One privilege that I think should be eliminated is the accusations made towards non-white people. Because I'm white, I have the privilege of not being as suspected as a non-white person. If it was me against a black or Hispanic man/woman, most likely the majority would assume or question him/her first. If something is stolen or damaged, or a person is shot or beaten, 9 times out of 10 a non-white person will become the suspect. People in today's society automatically assume that a person of color or different race did these bad deeds. This is so wrong. Everyone is "innocent until proven guilty", so why should a person of a non-white race be accused or questioned more than a white person? I'm not talking about the incidents where they have sufficient evidence towards a person, but rather situations in which people start to assume and point fingers when they have no clue what happened or who did it. A person's color shouldn't be a factor in this. Maybe if people learned to stop assuming, stereotypes would diminish and racism could start to cease. Some people may not even be aware that they do this. Learning to be more aware can really help you in the future.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Universalizing and Eliminating Unearned Privileges
Certain privileges in our world today are unearned and should be either universalized or eliminated completely. As a straight person, I have the privilege to marry who ever I want in any state I would like. I feel that this privilege should be universalized and extended to all people. I believe that if you truly love someone, you should be able to marry them regardless of sex or gender. Some states have already legalized gay marriage. I feel that the federal government should step in and make the executive decision to legalize it in all states. Since straight people don't have to give up their rights, there should be no harm in this. Eight states have already done it. The world would be different because gay couples could start to earn the same financial benefits that straight couples have in the comfort of their own state. They wouldn't have to move states just to get married.
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First, to start off, I really enjoyed reading your post. I liked the first part when you mention that you have straight privilege. I had never thought of that, even though I think that gays should have the equal rights that we do, I just never put myself as being the more privileged to get to marry who I want and when I want. This really made me think. I agree with you that if eight states have already legalized gay marriage, then what is wrong with legalizing it everywhere? For the second part, I wrote something similar about white privilege. I am aware that it exists but I do not see it as often because of where I live. I live in a small town and everyone, whether they are of any different race than white they are treated just as equally as white people. I have come to realize as getting older,sensitivity that takes a pool on people, and how pointing fingers and accusing them of something they had nothing to do with it can really hurt their feelings. The way I think about it is, how would I feel if somone accused me of doing something that I did not do?
ReplyDeleteYour blog post was really good! I agree with you 100% about how anyone should be able to marry anyone they want. Some people are really against this idea and the bible says this bla bla bla. I just feel like whatever makes you happy you should be able to do it. As far as the south goes I feel like we have a lot of traditional people, who aren't open to anything new.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with this whole blog post! I also wrote about making marriage a universal privilege. I completely agree that being able to marry who you truly love should be a basic human right, not a privilege that just straight people have.
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