate online. This may discourage people from change, but I have faith in humanity that the majority of users would see past the malice. This also has a lot to do with proper education and instruction detailing the difference between well-intentioned and evil user-group.
Masculinity Complex
America has a truly ill conceived ideology of the way a man is supposed to act. These masculinity notions are passed down from generation to generation through fable and fiction. Sayings like “be a man” carry with them connotations that often encourage belittlement of alternate viewpoints. It’s truly no wonder that so many men are being publicly scorned for their sexually heinous actions. These men have been indoctrinated into a society that reaffirms their masculine superiority. In university, I always found it so appalling when guys would congratulate other men on their hookups whereas women would sometimes shame each other for a similar action. Neither group is always correct in their judgment, but the disconnect was apparent. Men are revered by other men who admire their sexual prowess. Yet little is asked of them as to how they managed their fortune, and as we’ve found out time and time again it has a lot to do with force and coercion rather than mutual agreeance.
This problem is rooted deeply in american society. I believe it stems from a sort of reinforced entitlement. The same entitlement that has perpetrated the hateful racism by white people for decades. American culture encourages objectification of women through venues such as: pageantry, fashion/modeling, pornography, and even hooters. These are a few choice examples, but others can be drawn from historical portrayal of flight attendants or secretaries. Even war contributes to this complex, after all, conscription (the draft/selective service) is sexist.
The fact that we as a society have yet to graduate beyond this masculinity complex is not entirely surprising. But unlike the changes necessary to eradicate sexism and racism, this complex must go first. It governs much of the hate that has informally matured over the years. This can be solved with desire and understanding, just like the rest.
Action
As already mentioned a major influence of change is the diversity of an individual’s in-group. This can be increased in many ways, but the easiest by far is with the use of communication technology. Technology meant to share perspectives should be utilized in education from a young age. Alongside factual history and science education, children will be able to feel truly a part of the global society. In the process, they understand the struggle of out-group members. Coming to an understanding: that everyone is just trying their best with what they got. This greatly alleviates pressure from these negative ideologies. We as a society have seemingly outpaced evolution with our technologies. Once we all realize this, equal treatment of individuals will be obvious. Race and sex are pointless measures of capability.
On the recent subject of sexual misconduct: I personally believe that the public shaming of individuals based on allegations alone are hazardous to a healthy state with due process. But when a man has the decency enough to admit his wrong doings, he should be forgiven somewhat by society. He may not be able to do what he used to, but at least he was somewhat a man in the end – honest. Other individuals with racking allegations who deny wrongful action even when there is obvious evidence against them, are not very decent people.
Besides the most positive generational advice of educating the youth, the society must also educate the white men. White men need to increase their understanding then inspire and take positive action through education or advocacy. After all most of the burden is created by us. We should stand up for the underrepresented and disrespected. And always try to be models of sincerity and respect whichever way you choose to show it.
Lastly, it may be helpful to have powerful leaders stand as the head advocate to inspire more action and discussion about the issues at hand. I understand if you don’t want to get threatened or shot, but it may help morale and suppress the discouragement felt at times.
Conclusion
The sooner we act the better. This will undoubtedly take another generation to become noticeably better if we start now. Of course this is never going to go away completely, but we can try our hardest to not perpetrate the oppression. There are many resources online already available to educate people on all of these issues. Diversity and equality are the most important attributes to modern day society, we all need to realize that to overcome the barriers. Luckily a lot is being done right now, but more is on the way. So stop hurting and start helping.