Thursday, March 5, 2009

Are You Freaking Kidding Me?

Okay, I'm gonna start this out by saying that the following passage was not wrote by me. It was posted by a fellow student, and I had to share it (I'm sure it's probably plagiarism), because it is unbelievable...... It is offensive, rude, and ignorant....

"I think that the africans were better off as slaves. Yes they were mistreated and yes it was hard on them but look at what they ame from. They were living in aweful living conditions with who knows how many diseases and were going to sold off by their OWN people to other countries if we didnt take them. Now im not condonig slavery but it was the way of life then and it wasnt a big deal, kind of like having kids when your 12. For slaves, although they were mistreated, at least they had a roof over their head and ha a slim chance of being free, where in Africa they would be sold off anyway. And in the end they gotnthe best deal. They got to become citizens and live in the best country there is." - student in my American History class

Can you believe that? I am so fuming mad right now! Are you kiddin me? Is this the 1940's? Maybe I just got zapped into the past.

First off, I did post a response to this student's posting. I cannot believe that we live in the land of the free, and some people still think that people were better of as slaves. I know this kid has obviously quite a few misconceptions. I really don't care about the other parts of this paragraph. The first line just burns me up. No one should ever be forced to be a slave to someone else. No one should ever be denied the rights that we Americans have today. Every single person in this world should have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They should be able to practice any religion they want without fear of persecution of others. They should be able to speak out against their government or anyone doing them wrong, without fear of retribution. They should not have to live chained like dogs. They should be able to get up in the morning without having to worry about their house getting bombed, or their children dying from terrorist attacks or roadside bombs.

I know that I am an idealist. I know that I am one of those people who wish for world peace. I know that humans by nature are too greedy, too power hungry to ever make those dreams a reality. I just keep thinking all it takes is one person to break that viscious cycle. It just takes the right "idealist" in each and every family to break that constant cycle of prejudice and hate.

In the Army, I met so many people who were prejudiced against African Americans. They came from small towns, and they did what their daddy or mommy did. They hated who they were taught to hate, because hatred is something that is taught. It is not instilled into people. Anger, maybe. Hatred, no. This small town guys broke that cycle. They finally understood that there is no mold to define a set of people. That regardless of religion, race, and even sexual orientation, they were dependent on that other person for their life. It is a humbling experience. That's why I think everyone should have to do military service for at least 2 years after high school. Everyone should be taught discipline, duty, loyalty, and compassion. Because, unfortunately some people are not taught those things at home (take that person ^ for example).

Do you know that I have noticed that as a country we define ourselves by our race? Think about it, people always say, "I'm African-American, Hispanic-American, or Asian-American." No one ever just says, "I'm American." People don't do that overseas. You don't go to Europe and hear people say, "I'm African-English, I'm Asian-French, or I'm Caucasian-Spanish." They say, "I''m English, I'm French, and I'm Spanish." They have broken the cycle.

But we haven't. Whether it's race, religion, sexual orientation, body weight, height, etc.... We always find a way to judge others. Hatred causes wars. No one likes wars, but no one is ready to give up their prejudices. They just do the things they do, and think that saying, "it's just the times, everyone is doing it" makes it okay. Being rude to an Arab-American after 9-11 was perfectly okay. Telling your kids that the Jewish people killed Christ is okay, because that is what Mel Gibson thinks is cool. Blaming illegal immigrants for our economy is okay. Even telling racial jokes in a tight group of friends is okay, I mean, who are you hurting?

It's not okay. It's never okay. You may think you're joking, or that because you don't really mean it that it is now okay. People we are teaching our children to hate! We are showing our kids through our actions that it is okay to judge someone based on their religion, race, or sexual orientation.

So I completely went into a tangent. I was in total shock that someone would post this, and even more so, because this 17,18,19 year old kid believes this. Someone taught him this.

Please, I'm begging you. Break the cycle. Nothing good will ever come of hatred. Absolutely nothing.

5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. WOAH! I'm all for breaking the cycle too! It's hard but it has to be done to make the world a better place!

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  3. OMG that's appalling! Totally with you though - our children need to be taught better for the sake of our country's future

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  4. Wow I totally agree with you. That is appalling. Just for information you are right about the ...-American thing. It is only in United States as I live in Canada, just above and we are either English Canadian, or French Canadian depending on the part of the country you were raised in and the language you speak, there is no division by race :(

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