You ever been fighting for a cause for so long, that you just get so tired of what feels like the obvious--and by obvious, I mean Captain Obvious wearing safety orange, being ignored?
That you not only have to repeat yourself, but you are repeating yourself about the dumbest, elementary bullshit?
I am referring directly to the OU Frat Scandal, but these thoughts could easily be applied to a multitude of other situations and forms of discrimination and inequality.
That's how I feel about Women's Rights, that's how I feel about GLBT Rights, and that's how I feel about Racism.
Instead of having deeper conversations addressing nuance, but no, in all these issues, it seems we are constantly being dragged back to a troglodyte era, to deal with the basest, most idiotic and obvious behaviors, that --I mean, Cm-on, we all know are WRONG WRONG WRONG.
Like going the wrong way down a one way street-OBVIOUSLY wrong!
The kind of tension this creates is awful. It makes people angry, and afraid--of each other. And I am not questioning the fear and the anger--if someone were singing a song about lynching me and my family--I would be pissed off and frightened too. It's not funny. If someone were singing a song that outlined how to systematically limit the future potential of my children, I would be very angry and afraid. Because Greek Houses are places where people of power and money and influence send their children. And that tells me that if this behavior is condoned in a Greek House, then it goes much higher up in our society. That this mentality is in my bank, in my court system, in my local, state and federal politics, that it's everywhere (which we already know, but it's reinforcing that knowledge, letting us know nothing has changed).
THAT IS TERRIFYING.
Dear Greek-Alumnis--Do you really underestimate how much power you hold in your position? You set the tone. You have the degree, you have the network, and your attitude can determine academic and job prospects for a lot of people. What you do counts. If you express bias in that position, you could be denying people opportunities based on prejudice and nothing more. You can determine the future for whole families with your power in society, and as members of influential, academic, organizations known as fraternities and sororities.
It's like you don't want to take responsibility for your personal power as an individual or a collective. So many of you pretend that minorities hold the power to lift themselves up, while you use that same power to keep them down. WAKE UP! Realize your power and stop abusing it.
When you target a person over a physical trait, their sexual orientation or their religion, or gender or ethnicity, for systematic oppression--what you are doing and expressing is basically this:
I condemn you and your kind for all time, to the cycle of poverty. I condemn you to be poor, less educated, underpaid and unappreciated no matter how hard you work, no matter how smart or talented you are. I condemn all your works to obscurity until someone I approve of can come along and take credit for the same idea. I will use your differences as an excuse to rip you off, to rob you blind, to deny you services. I condemn you and your children to be the stuff that I stand on to reach for the stars. I deny you the freedom of finding true love outside paradigms that I set. I condemn you to live a life of shame over who you are, because you will never be allowed to fit in because of who you are. I will inspire you to want to change the most basic parts of your person, to cut off parts of your soul to be like me, or to hide who you are and pretend like you are something you are not. I forbid you the freedom to live where you want, to feel safe, to feel accepted, to experience any moments of unadulterated joy, because you will always be afraid that if you have one, visible, nice thing in your life, that someone like me will come along and take it out of shear spite. And whenever something goes wrong--even though I have deprived you of power in this society, I will make you responsible for all it's ills. I will scapegoat you and use that as an excuse to keep this cycle alive in perpetuity.
That's what you are doing when you discriminate against a person based on their color, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, religion or ethnicity. Ask yourself---is that who you want to be? Is that who you are deep inside yourself? If it's not, every day is a new day. Every day is an opportunity to change your behavior and be a better person.
Every time this topic or a related topic comes up, you have the opportunity to turn a negative into a positive. To remove momentum from hate and put it where it belongs--in community-building efforts that honor equality and fairness.
The sad part is, the stupid obvious shit like that chant that was sung by OU students? All you have to do is stop. You know it's wrong. You know it's terribly hurtful, that it serves no good purpose in this world but to scare, intimidate and hurt people. All you have to do is stop. Because that kind of racism? That can be the easiest aspect to address. That's the top layer of crusty crap to get through. The hard part is the kind that lies beneath. The deep seated biases that need to be recognized and addressed, that are more subtle.
But with this --All you have to do is stop.
If someone (a group or an individual did something like that in front of me now) I would express disapproval and walk away, get off the bus, leave. And if it were someone I love--"I would say, I love you, but I cannot bear this." and walk away. "This is not okay" or say, "This is unacceptable." Don't be a part of that.
We should be tweaking a better world, and instead it's like we have time warped back to the 1950s and 1960s--What the hell? Why are we revisiting issues that should have been resolved decades ago?
The ugliness like that chant should be relegated to history books. Embarrassing moments in our cultural history that have long since been remedied. It should be but it isn't.
Every day is an opportunity to deprive discrimination of the energy to sustain itself. You won't get it perfect, but your intent in stopping it does count for a lot. Having an open heart to listen to the stories behind these oppressed groups counts for a lot. Being open to changing your behavior counts for a lot.
Every day is a new opportunity to take one more step towards creating a better, more equal and fair and just society. It starts with seeing everyone around you regardless of their class, their color, or gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or religion, as a human being who deserves human rights. Humanity should be your baseline across the board.
And I will say it for me--Human Rights are Civil Rights. There is no distinction. To deny a person their civil rights is to deny their humanity and to attack their human rights. To create second and third class citizens is to dehumanize citizens through the state and make them vulnerable to social, economic, academic, and professional abuses.
Employ the golden rule. Treat others as you would have them treat you. You can find this sentiment in just about every culture, and every religion. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and more. This is the global motif that is worth perpetuating. This is what we should replace all forms of discrimination with--The Golden Rule. Each and every one of us, has the power to do that. Imagine if we all accomplished that at the same time--how different this society, this world, could be.