We live it, we breath it, we practice it without even knowing, yet we proudly insist we do not discriminate.
I have been pondering this problem a lot today as I find myself on both sides of the label. I've come to believe there is an innate human quality in us all that feeds the need to put people into specific groupings. I would like to challenge you to take someone, anyone you know and not have the ability to categorize them. You can't. Everyone falls into one. So, it's not too hard to see how easy it is, once these people are grouped together, to start making generalizations. From then on it's just a matter of time before the negative starts to appear through the cracks and voila! a discrimination is born. (NB: See 'blonde jokes') I am ________, therefore I must be _______.
We're all culpable, everyone of us. Mostly it's lighthearted and easily brushed aside, but sometimes it's not. Sometimes the discrimination hurts, and hurts deeply. It is far too easy to use words as weapons, striking hard and fast to slay our targets. We are a culture of openness and transparency, which in itself is a good thing, but we have lost the fine art of etiquette; of grace. There is a fine line between honesty and cruelty when opinions are invited, and it is turning us into bullies. In some bizarre way we are championing the 'last man standing' mindset, telling ourselves it makes us somehow powerful. It's a lie.
I am different than the average joe so I know what it feels like to be stared at, having opinions formed about me on first impressions. I have felt discrimination, but I have also been guilty of the same crime. Neither side feels good. Our worth as a person should not be judged by our race, creed, religion, gender, social status or physical attributes, but by the 'content of our characters' (thank you MLK). When that happens is when we truly gain power.
So let's be nice to one another, ok?
Oh, and yes... I am blonde. Peace out.
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