Modern Discrimination | Teen Ink

Modern Discrimination

May 18, 2011
By LyssaNicole BRONZE, Pasadena, Texas
LyssaNicole BRONZE, Pasadena, Texas
2 articles 0 photos 2 comments

I’m willing to bet, that when you think of things like discrimination, the only thing that come to mind are the times when people still separated “the white’s” and “colored” people, in everything. Though that is discrimination, this country of America, is past that, for the most part anyway. Of course there are still the few naïve people who think that people within different races are below them, and sometimes people who expect others to treat them better because they are of a certain racial background, and, as most of this country, this world, even, can understand, we are supposed to be equals.

So, if people can understand that this discrimination is wrong, why can’t they take notice of the new, modern discrimination that flows throughout almost every single person’s life at some point? It runs through the halls of schools, elementary, intermediate, high school, and even the one that should be mature enough not to fall into such foolishness, colleges. It runs through streets and restaurants. It flows into homes, and even the deepest parts of people’s souls it drives through their veins.

This is the intolerance of people, regular human people, who happen to have different opinions about a few things that set them apart from the crowd, the outcasts, the “emo” and the “Goth” kids and the “cutters”, the “faggots” and the “freaks”. There are a million and four names for them, but none of them are necessarily true. The only difference in them is the fact that they have the bravery to stand up and fight back against the same guide lines almost all of us were taught as children: to blend in, or be popular. Either way, our guardians were trying to teach us to fit in with the crowd, the largest fad, and no matter what. They, of course, did not warn us that not everyone listened to this rule, and that there were different people, and groups that would accept us as we are. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why they would do this, no parent or parent figure wants to see their child suffer through life.
Since they had not told us about those “freaks”, had not told us that this was their choice, somewhere along the way, they accidentally taught us to hate every single person who didn’t exactly go along with whatever the biggest trend at that moment was, this later results in the teasing, bullying and downright abuse of those who dared to stand up for what they believe in. That, if viewed with a clear, mature, adult-like head, is obviously a stupid idea. However, children, teenagers and even some not fully grown and matured adults cannot see things that way. The only things they see are: “that those kids have on thick eyeliner”, “that kid has dark close and piercings on their face.” With these things in mind, their natural reactions are to make that kid or that group of kids, feel as if they are a disease on society, have no point in life, and just generally bad. In their minds, it makes them feel safe; it makes them feel as if they have the power, which is a drug to most humans, of all ages.
The only problem here is that, by getting that addicting rush of supremacy, they make themselves out to be. Instead of like presidents, like ruthless dictators that have nothing in mind except that they get their way and everyone else suffers and knows that they, for some reason, are below them.
Their idiotic need for authority often has drastic and tragic outcomes. People get beaten until they die, or bleed to death, and others feel as if they have nowhere else to go, that they have reached the end of their own personal ropes and had no one to care for them, and commit suicide. Yet, for some reason, not many people realize that by being that bullying dictator or simply standing by and watching it all happen make them all just as good as people who just go out and murder others, worse actually, in the fact that they make the person suffer through torture for years before the act is committed. That makes them no better than Hitler, or Osama Bin Laden, all are people who have killed someone for simply trying to stand up for the right that every person is born with, you know, one of those unalienable rights listed in the constitution. The only differences between them and Hitler, is that the jerks who lead people to suicide can’t be sent to prison, because they didn’t pull the trigger or stop the air way, or slit the wrist to make them bleed to death.
This discrimination is just as terrible and dramatic as making people feel as if they might as well be the sand you squish between your toes at the beach, perhaps even worse. People shouldn’t have to be put down and teased everywhere they go, just because they had the nerve to rebel against what everyone wanted them to be, and be themselves. So, to all of you who do this, I hope you feel as guilty as possible, until you have to commit suicide just to escape the guilt you feel, and die a slow painful death.
Also, to all of you who feel alone, just remember that you’re not, and there are people and places in this wide world that will let you be who you want to be and not judge you. Don’t let them convince you that you are nothing and give them the satisfaction of breaking you. Never, and I mean never, let what they say and do have any effect on you. Remember that you are beautiful and strong if you’ve gotten as far as you have.
I know that this probably won’t affect the way most people think and that it probably won’t help many people, but if one, just one, person reads this and feels better about themselves, and realizes that they don’t necessarily have to lose, they can win and defeat the jerks, then I have served a great purpose in life and one day I may die a fulfilled person.


The author's comments:
This article was written because this is a topic that i feel particularly strong about, and i thought it should be shared with the teenink world.

Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.