Guilty by Association
I am a white, straight, and male. Some people would simply understand that as 'I am a racist, sexist, homophobe', which not only untrue, but also unfair. I grew up in society that has told me that I have to be ashamed of what I am because of a history of racism, sexism and homophobia that I was not a part of. It would be a crime to say that I am proud to be white. Even typing it still feels like a taboo, but why? Why is every other race permitted to be proud of their heritage except caucasian?
I strongly believe in not judging a person based on their age, race, gender, sexuality, beliefs, etc. However, when injustices are committed against my "majority" demographic, I can not speak up. Lately I have noticed many workplaces that seem to hire based on race. It does not matter if it is white, brown, black, red, or asian people hiring based on race, it is wrong. For some reason, attention and action is only taken when it is a white workforce. If a white owner only hires white employees, it is wrong and he/she is a racist prick, but the same judgement/punishment should apply to all races of employers who hire based on race. I am seeing this far too often and it has to stop, from all fronts.
Affirmative action is wrong. Everyone should receive an equal opportunity regardless of their demographic (unless they're children too young to work) but affirmative action is racist and sexist. Affirmative action was meant to eliminate discrimination in the workplace but has only created more of it, just the tables have turned on who is getting discriminating which is equally as wrong. May the best man or woman get the job, regardless on their sex or race. Fuck your quota if you don't have enough 'minorities' on staff....whoever is the most qualified should get the job. If this means an entire workforce is black, or white, or brown, so be it so long as those individuals deserve to be there based on education and experience.
Tolerance and equality need to be applied to everyone. If injustices continue, nothing will change and this is what will fuel racism, sexism, and homophobia. You can not change the world by hating straight white men.
Protect Your Privates
In a post-9/11 society, our lazy and fearful nature are being exploited by corporations and government as we sit back and turn the other cheek to indifference. We must protect our rights to privacy and fight back. We are being watched, listened to, and profiled and we don't seem to care. This is spit in the face of every veteran who has faught to protect our country and our values. They did not sacrifice their lives to protect our rights and assure that a fascist ditactorship never attain power in Canada. But, slowly and surely, it has happened. It never came in the form of Hitler, but of our own government and corporations. The media is controlled by the corporations that own them. They publish information based on whether it satisfies the interests of their sponsors or owners rather than serving the greater interests of the public.
We let them put cameras indoors....for our safety. Then we let them put cameras outdoors on our rooftops and intersections, once again for our safety of the evil doers in this world. We need to be protected from the invisible enemies, so isn't that worth letting them watch us, listen in, read our emails, tap our phones? Hell no. Law enforcement did a fine job without tools of privacy invasion in the past so why does this generation of government and police need so much more power and to invade the private lives of it's innocent civilians? Why throw away the rights of innocent people to catch a few guilty ones?
The answer is not so simply but I would attribute it to two major characteristics of human nature. The government, police, and corporations are lazy, just like the rest of us. We'd rather sit in our cars and get drive through than park, walk 40 or so feet, order and walk back. Those in power are the same way, only to a much larger scale and their is much more at stake than your weight and health. The second reason: with power comes curruption and the desire for more power.
The other day I was at a Macs convenience store which had a Sunoco gas bar. Like most/all gas stations, the pumps were surveilled by black and white camera so that they can nab criminals that drive off without paying. However, their was one major difference with this surveillance: along with video surveillance, the gas pumps were equiped with audio surveillance. There were microphones recording and amplifying your every word on a speaker located by the cash register and attendant.
When have they gone to far? When we finally notice and try to stand up and do something about it, will we have any rights left?