Discrimination You see it everyday, people treating each other as though we are not all equals. As though we are not all human. Discrimination! Whether it is on the street or on the job, you see it everywhere. There is discrimination against the mentally and physically challenged, against people of different cultures, and people of the opposite sex, just to name a few. A co-worker of mine shared a story with me about when she was in 3rd grade, in Kansas City, Kansas. She remembers being on the playground with the rest of the kids and seeing the special ed kids come out to play. But you could tell them apart from the rest of the kids because they were made to wear red vests any time they were outdoors. She believed this was so the teachers could tell them apart from the rest of the kids. But she also remembers when the other students saw these red vests they all chanted, Special Ed in the red. All of the kids would stay on the opposite side of the playground as the Special Ed kids. Many people don t realize the affect that this type of treatment may have on a person. Now some of these Special Ed students may not realize what is going on, but many of them do. To think that this kind of treatment was allowed. Another thing mentioned was that when a student was in trouble for wrong doing, that student was sent to the Special Ed Room for the day as their punishment. So they believed it was a punishment to have to be in Special Ed. All types of discrimination are wrong, but to discriminate against those who for the most part cannot defend themselves is worse. Another type of discrimination is discrimination against people of different cultural backgrounds. The team leader at my job is a black woman. She lives in my hometown, Knoxville. She moved to Knoxville in about 6th grade with her mom, dad, and a younger brother and sister. When she moved to small town Knoxville, there were no blacks, at least no young ones. So the school system was completely white students. Coming from a very culturally mixed school, this was a culture shock to her. Her first day of school was a new experience for her. She had some girls trying to be her friend. But she had her first encounter with racism. She was catching a lot of racial slurs. By mid afternoon she had had enough of this school. She decided she was never coming back. She was walking down the hall, and she saw her younger sister being picked on. Her sister had her hair in little braids, and the boy who was picking on her grabbed her by her braids and told her she was just a Niger, and she didn t belong there. Well the two sisters ended up in the office, but the white boy got to return to class. The girls mom was called and brought in. As soon as the mother confronted the principal, she was told that their family was in fact Niger s and they might as well get used to it. You think they had enough, but they stayed there. Shortly after all this, the younger of the sisters was riding her bike around the block that she lived on. On the other side of the block from them, a man saw the little girl riding and pulled a gun on her and started calling her obscene names telling her to get back home. The girl, scared to death, went home and told her parents about the incident, and the police were called. The only thing the police said to the man with the gun was that he shouldn t be doing that to little kids, sort of a slap on the hand. I believe that someday everyone will realize that all people are equal, regardless of race, color, or background. Until then people who have never done a terrible thing to others in their whole life will get discriminated against, just because they are not exactly the same as another human.

Another example of discrimination is sexual discrimination. In the workplace and in sports are two popular places you see this. Many women get discriminated against. They get told they are not big enough for the job, or it is a job for men. Also for sports, women get told that it is a sport for men, like football and wrestling to name a few. Woman will get injured in a man s sport. I remember when I was in 7th grade; I wanted to try out for wrestling. I thought, if men can do it then why can t women. I had seen girls from other schools wrestling, and I thought it was a good idea. I no more than asked the coach when I got denied. He said that wrestling wasn t a place for girls, which is what I expected to hear. I argued for a few weeks, but at that age I didn t want to make a big fuss about it, so I dropped it. Today I notice many women in wrestling. So it looks like the world is starting to slowly accept women in men s sports. On the flip side men may get discriminated against also. A man may try to get a job in a female dominated environment. He may get denied the job because of other reasons but really because he is male. I personally don t think there are as many examples for sexual discrimination against men as there is for women. But all in all both men and women do get discriminated against for their sex. God created all men and woman equal, it is just taking us a long time to realize it. Someday all people will realize this, and when they do, this world will be a better place to live. Discrimination will never go away completely but if more people in this world would look at each other as human and equals, it would make living for many a lot easier and happier.