I think it is pretty easy to tell that TCU isn’t the most
diverse school in the nation, with white females obviously being the
majority. A few discussions in the
social work class I am taking have made this something I think about a little
more regularly. I have always liked to
think that TCU is a school full of bright, open-minded individuals who are
accepting of other backgrounds, religions, and races. However, a story told by a particular student
in our class led me to believe that racism may actually not be improving as
much as one would hope. This student is
Arab, and shared with our class that he was actually spit on recently for no
reason other than his race. Of course
everyone in our class responded in utter shock and disgust, as they should, but
this really got me thinking about racism in our country today.
For some
reason, people like to sweep racism under the rug and say now that slavery is
over everyone should shut up about it and move on. The truth, though, is that it is nowhere near
over. In fact, in lecture just this
morning we learned that African Americans are almost three times as likely to
fall under the poverty line than whites in the United States, and this is an
issue that takes generations to get out of.
Even so, people may say that there is not really discrimination anymore
and in fact, some people even argue that minorities get special unfair
privileges. I don’t think people are
wanting to see what is really going on around them. While the black-white difference does still
exist, I agree that it has improved greatly.
Still, I would argue that the most racism is simply directed toward
another group now. With everything that
has been going on between the Middle East and the United States, it is
difficult for an Arab-looking person in the United States. Simple things such as traveling for a
vacation may become more difficult because everyone around looks at them as if
they are about to blow up the next plane that pulls in the gate. The entire Islamic religion has received a
stigma of American-hating terrorists whose only goal in life is to harm other
people. Yes, there are terrorists in
this world, and yes there are some horrible things happening right now. That does not mean it is ever appropriate to judge
someone based on their looks and/or their religion.
This is a topic
that could go on for pages and pages, and will go on in the United States quite
possibly forever. At what point will
racism completely come to an end? I
would say never. People have never and
quite possibly will never be as accepting of others who look and act
differently than them. As animals I
would argue that this is actually the most natural response. Someone will always be different, there will
always be an “outsider”. Whether is is
based on race, religion, sexuality, gender, or whatever else it may be, some
sort of discrimination will always exist. What this social work class has
taught me, though, is that we have a choice to make about how to respond to
this discrimination and how we can actually break the cycle and make it
improve. We can advocate for equal
rights and fair treatment of all, we can help those in poverty, or we could
even all become social workers and missionaries. All of these things combined will not make
any difference, though, if the attitudes of every day ordinary Americans are
not changed. Discrimination does exist;
it is simply changing from one group to another as time goes on, and we must
make people aware of what is happening.
The first thing we have to do is make changes individually and begin to
see the importance of this daunting topic.
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