To Speak Out; Or Not to Speak Out that is the true question Currently there are 7 months every year that are celebrated by National History or Heritage. These cover African American History, Women’s History, Asian Pacific American History and Older Americans, Gay and Lesbian Pride, Hispanic-Latino Heritage, Disability Employment Awareness, American Indian Heritage and that is all. In a society who speaks of wanting to break away from racial slurs, gender specific titles, and elitist this seems very hard to do when all the differences are forced upon every American each month.
We have reached a crossroad in our culture and society where a genuine complaint has to be thought out and reprimands have to be considered before filing. Is the person of a certain minority race who may be offended because our skin is not the same color? Does a disability create a loophole for behavior? Could the fact that someone dates another of the same gender affect how they act appropriately? All of these are questions that have to be asked in today’s society before throwing the penalty flag in business, friendship, society, and even education.
Recently I was faced with the dilemma of children acting out in a classroom in which I was a substitute teacher. Since the children who were acting out were of the same race, but different from my race, I chose to not make the complaint that could come back with the EXCUSE of racism. There were a total of 5 different races in the class; only one group was acting out. Society has taught us and our children to not forget heritage. This teaching however has brought us full circle from where we began.
In the modern world we live in we are asked our age, race, gender and education for every job available. Although it says we can refuse to answer I think this would cause our unique qualifications to fall to the wayside for a job we could excel at. Why is gender, race, age, or any affiliation important for a job? Or for a college application? When did it become a requirement to be set apart based on heritage or gender or even religion? I thought this was what we were going away from. However the more we talk about moving away from it the closer we come to complete segregation.