Showing posts with label discrimination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label discrimination. Show all posts
Sunday, January 20, 2019
On The Basis of Sex
I went to see the movie On The Basis of Sex today. If you are not familiar with it, it is the story of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her early years, and her legal fight, with others, to eliminate the legal discrimination by sex (gender) allowed in the United States. It is a good story, a good movie, well worth seeing if you have not. I never did appreciate Justice Ginsburg as much as I should have. It is sad that she has been treated for cancer recently, and unable to attend Supreme Court sessions, although she has kept up with the hearings by reports, and able to render her opinions. She has made a profound impact on this country, one that I am grateful she made.
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Reactionary: Is it Right?
Is this what we have become and who we are as a nation? http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/17/us/texas-student-is-under-police-investigation-for-building-a-clock.html?emc=edit_th_20150917&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=40853516&_r=0
Ahmed Mohamed worked on what was a science project, and when he brought it to school, he was detained and suspended.
Do you think the same thing would have happened if he was Anglo? I do not care what the authorities say, I do not think an Anglo student would have been treated the same way. His family had a cool response. I am glad the President Obama invited him to the White House.
I know people are afraid of Muslim fanatics. But can we afford to live in fear of every law abiding Muslim who lives in this country? Why would we want to?
Let's think about it. We have a lot of other fanatics in the country, whose fanaticism is based on Christianity: The Ku Klux Klan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan for one. I chose the Wikipedia article over a first source article because I did not want the source article on my computer.
Another group is the Fundamentalist Ladder Day Saints. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentalist_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-Day_Saints Again, I chose the Wikipedia article because I did not want the source article on my computer.
Yet another group is the Skinheads https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinhead.
What about the Aryan Brotherhood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan_Brotherhood or the Aryan Circle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan_Circle?
How would we treat members of these groups in a situation similar to Ahmed Mohamed's? The sad reality is that the members of some of these other groups that I have mentioned would probably get a pass.
Is that what you want the United States of America to stand for? We have finally shut down the Jim Crow laws that discriminated against Afro-Americans. Our civil rights laws and equal opportunity laws should protect other minorities. But is that happening? There is still discrimination in this country. It is subtle. It is not sanctioned by formal government. But it still occurs.
We are getting better. But we are not there yet.
Ahmed Mohamed worked on what was a science project, and when he brought it to school, he was detained and suspended.
Do you think the same thing would have happened if he was Anglo? I do not care what the authorities say, I do not think an Anglo student would have been treated the same way. His family had a cool response. I am glad the President Obama invited him to the White House.
I know people are afraid of Muslim fanatics. But can we afford to live in fear of every law abiding Muslim who lives in this country? Why would we want to?
Let's think about it. We have a lot of other fanatics in the country, whose fanaticism is based on Christianity: The Ku Klux Klan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan for one. I chose the Wikipedia article over a first source article because I did not want the source article on my computer.
Another group is the Fundamentalist Ladder Day Saints. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentalist_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-Day_Saints Again, I chose the Wikipedia article because I did not want the source article on my computer.
Yet another group is the Skinheads https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinhead.
What about the Aryan Brotherhood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan_Brotherhood or the Aryan Circle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan_Circle?
How would we treat members of these groups in a situation similar to Ahmed Mohamed's? The sad reality is that the members of some of these other groups that I have mentioned would probably get a pass.
Is that what you want the United States of America to stand for? We have finally shut down the Jim Crow laws that discriminated against Afro-Americans. Our civil rights laws and equal opportunity laws should protect other minorities. But is that happening? There is still discrimination in this country. It is subtle. It is not sanctioned by formal government. But it still occurs.
We are getting better. But we are not there yet.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
The History of the United States
I am so sad tonight. I know about all of the discriminatory and duplicity in history of the United States of America: the poor treatment of the First Americans, including the failure to abide by treaties made with these peoples and the other abysmal treatments of these peoples. Slavery. Jim Crow Laws. The incarceration of Japanese in camps during World War II. I had not heard about this one: The Deportation of Mexicans and Mexcian-Americans who were US citizens during the Great Depression http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/09/08/437579834/mass-deportation-may-sound-unlikely-but-its-happened-before. Segregation, which was separate and not equal. The violation of rights in the Patriot Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Act. The incarcerations at Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp.
I believe I am missing some other grievous human rights violations. I am not touching on the violations by private industry over the years.
So, this is so sad that the United States has such a checkered past, yet sets itself out in the international community as a "holier than thou" nation. It is not wrong that we are, as a nation, helping other peoples and other nations to improve their human rights records. But shouldn't we be doing it from a "learn from us" stance in learn from our mistakes? vs. This is how good a nation we are. Because, frankly, we are not.
The current unrest and animosity between citizens and police is a perfect example of that: People are being killed when in the custody or in contention with law enforcement professionals under questionable circumstances. Law enforcement officials are being ambushed simply because they are law enforcement officials. I think this country is embroiled in a war of right vs. might. No clearly defined lines. No us against them, because the lines change depending upon the circumstances. Who is right? Who has the might? Who is Us? Who is Them?
I believe I am missing some other grievous human rights violations. I am not touching on the violations by private industry over the years.
So, this is so sad that the United States has such a checkered past, yet sets itself out in the international community as a "holier than thou" nation. It is not wrong that we are, as a nation, helping other peoples and other nations to improve their human rights records. But shouldn't we be doing it from a "learn from us" stance in learn from our mistakes? vs. This is how good a nation we are. Because, frankly, we are not.
The current unrest and animosity between citizens and police is a perfect example of that: People are being killed when in the custody or in contention with law enforcement professionals under questionable circumstances. Law enforcement officials are being ambushed simply because they are law enforcement officials. I think this country is embroiled in a war of right vs. might. No clearly defined lines. No us against them, because the lines change depending upon the circumstances. Who is right? Who has the might? Who is Us? Who is Them?
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