Blog
205 30 October 2019
Discrimination
and Mind Sets
A
human flaw, discrimination ranges from mild to deadly with millions
humiliated, denied equality, persecuted, expelled, or murdered. We
are one species with billions of co-operative members who are
harassed by far too many groups of discriminators against
parent-child, rich-poor, young-old, male-female, religious-agnostic,
natives-immigrants, whites-non whites, bi-polar politics,
straight-LGBT+, and numerous other categories.
We
live in a confusing era of rapidly-changing, lingering, shallow, and
deeply-rooted mind sets. Today, I am surprised and repelled by
prejudices I thought we had outgrown.
Personal
Background: Growing up in 5 towns and cities in Ontario, Canada,
and attending co-educational schools that were Catholic, Protestant,
and Agnostic oriented with both boys and girls sharing the top
grades. My friends and associates were mixed with, in order of
numbers, Irish, Scots, English, French, Italian, Jewish, Aboriginal,
Negro, and German. There were likable Americans in there among all us
Canucks but we disliked United Statesians hogging the term that
actually belonged to all of us from Arctic Ellesmere Island to
Antarctic Terra Del Fuego. Negro was, and still is to me, an innocent
generic term. Talents, from brilliance to idleness, were evenly
distributed.
Like
most students in the early grades, I had to live with school bullies.
One day my very Irish mother turned the hose on a bully chasing me
home. Another older boy, when he found my younger brother and I
playing alone in an empty field would attack us, sending both of us
home crying. One day while in a large group of students walking a
city street to school, he attacked us. I had never used force before
but I plunged my fist into his jaw, expecting a hurtful retaliation.
What a surprise when he simply walked away, never to bother us again.
I learned that, sometimes, justified force was necessary. I was quite
athletic but avoided contact sports in fear of bruising others, so I
used my talents in track and field contests and basketball. I did
like hockey but only when no body contact was allowed.
The
groups I associated with saw only humor in such events as the annual
12 July Orange Protestant parade with the local Catholic parish
priest tolling the funeral bell as it passed his church. The Orange
Lodge still commemorated the 1690 victory of the Protestant Dutch
William of Orange over the Catholic James II for the British throne
at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. We left such differences for
parents and grandparents who still thought them important. My sister
would boast that the 12 July parades were to celebrate her birthday.
There
was never any friction among my associates because of the various
religions to which they adhered. We knew Blacks as descendants of
escapees from slavery in the USA and as very pleasant porters on
Canadian trains. So it puzzles me today when Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau is forced to apologize and confess to alleged huge errors in
judgment made during his school years simply for coloring his face
just to play innocent racial roles. It is healthy, educational, and
entertaining for us humans to make fun of each other in such a way as
to inflict no harm. My numerous associates disagree with each other
but never in harmful ways. A quick look at harmful discrimination:
Racial:
Now in the USA I am troubled by the necessity for such as this
essay:
Prejudice
by Kayla Dickey. Colorado Springs;
“To
the lady who held her purse a little tighter when my husband walked
down the grocery aisle: What you did not know is he would be the
first to help you pick up a pack of heavy water or grab an item from
the top shelf for you. To the guy who got tense when my my husband
was walking behind him in the store parking lot and kept looking
back. What you failed to realize is he was parked next to you with
his family in the car. Yes, that car that seems too nice for him to
drive. To the cashier who assumed he would be paying with food
stamps. Little did you know that he has a good job and works long
days to support his family. At one point he had two jobs. That means
two different shifts a day. To the guy who followed him around the
store, down every aisle. He was just looking for band-aids for his
daughter,
To
the lady who did not grab her purse a little tighter when I walked
down the grocery aisle. Did I
not
come off as intimidating to you? To the guy who did not even care
that I was walking behind him in the parking lot. Why did you not get
tense? Am I not threatening enough? To the cashier who did not think
I would be paying with food stamps. Is it because I am wearing
scrubs? To the guy that did not follow me around the store: Why did
you not assume I would be shoplifting? Because I am white!
