Stop playing the 'prejudice cards'

By Whitni Webb

October 12, 2007 | Playing cards is really getting old. Just as one card seems to have been taken off the table, another arises, and we have to start a whole new cat and mouse game. When does it end? We're really tired of playing this game.

And we're not talking about poker or Go Fish, but talking the game of life. The race card, the sexism card, the religion card, they are all the same thing: an excuse as to why you didn't get something you wanted. The players who are constantly using these cards are just like those who claim they didn't win at Slap Jack because we were all in on it and cheated them. It's an old, lame excuse and we've all heard it before. None of your problems are your fault; they are because of someone else's discrimination. Maybe someone should reshuffle the deck and take out the jokers this time.

Do you really want that A in English just because you're the only one of your race in the class? Doesn't it hurt your self-respect just a teensy bit to accuse someone of racism just so he'll drop a missed test? And just because you didn't get that job, doesn't mean it's because you aren't a member of the dominant religion. There wasn't even a box to put your religion in on the application! Sexism? Please. We aren't living in the 1950's anymore, and just because the guy wanted you to make dinner doesn't make him a chauvinist.

Think these scenarios are hypothetical? Think again. They happen to be everyday occurrences and experiences we've shared. Even people close to us are responsible for such shameless behavior and denial of the truth. And the unfortunate part is that its people like these who ruin things for the rest of us.

What if you had a professor who really was a racist, and you had worked your hardest in the class but he was going to fail you anyways? Or perhaps you really didn't get the job because the store manager really didn't like your religion? And, god forbid, you had actually ended up with someone who thought you inferior based solely on your sex. Few intelligent individuals out there would really believe you because these accusations are thrown around so easily these days.

And that is the problem with playing cards. You end up hurting a cause with a good purpose, because the cause to help minorities, or women or religious institutions is nothing but a mockery now. And evidence of this has been around us it seems forever, ranging from the Duke Lacrosse scandal, to the O.J Simpson case, and now the hazy ordeal of the Jena 6. When are we safe to scream prejudice and when should we not? Today it seems that if you don't automatically take the side of social injustice, you must be racist, sexist, etc.

It is this mentality that now seems to be shaping even our decisions in life. Who will you vote for in the next presidential election? If you happen to be a woman, you had better say Hilary Clinton or you must not believe women are equal to men. If you are African American, or even another racial minority and you aren't planning a vote for Barrack Obama you are a hindrance to your people's cause.

Now, obviously, this is an exaggeration, but a true one at least. There are many people out there ready to vote for these candidates (and others) simply on the basis of their race, religion, sex, and status. They have no idea of the issues, but still believe they are helping one cause or another. And that is sad.

Why the need to have a black president or a woman president? What will that solve? How will that help the social issues in our societies today? Doesn't the need for this show the exact opposite? That prejudice is alive and thriving today in our society, but that it has been warped into something almost completely unrecognizable? It is this warped, twisted version of prejudices that has given rise to the playing of the prejudice cards.

It is prejudice to assume that someone is a racist for giving you a poor grade, and it is indecent to use your race to get you a grade you know you don't deserve. It is disgusting to assume someone who doesn't even know you turned you down for a job based on your religious affiliations, especially when there was no way for them to even know what religion you were.

And it is the use of these cards that is helping prejudices thrive in society today.

NW
RB