You walk into a crowded room, full of people completely unknown to you. Your eyes sweep over the people and the mental judgments fly. She’s fat. I bet he has no friends. I bet she is wearing way too much makeup. I could never be friends with them. These thoughts come without hesitation, without remorse. Why? Why do we, as a people, put down our fellow man, without even knowing them?
Discrimination is “the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people on the grounds of race, age, or sex”. It happens everywhere, all the time. And unlike popular belief, adults discriminate against each other just as much as teenagers do. One might argue that discrimination becomes even more extreme as people age. Everyone has their own opinions and ideas but no person has the right to judge another.
Discrimination prevails because those of us who see it happening refuse to act against it. Everyone has been a victim of hateful words, yet we seem to forget the impact it has on someone else. We seem to forget that if we only took a stand against these destructive opinions, someone could be spared. Not only must we stand up for others, we must make the conscious effort to not judge others. No matter how you do it, this “madness must cease. We must stop now” (King).
You may feel that you do have enough power or confidence to fight discrimination yourself, but you can always support others who fight this oppression everyday, like the Anti-Discrimination Center. Focused in New York City, this organization provides for those who have been scorned by society by giving housing and a means of finding employment.