Jester831

Updates coming... any peer editing is much obliged!


Since the days of our forefathers, we have been a country formed by the flourish of immigrants banding together for the sake of freedom, justice and foremost equality. As Americans, equality is one of the most dearly held values that we have centered our lives around. Generation after generation, each of us are put through many tribulations in the fight for our ideals. Today, more than 200 years after declaring our independence from tyranny and oppression, we are still fighting for these idyllic causes. In search of equality, it has become an oversimplified matter seen as merely black and white rather than as the complexities it truly beholds. In the days of slavery, despite its wretched nature, the slave owners had a twisted view that they were entitled, just as everyone else, to own property - only in this context, that property was human. To their abstract eyes, this was equality. Nearly 140 years ago, Frederick Douglass spoke out on behalf of the abolitionist cause, "In regard to the colored people, there is always more that is benevolent, I perceive, than just, manifested towards us. What I ask for the Negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice. The American people have always been anxious to know what they shall do with us? . I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! ? And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is give him a chance to stand on his own legs!" Equality in itself is not a straight forward word, it encapsulates many ideals but also rejects - it is not a matter of receiving the same dividends as another or having preferential treatment to redress ones downfalls, it is being given the opportunity to define yourself, your future, what you are, what you will be all unbound by the tethers of oppression, tyranny and dependency – equality is owning your choices just as everyone deserves. While many have advocated with fair intention in the name of Affirmative Action, in the name of equality, they too have cast abstract eyes on a complex issue.

In the mid 1800's there was a man who envisioned a utopia where everyone stood on the same grounds and was perfectly equal in every manor. Each citizen would work the same hours, eat the same, have the same pay and live the same life. There would never be any contempt or hatred over inequality. This idyllic world is Communism - a perfect world planned to the pin on paper. There was however one fatal flaw - as this perfect world was devised, the creators forgot to take into account one aspect: human nature. By equalizing every aspect of each person's life, the populous lost all motivation to excel and flourish. What is, after all, the point of engaging ones self when the fruit of your labor isn't really yours? Rather, it is simpler to cozy along and live in apathy. While we may not live in a communistic regime, we do live in a world governed by human nature. And as our country is governed by human nature, if you tarnish individualism, people will fall into an apathetic free fall just the same. While some might consider this a leap in logic, it becomes quite shockingly clear when you reflect upon it some. From an evolutionary standpoint, it is in a group’s interest to either be a leader, or individual, who seeks out new ideas and plans, or to be a follower and mold to the path the group is taking. As a follower though, there might be hundreds of genius ideas your brain conjures however they are all hindered subconsciously in favor of maintaining social order.

While it may seem ever so virtuous to protect and shelter every child, or every minority, in actuality it hurts them immensely. If a child starts to skateboard and decides to take on a few jumps, you have to let them do it for themselves. Sure they might fall off and scrap up their knees a couple times, but for the most part that will heal in due time, however to shelter them and try to save them from the inevitable is to tarnish their individualism and hinder their development. Whenever I look back on all the unfortunate events of my past, I can't help but feel glad they happened; the pain and hardship were ever so real, but so was the strength and courage born of it - a sort of resolve to become better. To shelter someone is to selfishly feed your own ego and resolve rather than giving them the opportunity to flourish by their own means, the true definition of equality.


Since the days of slavery, society as a whole has been subjected to a looming guilt that reaches far past its due time. For many decades, programs have been installed to redress the shortcomings believed to have rooted from discrimination. The error in these programs is that they propagate these shortcomings by creating a tidy buffer for one to apathetically live in. Rather than developing the proper skills and initiative required, individuals are guided along at the cost of their own development, defeating the goal of making a self-sufficient individual. Ultimately, the most beneficial, albeit frustrating, method of helping a person is to point them in the right direction and simply to leave the journey up to their own design.

What separates African Americans from other minorities is the fact that they have received the most preferential treatment due to ‘reverse-racism’. I have a friend who works down at Denny’s as a late night security guard. It is his job to keep the peace and deal with disorderly conduct. If someone swears loudly, he warns that person and if they continue to swear he has to boot that person. However, whenever he is forced to boot an African American, he is often called a racist despite his gracious leniency. Many people, out of fear of being labeled a racist, will just let intolerable behavior slide. It is in this that, out of guilt, fear of labels, and pacifism, society has built a shelter around African Americans and other minorities that hinders their development as a whole.

When it comes to evaluating just how bad discrimination has affected minorities’ education, one cannot help but notice the distinctive outliers. While some have dismissed them because of their great success, the fact remains that Asians as a whole have been through all the same ropes as every other minority. After the bombing of Pear Harbor, most of the country cast hateful eyes on Asian Americans. Many were sent to imprisonment camps and lost all their belongings and those who weren’t imprisoned were burdened with discrimination from every corner of their lives. Many lost all of their possessions and were left penniless after release. Despite this, they have managed to recuperate by their own design and have shaped themselves into a strong, disciplined culture – they were forced to harden their resolve. The difference between Asians and African Americans is that after their great calamities, Asians were left to their own to redefine themselves rather than being pushed along.