Equality can be labeled as many things, on many different levels. For example, some view equality as simply having equal rights, while some view equality as being able to coexist on this earth together, peacefully. Yet, throughout time, we (as a human race) have been confronted with great challenges, a good amount of which have resulted in amazing minds and people to be wasted. Some of these challenges are wars, where we refused to find it within our selves to find peace. While some of them, are just acts of defiance and cruelty.
Every day, we see acts of inequality, in the forms of name-calling, not receiving the same amount of pay as others, not being treated with the same respect as others and so much more.
Throughout history, the human race has found ways to Chosen to hate black people, chosen to hate Jewish people. Or even chosen to hate their own neighbors, like in the genocide between the Hutus and the Tutsis in Rwanda. They choose to hate.
But, what would have occurred, if those tragedies did not?
Could one of those million Jewish people that were killed, have been the next Albert Einstein? Could we have advanced in math, arts, sciences? What if one of those people had discovered that we are not the only people in this solar system. What if ......?
My point being, we will never know how these people could have changed the world.
If only they were given the chance.
In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson writes about the inequalities that women, children, and those of color have had to, and continue to endure today. Inequalities take many forms, but they all have consequences. When people are persecuted for their religious beliefs, race, gender or physical appearance, it results in injustice.
From his book, you can draw conclusions that equality is more than just having the same rights as others. It's about being able to freely express yourself, and being able to live without feeling less than another. Feeling that your opinion matters.
Today, there continues to be inequality between people. For example, the wall built to try to keep out immigrants from Mexico. As well as the travel bans for Muslims.
What would happen if we did not try to keep people out? What great minds would we encounter?
But, wait. Salvador Dali was an immigrant. Bob Marley was an immigrant. And if history is correct, we are too.
In your mind, you must be thinking, what stereotypical person, is writing this post?
I do not face all of the injustices that some others do.
I am a woman, but I am also white. People of color and those of other ethnicities have had to endure things that I have not. I do stand among my fellow women when I continue to fight for my basic freedoms of choice, but my ancestors did not have to live life as a slave under the watch of another, who thought they were doing the right thing.
I am listened to. I have a voice.
In Just Mercy, the character Charlie, as well as other children characters did not have enough money to be able to afford a good enough lawyer to represent them. That lawyer would have given those children their voices. But, because they were seen as young and naive, they were taken advantage of by the Criminal Justice System.
Every day I fight to be seen as an equal by men. I use my freedom of speech to protest things that I believe and make sure my opinion is heard.
I will never know what it was like for the millions of Jewish people that died in the Holocaust.
And I will never know the pain of the civil war. But, I will do my part to make sure that never happens again, by never shutting up and forcing people to listen.
Every day, we (as a human race) are faced with many challenges. One of those challenges should never be whether we have an opinion.
As the grandson of a German immigrant once said,
Hi Meg!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your final post. I especially liked the part where you talk about the effects that a tragedy might have on someone's life. When I was reading this book I too kept thinking about all of the people in the stories that Stevenson was telling and about how their lives could have been different if they had never ended up in the situation they were in. It's very sad to think about how their lives were forever changed because they were wrongly incarcerated or they were given unfair sentences because no one was there to support them and help fight for them when they were taken advantage of. I also liked how you talked about yourself and how even though you have not lived through and witnessed terrible moments of injustice and it hasn't affected you directly it's still important for you to have a voice and use it. I think one of the important messages that Stevenson wanted his readers to get from this book is that even if we are not the ones being affected, it's important for us to speak up and use our voices and fight for what we think is right because even if it's not a problem that directly relates to us, it may help to make a difference in someone else's life who doesn't have the same opportunity to be heard.
Hi Emma!
DeleteI also agree. I also think Stevenson was trying to show that standing up and using your voice can make a difference. It did for Walter and it did for many of his clients. Unfortunately, many of these tragedies already happened. There is nothing we can do now but to make sure they don't happen again. This comes down to prevention. We need to change people's mindsets and make discrimination unacceptable!
Thank you for reading Emma! And Yes, I totally agree with you when you said that this is just another one of the underlying messages Stevenson wrote about within his book.
DeleteMeg, I loved this post! I think you did a really great job reflecting on the book, rather than just summarizing it. Your "what if" thoughts got me thinking the most, because I think about that everyday, not just in the contest of racial hate crimes, but in other tragedies as well. My book, "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" had me reflecting on other things, more about how we can fix this, rather than the effects as losses we suffered as a result. I know this comment is coming a bit late from me, but I wonder, what are your thoughts on how our society can combat this? I know you mentioned at the end of your post that personally, you are fighting this hate by standing up for what you believe, but are there any ways you think our government could further enforce this? Or on a more local scale, do you think there's anything we could be doing to enforce it in our community?
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