In the center of campus, a wall has been on display for the past week; it is called "The Wall of Hate."
This wall is made of cinder blocks, each painted individually with a word someone has been called that made them feel discriminated against. Earlier today, the wall was torn down, symbolically representing the destruction of the barriers between people who are different.
Angels sang. Birds chirped. Rainbows appeared in the sky and unicorns danced through fields of daisies while everyone sat in a giant circle singing "Kumbaya."
Yeah.
But in addition to being corny, this wall achieved another, if unintentional, end: it trivialized the problems of real hate and discrimination.
Bricks inscribed with serious slurs like the N word, "Dirty Mexican," "Fag," or "Dyke" were on the wall right next to bricks with polka dot backgrounds and bubble letters reading "Dumb Cheerleader" or "Too Pretty." No joke.
I'm sure that last one hurt a lot.
Discrimination is a real problem for many people. People who have been discriminated against in this country for many years, facing much more difficult issues than being "too pretty."
And--while the intentions of the organizers were probably good--this event did nothing to help our society overcome those barriers and stereotypes . . . it only served to delegitimize them by placing serious problems side-by-side with silly, superficial ones.
Call me a cynic, but that wall only symbolized--if anything--a step backwards.
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6 comments:
i disagree. i think it was a nice gesture to recognize how everyone has at some time in their life been discriminated or judged unfairly in their life. while you may think "too pretty" or "dumb cheerleader" are fluffy or trivial in comparison to other more serious slurs, does that mean the prejudice those girls experienced is any less painful?
this post surprised me brian!
do you have a better idea of what could have been done? besides "we should all just do our best to fight our own prejudices" .. what could the school have done as a collective?
Alright, the other one was deleated due to spelling error..Anyways, there is prejudice againist females in using words such as too pretty or dumb cheerleader and I am sure it has hurt them.
But, I see your point. There is more serious slurs and hate. I think being called a dumb blonde hurts less then being called a cunt or bitch. Racism and Sexism are still alive and well.
I think perhaps, there could of been something better then a wall. Perhaps actual speakers and education.
If this was was something that was based solely on discrimination, then, yes, it's completely understandable why the words 'Too pretty' or 'Dumb cheerleader' would have been up on that wall. Granted, they aren't nearly as brutal as 'faggot' or 'gay wad', but it definitely sucks to be discriminated based only on looks (or sport you participate in).
The whole idea is definitely interesting though. I wouldn't have minded being there to see it in person
Ha ha, no they were not monogrammed and we did not ask for two, but people did refer to them as "his and hers weed eaters." Apparently what happened is Garrett's Sears registry didn't mark off the items as people bought them, so we ended up with two weed eaters and two hoses (I'm surprised we didn't have more duplicates!). At least one of them had a gift receipt though, so we'll probably taking advantage of that.
Well if I can't get a real job, I might have to consider it, ha ha.
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