Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Reverse Discrimination???

Just like many of you, I have been following the saga that the New Haven fire fighters have been going through recently. It seems that the fire fighters who had the highest test scores were not given their due promotions because of the simple fact that they were white and hispanic. Wow. I looked and looked but to the best of my knowledge Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and others were nowhere to be found raising cain on this blatant reverse discrimination. This brings me to my point....just what is "Reverse Discrimination"? Websters Dictionary defines discrimination as: 1 a: the act of discriminating b: the process by which two stimuli differing in some aspect are responded to differently2: the quality or power of finely distinguishing3 a: the act, practice, or an instance of discriminating categorically rather than individually b: prejudiced or prejudicial outlook, action, or treatment . By using the phrase "Reverse Discrimination", people equalize the regular word discrimination as meaning "White people who don't like others". Nowhere in the proper definition of the word is "white" used. Everybody it seems, including tradtional talk show people use that word. It really peeves me that the phrase is used that way. I believe that ALL types of rasicm is wrong. I don't care who does it, what color they are, what religion, or any other reason. Dr. King said it best when he stated that "We should not be judged by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character." Those are powerful words that will resonate throughout the world as long as the human race exists. So, with that in mind, if you score higher on a test, do better in an interview, or have more experience than another person, you should get the opportunity that you are seeking. You should NOT get a job, promotion, or any other item due to the color of your skin. Instead, you should get it because of the "Content of your character."

1 comment:

  1. Kevin,

    Once again, you have hit the nail on the head!

    Have you seen Reverend Wright's recent comments regarding his lack of relationship with Obama? He said that "Them Jews aint going to let him talk to me"... Al Sharpton? Jesse Jackson? Where are those guys? If a white Rabbi said, "those ------- aint gonna let him talk to me", what would the response be?

    Nizkor is a very important word in Hebrew. It means to remember. It is a strong jewish belief to "remember" the holocaust. It is so important to tell the story and always remember what happened. Why? So that it never happens again, to anyone, anywhere.

    We should learn from racism. We should remember how it is to be discriminated against. It has happened to us all. We should remember so that it never happens again, not so that we can do it to next guy.

    We live in the land of opportunity. We live in a land that is based on hard work and responsibility. We went through our trials and struggles with civil rights. We have learned lessons and all communities, especially the black community, should know the price that is paid when opportunites are given based on color, religion or anything other than true qualification.

    I am glad to call you and Doreen friends because I sure like and respect the "content of your character".

    Taryn

    P.S. I wish we debated all this stuff more back in the day... lol, I guess we had more pressing issues!!!

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