COLUMN: We are all equal, so get over it
For more than 200 years, the question of equal rights between blacks and whites, males and females has been in debate. However, now in the year 2013, all people who are U.S. citizens have the right to vote, own property and many other rights which were only held by the few in 1813.
And yet people of different colors and sexes are still griping about how they do not share the same rights as others.
Groups of people are traveling all over the United States to talk about the difficulties that certain genders or racial groups are having to get jobs and be treated the same as the rest. USU has recently hosted the “Guerilla Girls,” a feminist movement in which two woman wearing gorilla masks talk about females in art and media. I understand it was a stirring evening and rather informative to the student body – I wouldn’t know, because I wasn’t there. Groups like this should continue to talk to the individual, but for society as a whole it is largely unneeded.
With the 15th and 19th Amendments, as well as the legislation from the late 1900s, all people have equals rights in the country. Nowadays, we do not have segregated schools based on race. We don’t have separate drinking fountains or certain sections of the bus for people to ride on. Employers cannot discriminate against a person based on race, sex or religion.
This is a wonderful success and a dramatic difference than what was the policy 50 years ago.
It used to be that only men attended universities and were able to become professors. Now everyone is welcome to go to college, the majority of whom are women. Blacks, whites, Asians, Native Americans and others can all go to the same university and get a good education. As I walk around campus, I see every day how far our society as a whole has become more tolerant of each other and other ways of life and no longer discriminates based on appearance or sex.
I once was talking to an employer of mine in Oregon who was in the process of hiring a new employee. The employer made his selection and hired a Caucasian gal to work there. The following day, an African-American individual who was not selected came in yelling about how the employer discriminated against him because of his race. The employer said he didn’t hire the gentleman because of his race, but rather because he was stupid. The employer even pointed to an African-American employee and said she was hired because she was smart and could do the work.
The Junction on campus is a perfect example how people of all races and sexes work together and get the job done well. Working in this place is based on a person’s ability rather than their race or sex. There are many places like this all over the country.
Still, with all this progress, I still hear people saying woman, African-Americans or Asians need to be “empowered.” If you look at the last hundred years of progress, empowering is not necessary anymore. We are at the point in our history that we just need to educate the individual and maintain what we have and improve upon it.
Being stuck in the 1960s is not a healthy way of living and progressing further. We have gone so far beyond this; it is time to realize this and move on.
– Taylor Underwood is a sophomore double majoring in cultural anthropology and western history. He is currently publishing a study on the board game subculture at USU. Send any comments to tunderwoodUW21@gmail.com.