Blog #4

When we discuss discrimination the first word that comes to mind is "black". However, in our society today discrimination is not just about the color of skin. It's includes our sexual orientation, body composition, and the way we look. It is interesting to me that people still say racism is a hard topic to talk about. Maybe it's because I am white that allows me to think that talking about racism is not hard because I have never been treated differently because of my skin color. I think that the videos we watched last weekend went a little too far for our generation. We have had so many classes and so many lectures about the history of our nation and the awful things we put the black people through in the beginning that I think people our age just tune this topic out. Where I grew up, it didn't matter what skin color you had; everyone was friends with everyone. I had already watched "A Class Divided" in my sociology class last semester and I loved the experiment she did. I thought it was extremely clever and fascinating that the kids behaved the way they did. It was very important for them to learn that racism and not like people because of their color was a bad thing back then. However, I do not think that we need to be taught about it anymore. I think that the United States has made huge improvements in the past couple of generations and I think that this pattern is going to keep going. I'm not saying that one day racism will be completely demolished, because there will always be that one person who "goes against the grain", but I do believe that as the years pass people will continue to be more accepting of others.

Instead of focusing only on racism in schools, I think bullying should be address more frequently than it is. Kids know exactly how to put each other down, like we saw in the video. They believe what they hear and act on what they are told, always, no matter the generation. I think that bullying, at any age, is detrimental. Even in the past week six teens killed themselves because they were getting made fun of by their peers. In one situation, and boy and a girl thought it would be funny to hide a camera in their "friends" room. The friend wound up being gay and having sexual relations with another male and it was caught on the tape. His "friends" streamed it and sent it to all of their friends and they all ganged on the guy they had taped. All of the pressure and embarrassment led him to commit suicide. Because of these situations, I think people need to learn how to act and how to me truly nice to others from a young age. There should be certain rules put in place in elementary, middle, and high schools pertaining to bullying and they should enforce the consequences. I know in my school issues were not dealt in a good way; the staff and principle just let things slide by. I do not think this right and should be more structured so that people will not resort to suicide and hurting themselves to make things better.