suizome
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- Posted: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 08:46:18 +0000
Personal Accounts of Strangers Dealing with Racism/Sexism that I had read/watch about in the last week:
Some Statistical Accounts of Strangers Dealing with Racism/Sexism that only took a few seconds to find:
Personal Quotes from my own trusted friends (most are female, so bias of course):
Things I've heard several times from other people that are happening in my community (majority white, upper-middle class suburbia of local cities):
What is the point of this post?
Canada and their version of "Affirmative Action" in the Public Workforce
Some Statistical Accounts of Strangers Dealing with Racism/Sexism that only took a few seconds to find:
Personal Quotes from my own trusted friends (most are female, so bias of course):
"I realized I can't trust people who most people are supposed to trust... cops...lawyers...therapists...my parents...If a guy (or girl) with a cool looking tattoo and piercings, or someone on the internet asks, I can tell them everything and I'll spill my life story. Best part is they're generally cool with it and understand without judging me..." - My sister, Age 15, Tonight
"saw it on craigslist. I'd apply but I can't handle nerd boys" - Female, Age 23, Date: 08/23/2014
"I think the reason I was let go from my job was because of the fact that I had accidentally let someone know I was going to the therapist... At least I know now not to talk to anyone about anything personal anymore..." - F, 23, In the last three months
"When we had parties at the sorority, we always made sure that no girl left alone drunk [because of the chance of rape]..." - F, 23, four months ago, talking about her experience in University in the middle of Midwest.
"I realized after reading a news article that I always look in the back of my car before I walk in and I asked my brother...[he] never does that" - F, 22, Around 6 Months ago
"I don't like going to Game Night [at the local board game shop] with out [my boyfriend]... around..." - F, 23, Around a year ago
"When I turned in my application, they asked me if I was sure I wanted to go to China, especially since people are afraid of black people there..." - F, 25, A year ago when I was volunteering in China to teach English
Things I've heard several times from other people that are happening in my community (majority white, upper-middle class suburbia of local cities):
A new High School was built in my district seven years ago, several parents complained that it was going to be a "hispanic" school, which would cause more gang violence because the caucasian percentage was a bit less than 60% (majority of schools in the district have at least 60% or more caucasian students at each school). Parents pulled out students in complaint with the district and requested to be moved to other schools that were much farther away from their homes. Now even though new school has better equipment then most of the other schools (better theater and sports equipment because it is well), school now suffers from graffiti and other gang problems. Also it is generally called the "Dump School" (it was built a few miles away from a dump, but because of violence has become the new dump school)
When I was in High School, there was a young male teacher who had several sexual relationships with students on the Volleyball team. Even though the students were never really named, people found out within the first three weeks who it was and went to defend the teacher (who according to many was a nice guy?) calling the girls "sluts" and other bad names. I had when I first found out they apparently went to the church (back when I was still mormon and young) accidentally slut shamed them mentally. I realized that was a mistake since she was a very nice girl, but it happens a lot.
What is the point of this post?
- I won't say I'm some feminism messiah (though I am a feminist and a humanist) and that the world has not improved in the last two centuries, that would be discrediting people who worked hard in history to make my country better. I will say that while we are on the right step, we still have a long way to go before I can say there is minimal racism in America.
And maybe I'm wrong about Canada, maybe it's not a problem there. I don't know if it is different social system in Canada but it's possible it's still very similar stance to where I live where people say they believe they're not racist but behind close doors warn their children about the "sins" of the world and that when you try to call them out they say to their kids "I have gay/black/Asian/muslim friends...", but from what I experienced and heard from other people while visiting China and working in America and reading about things on the internet from other friends of different denominations all around the world in either developing or First World Countries. It's still a problem.
I still have friends who couldn't get jobs in engineering fields, even though they had a degree possibly because they had complicated very "arabic sounding" names in Australia. I still don't feel safe walking to my car at night, even yesterday when I walked down three flights of stairs from my new gaming job alone. I still have parents who watch news saying that racism is gone, that the majority of feminist are sexualizing women instead of letting women fear to be who they want, that my friends who are gay are not people I should hang around with because they'll lead me down satan's path, that me being allowed to believe what I want or that I am not a psychopath because I want to improve myself from years of emotional abuse by going to therapy. I have troubles getting jobs that I am 90% qualified for because I haven't gotten my degree and I can't go to college because my parents don't think I'm worthy for college even though I worked hard to recover and become who I am today which means I need to get a good paying job to go to college.
It, discrimination, still very much happens, just in smaller, more secret doses, or made publicly as a mockery on TV news or on the internet. It happens even in the job force that people try to get into. So saying that people only claim to have disadvantages and not accept advantages does not sound like a smart statement to make. No matter who anyone is, people should not have to exploit advantages or disadvantages to anything if they want a career in a field and are qualified for it.
Canada and their version of "Affirmative Action" in the Public Workforce
Now do I think that there should be a quota like they do for colleges in the US for government positions in Canada? Probably not. I understand why they might do it in Canada (if they really do, where is the law/bill/memo that has this written down that law enforcement or other government jobs must fill by quota, where's the reference link, this is ED. Your professor stated this, you should have probably ask him where he/she heard this from).
Minorities, whether you have been born of a family with a minority race, come from a single parent home, or a low income, do still go through current social disadvantages that make it harder for them to graduate and compete with others that are not so socially disadvantaged (a college educated, white child from a middle-class or higher. So the government may be trying to use an affirmative action of sorts to try and hire a more diverse group, to award those that may or may not have worked harder than those of not so socially disadvantaged situations. Whether this is fair is something that is still up to debate (many schools are getting sued in the US because of Affirmative Action).
However, I think it goes like this, if you go into a job and show that you have better merits and show that you will work harder than most of your contenders who may have worked as hard or harder to get to be in the same spot, this will probably not be a problem. However, if you just assume that you will get a job simply based on merit without visually representing your merit (because us humans are very visual and very first impressions based creatures) you probably won't get a job. So work hard for the job you want, show your ambition and passion and you probably won't have a problem with this.
The only reason the government is asking for a percentage is that until there is no more inequality in the world (or at least such a minimal amount that it is no longer a problem like stated above) they are doing that to force people that may be racist (which really, there should just be a better government set up to always do assessments on people to make sure they're still qualified for the job of hiring others and better penalization measures taken against racism/sexism in the workplace) to hire people that they wouldn't hire because their racist.
So blame the mistakes of the few (or a lot of times the majority but they're all in the closet about their discrimination) that make it more difficult for the many.