I
will never know what it feels like to be racially discriminated
against. I only know how I feel when it happens to my husband. It is
heart breaking and sickening. For anyone who says this is not true is
in denial or has not seen it happen first hand.” . . . . .
It
hurts me when I find from Blacks they still suffer resentment from
old and new discrimination.
Discrimination
remains part of the flawed US penal system. With 5% of world
population, the United States has 25% of world’s prisoners: 2.3
million of which 19% are held in privately-owned-and-
operated-for-profit jails. Incarceration rates are: Whites 1 in 17,
Latino I in 6, Black 1 in 3 = more in prison today than were slaves
in 1850. Discrimination, while declining, still infects associations,
education, housing, employment, and remuneration. Consider a few
areas:
Parenthood
is a vital responsibility
criminally neglected. Qualifications need to be taught and permits
need to be established and enforced. Some schools have courses on the
subject but much more is essential. Today enormous harm is being done
to children born to girls with multiple ignorant and disinterested
partners. We all require love and many girls offer sex hoping to
get it only to find the father flees child responsibility. It
has been a shock to me to find how widespread this harm is. Let me
describe just one example. A caring nurse friend of mine learned of a
couple who had 7 highly-neglected children. The parents constantly
fought each other with blows and foul language. They used their money
more on booze than food and child care, The father is now in jail for
family abuse and the children farmed out to foster homes. My friend,
in spite of many problems of her own, has accepted custody of the
9-year old diabetic daughter who is a talented, likable, caring,
helpful, well behaved person desperately needing love and attention
but so full of resentful 9-year anger that she erupts, usually
monthly, screaming loudly, cursing and attacking her new benefactors,
throwing things necessitating taking her to hospital hoping to find
curing medications. These episodes can last 3 days after which she
apologizes but only partially remembers them.
Domestic
Violence: An unacceptable
global crime, it is highest among low-income and indigenous groups. In the USA awareness usually starts in the 7th
grade at ages of
11-13.
From
10 to 20% of children witness abuse of a parent or caregiver. Both
sexes are attacked, including same-sex marriages but women suffer the
most serious wounds and deaths. Australia reports that an average of
one wife a week is killed by her husband. In 2017 in the USA over
1,500 women were killed by their partners. The
percentage of women who were ever physically assaulted by an intimate
partner varies among and within countries, and is rated by one study
as: South Africa 80, Nigeria 75, India 70, Turkey 42, New Zealand 35,
Egypt 34, Canada 39, USA 33, Switzerland
21,
Philippines 15. In 2016 in Diepsloot, South Africa, 56% of the men
surveyed admitted to raping or beating a women in the past year. The
rate of domestic violence on indigenous
women
in Australia may be 40 times the rate for non-Indigenous women. In
Alaska it varies from 10 to 80. In Canada it is 7 times. Much of this
is due to European colonists changing strong matriarchal tribes into
patriarchal. Thousands of women have also been beaten during
pregnancy.
Women:
After
a long history of discrimination and abuse, women today are taking
over the world with high talent in many fields previously denied them
except in wartime when their abilities were needed to replace the men
being slaughtered in wars. During WWII, I watched women piloting
aircraft from factories to squadrons in the UK. As a POW I mingled
with Mongolian female soldiers captured in battle. Yet, women still
complain that male employers hire women for their looks rather than
their ability.
Blessed
with a devoted mother and five wonderful, talented daughters, I have
devoted efforts to promote female activities. It was so gratifying to
rush home from school to tell a waiting mother all the happenings in
my school day. When I achieved positions of authority I ensured that
girls had equal access
with
boys to team leagues, other sport and entertainment facilities, and
employment slots.
Numerous
employers were hesitant in hiring women as their retention could be
temporary, giving way to Always burdened with the highly
important and all-embracing chores of motherhood, employers were
hesitant in hiring women. Charlotte Elizabeth Whitton, 1896-1975, and
first female mayor of a major Canadian city
(Ottawa
1951-56 and 1960-64) put it so well “To
succeed in business a woman must be many times as capable as a man.
