Pride and Prejudice: My Reality "Flat" Edition

Pride & Prejudice

My Reality Edition

“I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day, but I don't think there is anything such as complete happiness. It pains me that there is still a lot of Klan activity and racism. I think when you say you're happy, you have everything that you need and everything that you want, and nothing more to wish for. I haven't reached that stage yet” (Rosa Parks). The world still hasn’t reached the stage of being completely “happy.” Racism, prejudice and discrimination still linger in many facets of life today despite many great leaps forward to end them all for good. I am presenting my argument on these very topics. One may recognize the title of my analytical hypertext as a hit television show, but I am using its meaning literally to the fullest extent. I will take the time to highlight racism in its smallest and largest forms. The example that I will emphasize is in (parochial) high schools, with a little bit on contributors to the parochial school system. I want to give the best example I possibly can about this pressing issue and I figured that taking an experience out of my own book would communicate my message the best. I have personally heard racism and prejudice, not directed toward me, but toward my religion. Believe it or not, there are still people that have a reason to be hateful toward people that don't look like, act like, or come from the same background, religion, or ethnicity as them. The fact that a certain individual is different does not give anyone the right to be racist or make some funny joke about them. Racism is the worst type of insult out there that one can possible face. There is nothing that is lower than racism on the totem pole. For my specific example at my high school, I will reveal the fact that I am Jewish and I went to a Roman Catholic high school. I loved the high school I went to very much, don't get me wrong, but a sparse amount of the students there who would sink to new lows and exhibit derogatory behavior in this (racist) respect, angered me to the point where are I really felt I would be letting myself down if I didn't do anything about it. If I didn't do anything about it, no one would. I take pride in being Jewish. I will not compromise my pride and dignity for some individuals that think making fun of it has become some sort of sport. I will use the points of view of Martin Luther King Jr. and Elie Wiesel, and the Munich Olympics and Holocaust, to add to my point on a broader perspective. We may not be able to eliminate racism, discrimination, and prejudice completely and we will have to start small, but the faster that we spread awareness and silence this chauvinism, the more civilized this world will become.

As a high school student going to a private, Roman Catholic, I went about my business. I was a studious individual: I went to class, participated in extracurricular activities, and hung out with my friends every so often (your average high school student, right?). Well I bet your "average" high school student didn't have to listen to the type of stuff that I had to all around campus when he or she least expected it. The people who I thought were my friends were using derogatory words, racist comments, toward my background of Judaism. The things that my "peers" were saying ranged from: "Hey man, you just got Super-Jewed!" to "Dude, why are you being such a Jew?" (These quotes implied something along the lines of, "Hey man, you just got gypped!---yet another derogatory comment implying being "ripped off"---and "Dude, why are you so cheap?") I mean, seriously, do you have any decency whatsoever? Do you know that Jewish people go to this school? This is exactly what I would say to myself and then communicated to the individual(s) in a calm and collected manner. Although none of this chauvinism was directed toward me personally, I could not let myself just hang in the balance and watch it happen. I would be letting myself, and my pride & dignity of loving my background of Judaism, go straight down the drain. Consequently, I went up to the people who I heard saying these things, and told them that that what they were saying was unacceptable and discriminatory. Using slang and racism is just so dehumanizing and it doesn’t help using it in speech. This is the way I take it. If I feel insulted, then I can insult the person who insulted me right? An eye for an eye? I'll quickly find something about them that I think is funny and use that against them. Nope. I just hope my message reverberates in their head so the next time they think about saying it again they will think twice. Racism does not only affect the students going to a (high) school, it affects the school. For my parochial high school in particular, I wondered what the Roman Catholic Church would think.

Racism at any parochial school out there would call its Mission Statement, reputation, and religious affiliation into question. Most Catholic, coeducational, college preparatory schools in Diocese of San Jose have nearly the same Mission Statements. “They embrace the Catholic educational mission of developing community, teaching the message of the Gospels, and promoting service, peace, and justice. Recognizing that each individual is created in the image and likeness of God, they celebrate and affirm their diverse cultural community and encourage students to respond to their world with competence, insight, understanding, courage, and compassion based on a tradition of faith and moral values.” I took some of these points from my own high school’s Mission Statement. Now how exactly would racism on campus compare with a Mission Statement like this? A high school, or at least the administration and faculty of the high school, lives up to the words of their Mission Statement each and every day no matter what. They want and need to set a good example for the faculty they hire. But, the students are another story. The students these days feel like they can make their lives easier by using slang and abbreviations here and there when they talk to their friends. When racism is involved, it is out of the question. Use as much slang and abbreviations as you want, but do not get racism involved. It is not a good idea. Karma will eventually catch with those people who choose to turn a deaf ear to this, I don’t need to worry about it any further than when I confront them about the issue the first or second time. In regards to reputation, schools constantly monitor it because they need to keep receiving tuition from their paying families. If reputation drops, the families will pull their kids out of the school and its all downhill from there. Reputation of a high school like mine is a really BIG deal. No joke. The administration would go very far to make sure that their school's reputation was not tarnished whether it be from actions of current students, at sporting events, etc...Comparing reputation to my issue of fighting racism on (high) school campuses, the first thing that parochial high school administrations worry about is what their religious affiliate is going to think. The Roman Catholic Church already doesn't have that great of a reputation according to some sources. Racism at a parochial school affiliate will not make it any better.

