You might believe that discrimination is gone and extinct. But our
society had done far enough to solve this issue. There is still controversies
and arguments. So, what exactly is discrimination? It is not simply bullying
someone because you dislike their cultural background. It has a deeper meaning.
It is the act of putting yourself in a superior position over others, according
to what gender and race you belong in. Discrimination can be dated back to few
centuries ago, and it is still alive and well in our society. People had been
discriminated against in every aspects of our lives, such as politics and our social
lives. Even though you had never experienced through it, but diversity in this
country hope to deliver a new way of taking the issues onto the hands of
responsibility.
U.S history had proved to us that discrimination began, and it
never stopped. It can be tracked back to 1600s, when the first group of African
American came to the colonies. They have staying in the lands for about 200
years by the eve of the Civil War. And they finally gained their freedom but
not their rights. I haven’t known any other culture that had a long and grieved
journey to equality. Irish and German immigrants that later came to this land,
they don’t suffered as much as the African Americans did. When I studied the
abolitionist movement in history class, I found out that it is the most
interesting and somber time period in U.S history. Those of you who are
learning about this topic would notice that, Whites used all kind of excuses to
justify the existence of slavery. Some had been saying that blacks were
genetically inferior, they have different brain structures, which caused them
to become more savage. Thus by enslaving the blacks, they could become more
civilized and educated. Others had suggested that God had created the
institution of slavery, and they were simply just following his order. Wouldn’t
these excuses make you think that the whites are making any kind of excuses
that could make them feel less guilty?
Back to the present, small population of the congress was made up
of women. Men in politics always felt that women were too emotional to make
decisions in dealing with national issues. Recently, the president-elected
Donald Trump had making personal attacks during his campaign. As you may have
heard, he had publically commented on the physical appearances of Carly Fiorina,
who was another candidate in the Republican Party. Trump criticized her look
and called her “ugly”. This was clearly a discrimination against women, you could
see that he was not showing enough respect to women. In general terms, men
always focus more on the physical appearances than the inner beauty. Females
who were following in the election felt offended by his insults.
Besides discriminating against women, Trump also threatens to
build a wall in the U.S borders to prevent illegal Mexican immigrants from
coming in. He even blamed Mexicans of smuggling, drug abuses and violent
crimes. This was an appeal to his white supporters. As an Asian American, a
minority in U.S, I feel insecure and threaten of his words. Trump also accused
immigrants for stealing American jobs. In my point of view, U.S is a diverse
nation, immigrants help to contribute in the U.S economy, and therefore the
whites should give them some credits of doing so. Also, since Donald Trump is a
famous public figure, people will take his words more seriously, he got the
persuasiveness in his speeches to influence the minds of Americans. After the
election many people are protesting against the victory of Donald Trump. The
media are reporting “One election but two countries”, which means that Trump is
disunifying the country by increasing the tension between whites and immigrants
in the United States.
Back to 1960s, President John Kennedy issued an executive order
that increase the awareness of racial equality in colleges and workforces. This
is process is called the Affirmative Actions. If you are a women in the
minority section, this program benefits you the most. But throughout the
decades, people continuously argued about the ethics of this program. Recently,
the Supreme Court had ruled over the case of Abigail Fisher v. University of
Texas. Fisher claimed that the university was discriminated against her,
because she is white. Many people had similar ideas as Fisher that the people
could easily abuse their power of being minority, and easily take the spot that
actually belong to a more talented student.
Studies had shown that
college acceptance rate for Asian American was lower than any other racial
group. I was worrying that colleges judge me according to my backgrounds since
they have a much higher expectations for Asian students. If I have to get into a so called “good”
college, then I have to work much harder and get a higher SAT score in order to
have an equal chance with those non-Asians in college admissions. This is discrimination
against Asians since the fact that not every Asians are smart enough to compete
with others. The myth that every Asians are intelligent does not apply to
everyone and it’s not fair to do so.
Your female family members may had been discriminated against
along with blacks, they didn’t have the same rights and privileges that men
had. Today, women and blacks face discrimination in workforces too. Your female
colleagues would receive a lower wage compared to white men even if the same
amount of work had been done. I’m glad that people had started questioning this
inequalities. And we are learning from our mistakes in the past, and we all
hoped for a brighter future, where racism and gender discrimination do not
exist.
