[Critique Group 1] Cleora's July Submission

[sitting.duck at springmail.com]

1118 words
Prejudice and bigotry 
by C. S. Boyd

It happened when I was in the fifth or sixth grade. My class was getting ready for parent's day. Each of us was assigned a person to draw a picture of for display. I was assigned Percy Byssh Shellyey--one of the major English romantic poets widely regarded as one of the greatest lyric and philosophic poets in the English language.

I am (or was) something of a pencil artist. For me, this was a matter of sitting down and doing it. The picture I drew looked exactly like a 14 x 16 version of the picture in our text books. On parents day, I watched parents fond over the pictures done by the children of the prominent families in our community. Their pictures were nothing more than a circle for the face with bushy eyebrows over circles for eyes, something to represent a nose and a line for a mouth. My picture and that of my best friend whose picture, while a little out of proportion, but still resembling the subject she had been assigned, got no recognition at all. No one, not even one parent came to see what we had done. One kid made fun of my picture saying it didn't even look like a girl. One other student that heard pointed out to him that it wasn't a girl. Percy was a man. This shut him up, but still, I stared at the cluster of adults gathered around the nonidentifiable posters praising the work of these children from well to do families.

We hear much today about racial prejudice and bigotry directed toward people of color. We hear the term  "white privilege" a lot. Perhaps a more accurate term would be "ecano privilege." My father (a tall, hardworking white man with a third grade education) worked from six in the morning until six at night for a dollar a day to provide for his family. He was a pumper for a major oil company. Obviously, since the parents of me and my friend were not a doctor, lawyer, or highly paid college graduate, There was no way that the product of such a low class member of society could do anything well. We must have cheated some way. Whatever we were up to must be no good. The upper middle and wealthy class are clearly the only ones capable of doing anything worthwhile. Whatever the children of the privileged class do is ok. This includes luting, vandalizing, and destruction of other people's property, as well as the defacing and destruction of public property. These children of the upper class can do no wrong, or if they do wrong, it is to be forgiven and no penalty prescribed. Would those public servants living in their ivory towers protected by private security feel the same way if the lawless mob was marching down their street threatening life and property? 

This morning I heard a news bite about an organization that has denounced their founder after learning he was racist. Was he racist because he hated other races or because that was the general belief of his day? Would he be racist today? We have no way of knowing, but based on the type of organization he created, I would guess that the answer would be no. If we are going to denounce the accomplishments of every one that doesn't share our modern enlightenment, there will be no one that can stand. We must remove all honors for everyone. Turn our backs on every advancement in health, business and technology since, if we look closely, we will find that every one of these icons of the past had some unacceptable flaw. The only one that can stand is Jesus the Christ. He was the only perfect man who ever walked this planet of ours, and he taught us to love everyone, and treat others as we ourselves would want to be treated. Oops. Is that a flaw? He is prescribing tolerance and acceptance of others, and those today that rail against those that have a different look, belief, or way of doing things to theirs are shouted down and labeled as bigots. They refuse to hear or let anyone else hear what those who have a different view have to say. Sounds like a form of prejudice to me. Alas, none can stand. We are all guilty. 

There is a growing movement in this country that would have us believe that the upper class should take charge and manage all the wealth. This group feels people of modest means are incapable of managing their own affairs or doing any better than their hard working parents. Our country was founded on the concept that all people are created equal and that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Whatever they perceive happiness to be. Some today perceive happiness as being paid to do little or nothing. these people hear the siren song that says give us the power and we will take care of you. Some think happiness is taking whatever they want, and destroying the work and property of others. This is not what our founding fathers had in mind. As I used to hear when I was growing up, my right to swing my arm ends where your nose begins. there are those that would remove this restriction so they can lute, vandalize, and destroy property with impunity.

Others would rather have the freedom to try to achieve better and even if fail, have the chance to try again rather than settle for what the controlling class would be willing to mete out. They invite the rule of law to remain for the sake and safety of all.

I am in the latter group. Despite my humble beginnings, I am the first in my family to have a college degree and to rise to a middle class  income. I took advantage of opportunities provided that have been available to all if they only know about them and choose to use them to raise their station in life. It is my feeling that this is a better way than the other. Another brand of Prejudice is to not bother to make these people deemed as useless aware of the opportunities that have been made available. Often these lower class members of society have been brainwashed into believing they cannot succeed for a variety of reasons and pass this lie on to their children. I had to wait until I started losing my vision and came in contact with some people who do believe the equality for all before I was able to achieve my success.