[Critique Group 1] Leonard's comments on Cleora piece for July

[tuchyner5 at aol.com]

1118 words

Prejudice andbigotry 

by C. S. Boyd

 

It happened whenI 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 wasassigned Percy Byssh Shellyey--one of the major English romantic poets widelyregarded as one of the greatest lyric and philosophic poets in the Englishlanguage.

 

I am (or was)something of a pencil artist. For me, this was a matter of sitting down anddoing it. The picture I drew looked exactly like a 14 x 16 version of thepicture in our text books. On parents day, I watched parents fond over thepictures done by the children of the prominent families in our community. Theirpictures were nothing more than a circle for the face with bushy eyebrows overcircles for eyes, something to represent a nose and a line for a mouth. Mypicture and that of my best friend whose picture, while a little out ofproportion, but still resembling the subject she had been assigned, got norecognition 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. Oneother student that heard pointed out to him that it wasn't a girl. Percy was aman. This shut him up, but still, I stared at the cluster of adults gatheredaround the nonidentifiable posters praising the work of thes!

e children fromwell to do families.

 

We hear muchtoday about racial prejudice and bigotry directed toward people of color. Wehear the term  "white privilege" a lot. Perhaps a more accurateterm would be "ecano privilege." My father (a tall, hardworking whiteman with a third grade education) worked from six in the morning until six atnight for a dollar a day to provide for his family. He was a pumper for a majoroil company. Obviously, since the parents of me and my friend were not adoctor, lawyer, or highly paid college graduate, There was no way that theproduct of such a low class member of society could do anything well. We musthave cheated some way. Whatever we were up to must be no good. The upper middleand wealthy class are clearly the only ones capable of doing anythingworthwhile. Whatever the children of the privileged class do is ok. Thisincludes luting, vandalizing, and destruction of other people's property, aswell as the defacing and destruction of public property. These children of theup! XXXXXXXX

per class can dono 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 privatesecurity feel the same way if the lawless mob was marching down their streetthreatening life and property? 

I didn’t know it was upper class people who weremost prominent in those marches, or demonstrations.

This morning Iheard a news bite about an organization that has denounced their founder afterlearning he was racist. Was he racist because he hated other races or becausethat was the general belief of his day? Would he be racist today? We have noway of knowing, but based on the type of organization he created, I would guessthat the answer would be no. If we are going to denounce the accomplishments ofevery one that doesn't share our modern enlightenment, there will be no onethat can stand. We must remove all honors for everyone. Turn our backs on everyadvancement in health, business and technology since, if we look closely, wewill 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 manwho ever walked this planet of ours, and he taught us to love everyone, andtreat others as we ourselves would want to be treated. Oops. Is that a flaw? Heis prescribing tolerance and accep!XXXXXXXXXXX

tance of others,and those today that rail against those that have a different look, belief, orway of doing things to theirs are shouted down and labeled as bigots. Theyrefuse to hear or let anyone else hear what those who have a different viewhave to say. Sounds like a form of prejudice to me. Alas, none can stand. Weare all guilty. 

Everyone isflawed, bjut some are more flawed thanothers. 

What do these statues  stand for today. 

I wouldn’twant to  takedown the statue of Wshington orJefferson because on balance they  werepretty good. But I would want to balance it with a complete story of who theywere.

 

There is agrowing movement in this country that would have us believe that the upperclass should take charge and manage all the wealth. This group feels people ofmodest means are incapable of managing their own affairs or doing any betterthan their hard working parents. Our country was founded on the concept thatall people are created equal and that everyone has the right to life, liberty,and the pursuit of happiness. Whatever they perceive happiness to be. Sometoday perceive happiness as being paid to do little or nothing. these peoplehear 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 andproperty of others. This is not what our founding fathers had in mind. As Iused to hear when I was growing up, my right to swing my arm ends where yournose begins. there are those that would remove this restriction so they canlute, vandalize, and

destroy propertywith impunity.

I am conflused about the message.  

Are you calling all rich people bigots, 

or are you talking about attitudes that definepredjudice?  

Are you saying people should be judged by the waytheir values stand up today as opposed to when they were livingh, or had livedin another centry?

 

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

 

I am in thelatter group. Despite my humble beginnings, I am the first in my family to havea college degree and to rise to a middle class  income. I took advantageof opportunities provided that have been available to all if they only know (knew) about them and choose touse them to raise their station in life. It is my feeling that this is a betterway than the other. 

Do you think that at time you were getting youreducation  your reality of what wasavailable to you was the same as it was for someone else.

 

Another brand ofPrejudice is to not bother to make these people deemed as useless aware of theopportunities that have been made available. Often these lower class members ofsociety have been brainwashed into believing they cannot succeed for a varietyof reasons and pass this lie on to their children. I had to wait until Istarted losing my vision and came in contact with some people who do believethe equality for all before I was able to achieve my success.

That’s the point I was trying to make.

 
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