What happens when public schools and private (parochial) schools are compared with one another? The one thing I can use to clearly differentiate between them is how they would respond to racism on their campuses. Public high school campuses, having less of a strictly bound Mission Statement, have more of a leeway when it comes to dealing with racism, discrimination, and prejudice. No disrespect to the students that went to public high schools, because I had a lot of friends that went to them, but overall, the generalization that is made that the students that go there are free to establish themselves on a campus that is their playing ground, which is not always a good thing. Compared with private high schools, public high schools have only their reputation to worry about since they are not religiously affiliated. Private high schools take the time to make sure that their campuses are free and clear of racism, prejudice, and discrimination because it does not coincide with the values that agree with their religious affiliation.

In order to drive my point home after presenting some topics close to my own experience at my high school, I broadened my perspective on how bad racism could get using Elie Wiesel, MLK Jr., the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, and the Holocaust (1933-1945). I used these examples for the sole reason that they would somewhat “enlighten,” (scare, for the lack of a better word), my audience. Elie Wiesel is one of my greatest role models of all time. this man is a unique individual who faced certain death in the midst of severe racism, prejudice, and discrimination, and lived to tell the tale. Eliezer took a while to come out with his story, but he decided that it was best to tell the world what he knew. His words in the video (to the right) sent shivers down my spine. Listen to each and every word he says. I can only imagine what he went through. He was able to write a series of novels (Night, Dawn, and Day) in which he was able to tell his story about what he experienced during one of the most horrific periods in history. His message was small, but his voice was powerful. In the period now known as the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler enacted “The Final Solution,” which destroyed what used to be some semblance of a normal life for Jews (and other [religious] groups) living in Europe. Wiesel lived to tell the world what he really couldn't bear to remember. He just couldn't stay silent, to him it would be a sin to not tell the world what he saw. Martin Luther King Jr., the inspirational speaker of the 1960s, "had a dream." He had a dream that the one day the USA will live up to its creed in the Constitution that "all men are created equal." He had a dream that discrimination, racism, and prejudice between white individuals and colored individuals would come to a finite end. He started a movement in the Civil Rights Era that was unlike no other. He saw the flaws in the system and he knew that no one would do anything about it in fear of being killed. But, he put his own life at stake for the best interest of African Americans all around the country and those that travel to the USA from around the world. The atrocities that occurred in the 1960s to African Americans were equal if not worse than those in the Holocaust. Hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) were the Adolf Hitler's of the new decade, extinguishing the lives of any individual that was different from their common ideal of the perfect person. People like MLK Jr. fought for the common good of the people. The fact that Barack Obama was elected to the office of President of the United States on November 4, 2008 shows Americans how far we have come since the 1960s. The first African American President of the United States was a monumental milestone in the history of this country. This citizens of the USA have indeed learned something. Unfortunately, some citizens still turn a deaf ear to these types of things. That is why racism still exists out there in small quantities (high schools like mine) and is waiting for a spark to expand into something bigger. The 1972 Munich Summer Olympics startled the world yet again. Arab terrorists awoke the world to the painful reality that hate groups still existed and they had to to take the lives of the innocent Israeli Olympic Team to prove it. Germany was trying to improve its reputation lost during the Holocaust and the show that it would welcome Israel with arms. However, they structured their Olympic Games so loosely that terrorists fell through the cracks without any problems whatsoever. The Israeli Olympic team members were attacked and even killed in their hotel rooms. The terrorists announced that they were Palestinians and demanded that Israel release 200 Arab prisoners and that the terrorists be given safe passage out of Germany. This was obviously not going to happen. Germany had screwed up yet again. What outraged the world was that the games went on even after the remainder of the Israeli Olympic Team was killed at an airstrip where German police tried to free them from the hands of the hostages.

All in all, racism, discrimination, and prejudice, come in all different shapes and sizes, indicative in my experiences at my high school and (historical) examples relating to them that I presented as well. The only thing that individuals can really do take a stand against this “hate” is to speak out and take action. It will take a while, but I believe, much like Martin Luther King Jr. did, that it will all vanish. This world has the potential to do great things and racist and discriminatory behavior should not impede it in that process. There have been several events that have happened over the course of history that have opened our eyes to something that we never really though was possible (genocide of Jews in Europe to atrocities done to African Americans in the 1960s), yet it still shows up in our history books. There is no avoiding our past, but we can prevent atrocities like this in the future. We have seen and learned enough to know what is right and wrong. There is no reason to hate another person because of what religion they follow or what ethnicity they come from. “Hate” is pointless. It might still occur here and there, but if enough concern arises to stop it then it will be struck down. “Racism, pollution and the rest of it are themselves very close to extinction” (R. Buckminster Fuller).

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-this essay was put in proper MLA format when typed but when I copied and pasted it here the indents and double-spacing and such went away.