This is an opinion article.
7 second version: Some people are cool, and some people
are dicks. That has nothing to do with their skin color, gender,
nationality, heritage, etc., so stop making such a big deal of those
factors. Just accept that they are cool/suck because of their
experiences/ personality.
Every time I hear about lack of gender equality, I am sickened. Every time I hear about lack of racial diversity in the workplace, I am sickened. Every time I hear something related to more rights for certain religions, ethnicities, nationalities, sexual orientations, etc., I am sickened.
When I was a kid, I had an idea of what racism was, and of sexism, and all of the other major -ism's you can name. It isn't that hard to distinguish people by their sex, or their race, or hair color, and you could easily put people into group by ancestry, religion, income, etc. Without this ability we would not be able to tell most people apart from other. It is how we identify a person. However, even as a child I knew that this is not how we should judge a person. For me, it was never a matter of, "this person is black so they must have traits like A, B, and C." If I told someone that they are looking for an Asian person, that never played a factor in that persons character.
I should distinguish that there are certainly reasons to celebrate a persons heritage, history, culture, etc., but their celebrating it is entirely dependent on them as a person. Two people may be of Irish decent, but they will not necessarily both celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Whether they do that or not is their decision as an individual. The fact that they happen to have been born into an Irish family is purely coincidental. Additionally, men and women have some genetic and physiological differences that must be acknowledged in any situation, i.e. men cannot bear children. However, as far as this discussion goes those differences are minimal at best.
Martin Luther King Jr. said that we should not judge a person by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I will be the first person to admit that stereotypes are funny, but they are funny because they are not true. I love fried chicken, kool-aid, and watermelon; does that make me black? If a person of Asian decent is good at driving, does that change their race? Universalizing a personality trait or ability to anyone because of their skin color is bound to fail. In that same light, assuming a persons luck-based traits (skin color, heritage, etc.) gives them more value than other persons, and basing that value purely on account of those luck-based traits, is just as bad to do.
I am for everyone having an equal opportunity. I am for judging a person by their actions. I am for providing free education to anyone that earnestly seeks it. What I am not for is giving special privileges to men or women BECAUSE they are a man or woman. I am not for giving special consideration to a white/ black/ asian/ middle-eastern person BECAUSE they are a white/ black/ asian/ middle-eastern person. To me, anything that places full or partial emphasis on a persons luck-based traits is prejudice.
I understand that people will disagree with me at face-value, and I will accept that if they can answer the one question that I always pose within this issue; as far as personality and skill set, how do people of one luck-based trait differ from people who lack that same luck-based trait? If I can get an answer that doesn't involve prejudice one way or another, it would impress me very much.
People should be judged by their personalities, their actions, their attitude, what they publish on blogs, what sorts of drugs they do, i.e. the choices they make in life; the choices life made for them are just fluff.
Steve
