Becoming Aware

I grew up learning that everyone was equal, that everyone had the same rights in life and that any discrimination against anyone was wrong. I also grew up in a small country community where I didn’t see a real level of discrimination. Sure, there were bullies in the local schools where I attended. I unfortunately had the displeasure of being a target from Kindergarten to near the end of my junior year of high school where I finally took action and gained respect enough to no longer be an open target of the cruel actions of my peers. But the bullying didn’t seem to be discrimination; it was not directed at a specific group of people who were different. The school had people of different races, skin tone, economic class, and later Sexuality. It was simply a case of children not liking another child or two. Wile I was bullied, my younger Sister was quite popular. I never knew why I was a target of the other Students of the school, and I still don’t.  The fact was that everyone did seem to be equal. The teachers treated all students the same.

Growing up in a community like this, I never became aware of how big of a problem Discrimination truly is, and how harsh it can be. Sure, I learned about it in history class, but it was history class. I found myself thinking that discrimination was something of the past and that in today’s society around the world, it no longer existed. How I wish that my ignorant sunny thoughts of the world had been true. Since then, I have grown up and entered a more realistic world. I realized how sheltered I had been. 9/11/01 put an end to that train of thought and alerted me to how discrimination is still at large. And at the time I was already in eighth grade.

Wile reading the first two chapters of Bridging the Class Divide and Other Lessons for Grassroots Organizing by Linda Stout, I was reminded of all this. Her experience as a low-class child, being discriminated against because of her family’s economic situation through my mind back to the time I was painfully unaware of the world.

Linda shared with her readers how because her family was poor, when a drunk driver sent her family to the hospital, the doctor’s had not cheeked out her condition, resulting in her almost dyeing, and the doctors had amputated her mother’s leg, not taking the time to properly care for the nerves. Her family also lacked funds to get legal advice on the matter. She also found it difficult to get information on how to get into college throughout school, a dream she had since the beginning. She also found that many people in her same economic situation turned to the military, even if they disagreed with killing, simply because it was to them, the only way out of poverty. The only way to get an education.

She also goes on to share her experience with Sexism, being a single woman; she found it almost impossible to rent an apartment. The reason? Single women could do unmoral things in the apartment. Personally I became angry when I read that because single men are equally capable of the same unmoral actions as single women. Later she witnessed the prejudices “white” people had against “black” people.

When Stout began to form her own peace movement group, She found herself working in a “black” community and in doing so, she discovered that she needed to earn the trust of the people around her. She also found that she too had attitudes and ways of being that were racist, even if she didn’t mean to be.  I think that this is true for everyone. I do not see myself as racist, sexist, or anything like that, But because of society, I have picked up habits that could be seen as such. One example is that just earlier this week, wile discussing predigest s in a small group during my Leadership for a Positive Change class, I caught myself say “…Talk like a black person” what I meant by that was the way uneducated people speak, Not using what is considered to be “proper English” Now, In no way do I think that all black people are uneducated and speak that way, I have a few friends that are black and speak just like I do, though I’m no English major. The fact is, that through the media, black people seem to all talk in such an illiterate way, and I have often heard phrases of speech connected that way of talking to black people as a whole. And without realizing it I had picked it up. I guess I am beginning to understand that it is impossible to not hold any predigests within you, no matter who you are. I’ll have to try to look over thoughts like that in the future and not let them control me or let me say something offensive that I truly do not mean to be. And Just as Linda Stout stated that she would begin to unlearn racism, which would take her the rest of her life, I too wish to work on unlearning it.

Of course the life Stout shares with readers is a Life in the 60’s and 70’s, and my examples of discrimination are smaller ones as I have not experienced many yet in my still young life. That does not mean that today it’s any smaller of a problem, though some is better, Women can now easily get into Colleges, and there are financial help for low-income students. But gender, economic statuses, and race is not the only groups victims of discrimination. Sexuality, disabilities, age, geography, “criminal” backgrounds, occupation, religion, and many more are also subject to it.

 “I have a great belief in the fact that whenever there is chaos, it creates wonderful thinking. I consider chaos a gift.” –Brian Larker, I Dream A World.