That Ain’t Right!
Have you ever walked down the street of a neighborhood that isn’t yours and had someone from a different ethnicity stare at you like if you just came out of a cow’s ass? Stare at you with disgust? Or simply have someone follow you around as soon as you walk inside a retail store because of all the stereotypes being thrown around the media? WELL I HAVE. Privileged and honored to be Mexican-American, there are some really uneducated people out there who seem to have so much anger towards women of color or just anyone who are not a part of their ethnicity. Since the very beginning of mankind, racial and gender discrimination have been very much alive. “Blacks did one set of jobs and whites did another,” says Kimberle Crenshaw, author of Why Intersectionality Can’t Wait.
Crenshaw reports that in 1976, Emma DeGraffenreid and a few other black women got together and sued a company called General Motors due to discrimination. Together they argued that the company was segregated its workforce by gender and race. Whites did one thing and Blacks did another, completely separated. Black women had no luck when it came to finding a job. They were allowed to apply but had no chance of getting the job. They were looked down upon rather than seen as an equal human being. “While a black applicant might get hired to work on the floor of the factory if he were male; if she were a black female she would not be considered. Similarly, a woman might be hired as a secretary if she were white, but wouldn’t have a chance at that job if she were black,” says Crenshaw. SAY WHAT?! Sadly, the black jobs were men jobs and the women jobs were for white women. AGAIN…SAY WHAT?! The black men’s job and white women’s job were considered “inappropriate” for black women. THIS MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL!
Having that said, for DeGraffenreid and other millions of black women who got together had their claims dismissed by the court, the reason being is because the court believed that black women shouldn’t be allowed to combine their gender and race claims into one. AGAIN THIS IS COMPLETE B.S.! No one on this Earth should have to go through something like this because of their race or gender. Our sex and race is something we completely have no control over. If God wanted me to be a woman then so be it, I embrace it like many other women and shouldn’t have to suffer because other people think women of color shouldn’t be in the workforce.
Stereotypes of all kinds have been roaming the media for years about discrimination or belittling women of all kinds. For example, the famous show Family Guy is known for its comedy but also for its racist jokes that are produced.
Anyone that is not a white man or white woman is looked down upon as if it is natural like if it’s the new norm.
The famous Oprah Winfrey, a talk show host, actress, producer, and Philanthropist remembers and shares when she was discriminated against. She had a racist moment in Zurich Switzerland after service being refused by a swiss shop. She was shopping that day and asked the employee who works there if she can see the black bag that was over her head in the top counter and the employee refused. The employee told Winfrey “No, it is too expensive. You don’t want to see that one, you want to see this one (shows Winfrey a different bag). That one costs too much money you won’t be able to afford it.” Winfrey then responds “no I really did want to see that one” and Winfrey argues that the employee refused to get it so Winfrey just walked out of the store.
When will discrimination ever stop? Will it ever have a stop to it? Can we all just get along like equal human beings that we truly are? Why are people of color always the target? Lord I pray one day we can have peace on this Earth.