Fortunately that is easy.”
Back
in 1938 I was offered permanent employment in a bank, paying $400 a
year, increased to $500 when they immediately transferred me to
another branch 70 miles away where I would have to pay $7 a week for
room and board, leaving me with $136 the first year to squander on
girls, clothing, and entertainment, yet I enjoyed life. Remuneration
increased at $100 annually with another $100 for passing a university
course in accounting. I worked in or with 10 branches in 3 cities,
all with only one female – the denied-promotions secretary who
usually was the most informed person on the staff of 6 men. Several
became pregnant, so had to leave as motherhood was a full time, more
important job, so the prevailing mind set was that women would
be far more tuned to home rather than world affairs and could not be
efficient in such jobs as reporters, world news analysts, or
editors. Today my top in-depth, honest reporters are female, but do
share the role with several men. Women invented agriculture and for
25,000 years before the Christian era we were ruled by female Sun
Goddesses, the majority quite good yet with two societies that used
us men as studs continually replacing us for younger studs.
Several
highly-talented women tell me they prefer working for men to avoid
female cattiness.
Educational
Discrimination: During
my RCAF career that demanded frequent moves it seemed that every
educational system was superior to and disdainful of all others. Many
times I had to fight officials to avoid losing credits or having my
daughters put back a grade. I succeeded and each time my daughters
ended up leading their classes in the new schools. One example: When
I was transferred from 426 Squadron near Montreal (among other chores
it completed 600 Korean War Airlift flights minus a fatality) to
NORAD HQ in Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado denied my
oldest daughter’s application to transfer from McGill in Montreal
as her grades were only 75%. I drove to Boulder but failed to
convince the registrar that grade inflation had not infected McGill
University so 75% was a high grade. I had to enlist my wartime buddy,
the registrar at McGill, whose strong reaction got her accepted where
she ended up leading her classes.
Similar
set-backs still plague professionals moving from one state, province,
or country to another. And then there are dangerous flaws among
cheaply-recruited and inadequately-trained employees in the
rapidly-expanding companies that provide services such as health
care. Profits can prevail over care.
Ethnic
Cleansing continues
its long, bloody, cruel, and widespread criminal history. It has
brought immense sufferings and death to millions, leaving strong
retribution desires. Wikipedia’s
descriptions of 125 worldwide incidents screams that humans have not
earned survival. Where to start? The 3-year battle that saw Rome
completely destroy Carthage, selling the 50,000 survivors into
slavery 2,265 ya? The extermination 1,169 ya of the 200,000 Wu Hu by
the Chinese? The numerous expulsions and executions of Jews initiated
by Edward I in England in 1290 AD and spread to France, Spain, and
German states to the Israeli expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians in
1948 and still continuing? The Turkish massacres of Greeks and
Armenians? WWI when Germany planned to remove 3 million Poles and
Jews, replacing them with German settlers? The forced repatriation of
up to 2 million Mexican-Americans during the Great Depression
1929-1936?, The extermination of 8 million Ukrainians by Joseph
Stalin’s deliberate famine, 1932-33?,
The 100,000 whites who fled the Congo after Belgium granted
independence in 1960?
We
even have a case of ritual beheading including children.One
shameful example is the current forceful expulsion by Turks of Kurds
who were of vital help in the US fight to destroy Daesh in Syria.
Some 250,000 Kurds hope to flee to Iraq from Syria where the US still
protects the oil but has abandoned its effective allies. The 28
million Kurds are dispersed, 12 million in Turkey, 6 million in each
of Iraq and Iran, and 1.8 million in Syria.
Today,
we have numerous aspirants for top political office. We must
select and support those most capable of promoting encouraging
rhetoric into actions that will ensure a safer, kinder, more
equitable planet.
Ye
Olde Scribe
georgesweanor@comcast.net
