Studying Discrimination is Counter-Productive

Lately I've been going through my old schoolwork trying to de-clutter and organize it in a way I can quickly reference it. It's taken me quite a while to get through my shelf full of 3-ring-binders, but today I am down to the last one, or at least, the last one on my first go around. It seems to take me 3 tries to get it down to a manageable size.

The last stack of paper is from my Diversity class. It was all about learning and being aware of the discrimination that people from all walks of life, face. Sexism, Racism, religious persecution, Sexual orientation persecution, to name a few.

I had a hard time with this class. I'm going to try to brainstorm exactly why that is in the following paragraphs.

There were texts we read that reiterated over and over again about the privilege that white people have, especially white males, over everyone else. Articles often stated that white people act racist and sexist all the time without even realizing it. And the cure was for white people to acknowledge and accept this truth, and to try to minimize their own discriminatory behavior. Furthermore, white people needed to realize and accept that others may lash out in anger about it on occasion. Additionally, being color-blind to race was not an excuse, but rather another way in which white people discriminated against other races.

I really struggled with this because I believe you can only discriminate if you're doing it on purpose (whether conscious or unconsciously). Otherwise, you're just being 'thoughtless' or 'clueless' or 'naive.' Discrimination is a strong word, and it doesn't seem fair to use it on every possibly perceived slight.

I was truly color-blind up until about 8th grade. About half the students at school and in my neighborhood were Latino, but I didn't see race. I just knew that a lot of people spoke Spanish. I feel that because I was color-blind, I wasn't treating them differently based on race, because I didn't see that difference between them and myself. And being able to speak Spanish is pretty darn cool.

Right out of high school, I was shadowing a guy for my first job. He was talking on the phone, selling product as a telemarketer, and switched to Spanish when he realized he was talking to a man who spoke Spanish but very little English. After the phone call, I said, "It's super cool that you speak Spanish." He said, "uh, Yeah! Duh." I was surprised at his response, looked him over, and realized he was Latino and I hadn't noticed.

One article countered that a Caucasian person cannot understand another person or where they are coming from if they are not aware of their ethnicity. My counter argument is that I've met Asians in America who are 100% culturally American and have very little, if any, ties to any country's culture in Asia. So to identify that they're Asian would only serve to create a perceived identity that the person does not necessarily have. (I should mention here that most 'Asians' don't like to be categorized as such; and would much rather be known by their country of origin. AKA Mongolian, Chinese, Japanese, etc.) However, there are enough people who do identify their ethnicity and assume their background, that it does affect how they are treated on a regular basis.

We read 2 textbooks and numerous chapters printed off in mass quantities from other textbooks, throughout the semester. By the end of the semester, we, the classmates, understood that our Asian teacher was trying to teach us that 'middle-class white males' are inherently discriminating no matter what they do or how much they know or are aware. We also figured out that she was extremely discriminating towards 'white males.' This seemed to me to be a big red flag as to the problems with focusing on and studying discrimination. Studying discrimination does not eliminate it. If our teacher was showing extreme Racism and Sexism after teaching this class year in and year out, then being will versed in discrimination clearly did not reverse the problem, on even an individual level.

The LDS church doesn't generally talk too much about any particular minority group. They do mention that women should strive for an education and that children deserve to have two married parents - male and female. They mention that saints should be kind to everyone, even of the LGBT persuasion. But mostly they teach to Love they Neighbor, Serve others, and be Kind and Charitable always. Most Christian churches teach these things.

My observation is that focusing on qualities of kindness and forgiveness produce far better results than studying hate crimes and discrimination. Those who fixate on every way a person can be discriminated against become angry and victimized. They respond in a defensive way, no matter what the intent of the question or statement was. They are always looking over their shoulder for the next verbal attack, and anything that doesn't go their way is suddenly because discrimination took place. Didn't get that job? Must be because I'm Black. Couldn't possibly be because out of the other 20 applicants, someone else was more qualified or better suited for the job. People who think they're always discriminated against will perceive every slight as an act of discrimination; despite there being no real evidence.

That said, should it never be studied? Not necessarily. People will often have a hard time in adulthood trying to understand their childhood, and learning about discrimination may help to explain things they did not understand as a child. It may help people who don't understand why, a person who has internalized discrimination, behaves the way they do. However, studying culture could be much more beneficial for most, rather than studying discrimination and all the ways a person could be wronged.

I grew up in an area where kids were mean to each other all the time. Being different in any way was ammunition for teasing. My diversity teacher would say every student was discriminating. To an extent, I agree, however, I believe it had for more to do with the culture; a false belief, that there was a finite amount of 'self-esteem' to go around. And by putting someone else down, lower than yourself, it added to your 'prestige.' It was a survival technique. It was a taught behavior. It was a culture of rudeness and bullying.

And from that culture, grew adults who felt they were always being persecuted and could not escape being a victim. They (mostly women) are constantly feeling the need to defend themselves and crying foul and 'don't judge me.' The men are treating women poorly and leaving the relationship. Society has taught the men to have unrealistic expectations. Society expects very little good behavior from men. Men fulfill those expectations.

After 4 months, a semester, studying discrimination, I had learned near to nothing that would fix it, but this idea that awareness and self-evaluation might. But what I felt was a greater amount of anger and hatred towards general humanity and towards experiences I had had that didn't make sense until you put it under the lens of discrimination. And under that lens, it's very hard to forgive.

The good news is, it's almost all in their head. The bad news is, the head is the hardest thing to change. (I'd like to add here, that I am aware that severe violence happens to people and that they are in fear of their lives. I do not want to minimize that. However, in my corner of the world, I've never seen it. I speak to what I've seen, and what I've seen is that many problems are perceived.)

I feel like our American culture perpetuates discrimination even as they are trying to fix it by awareness. The more you fill out paperwork that asks for your ethnicity, the more it reminds you that differences matter. The more people assume that you speak Spanish because your Latino, the more it makes you feel less than everyone else. The more President Trump mentions Muslim terrorists, the more people there are committing hate crimes against Muslims.

Not to say we should never talk about it. Utah's failure in sex education is a fantastic example of creating problems by making a topic taboo. But to make a big deal about it either way or to focus on the negative is always going to result in negative results. Focusing on the positive side, forgiving others, and striving to be better as individuals and as communities, and most of all, creating friends and opening dialogue on an individual level will go much further than anything else.