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We the People Kim Allen Ethics/125 March 18th, 2011 Mary Houston

We the people experience a constant struggle between right and wrong, there is always something in our thoughts, words, and actions that can be improved in how we treat one another. Throughout history minorities always have suffered at the hands of the majority. In this country we look to the government to right these wrongs, we depend upon them stand-up to individuals that chose to exercise their hate beyond free speech toward their fellow man. When our government is guilty of committing prejudicial and discriminatory acts against its own citizens, who can stand-up to an institution whether it is a business or the government when they too are in the wrong. It has to be, we the people.

One last point is very important to understand what governments really do besides collect and spend money, it really does not matter what kind of government we are talking about what they do is control or try to control human nature, human behavior on many levels trying to be fair. If this is not done civilization would be unbalanced to say the least, it would go beyond only the fittest survive (Herbert Spencer, 1820-1903, social evolutionist) my reasoning for this is due to mans ability to manipulate his environment to his liking. I was born and raised in a white middle-class family from Lincoln, Nebraska, I am Caucasian with all the rights granted and guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and under the Constitution of the United States of America. I did not have to suffer any violations of my civil rights like many minorities experienced. I was in elementary and junior high school in the sixties when the Civil Rights movement and others issues were in the news, nightly on TV. It was not until after high school and moving to Los Angeles, California that I really began to

3 experience and getting to know other cultures, I have always enjoyed the opportunity learn about life in general this was no different or uncomfortable for me. Until then I only read about or saw from a distance how prejudice and discrimination can affect someones mindset. Getting to know someone within their cultural setting you can begin to understand how this history of injustices and this severe lack of respect colors ones perception in how they view their world and the world around them. My thinking about life in general is such that I believe we should all accept, respect, one another and that we are all equal, now this is a nice idea but naive and most of the time the world does not resemble this notion of mine. I was quite surprised and taken aback when I would be talking with African Americans and discover how prejudice they were, and the intense dislike that they had toward Caucasians and the government in general. I could understand the dislike and suspicion but the genuine prejudice surprised me and verifies what I have since learned; In a broadcast in December 1955, journalist Edward R Murrow told his audience that everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences, no one can eliminate prejudices just recognize them. (www.lewrockwell.com) the lesson here is that we the people are prejudice about something; it seems to be inherent to our nature no matter how we are brought up. Time marches on and brings history along with it, the good, the bad, and everything in between. Today, living in the 21st, Century things has changed and the younger generation seems to be bit more colored blind than previous generations and I have noticed more interracial harmony than when I was growing up. Talking to my coworker and friend Elizabeth, who grew up in North Carolina agrees that some things have changed for the better, but we do agree that

4 racism and prejudice still exists, it is more covert and hides behind the face of congeniality and is harder to pick up on. We are of the same mind that this issue will never be resolved because the good and bad are passed down to the next generation. These very issues are so imbedded into the human psyche, they are in fact part of our survival mode that has allowed us to exist when it is out of balance, and it causes the problems we continue to struggle with. The conversation I had with Elizabeth was insightful, like I had mentioned she grew up in North Carolina where the racism and prejudice was overt and not hidden, but the first place she ran into prejudice was in her own home. She is what they considered a light-skinned black and her brother was dark-skinned. Her grandmother said she passed the brown bag test as far as having the right shade of black. She was accepted and her brother suffered from this as a child. This is a perfect example of prejudicial hate from others in society making its way into the home and turned against one another. Today, I live in Washington State and there are many ethnic groups that call this state home. I enjoy the chance to learn about different cultures first hand and there is political representation for everyone but the power structure is still predominatly white and there are issues to be resolved. An ongoing issue is the relationship, between the Seattle Police Department and the Black Community and other minorities in general, the Newspaper, The Root, printed an article about an incident that took place on June 14th, 2010. The police who happened to be white stopped a black teenage girl who was jaywalking with her friends and getting into a physical fight before the police could regain control of the situation. The incident made the

5 Department look like it used excessive force; this is one of many situations that have been reported over the years. There are numerous reasons why people are prejudice and how it may come about; when we are young it may be because an experience or our upbringing as adults trying to make a living and getting ahead economics and jobs or lack of will cause much of the prejudice and discrimination that takes place. In the major tragic 20th, Century example, Adolf Hitler used the Jews as the scapegoat for all German social and economic ills in the 1930s. This premise led to the passage of laws restricting Jewish life in pre-World War II Germany and eventually escalated into the mass extermination of Europes Jews. (Schaefer, 2006, pg. 39) Along with the theory of scapegoating there are several others that would be included in this list; the authoritarian personality is rigid and dislikes people who are different, exploitation involves hiring minorities at a lower wage, and normative describes someone who was brought up in an intolerant household and has no qualms about showing it. This subject is no different than anything else in life when you have individuals not happy with their life for any reason and do not look within and take responsibility for their unhappiness it get turned outwards and becomes the blame game. When it comes to history and trying to rectify decisions that in many cases bordered on criminal you end up with legislation like affirmative action or preferential treatment as some call it, and to this day is controversial. Since you cannot undo or redo the past the next best thing is to do the right thing today, those against it call it reverse discrimination while those for it defend it on the grounds of distributive justice, require that societys benefits and burdens be

distributed equitably among its members. Few people question the need to eliminate racial barriers that exclude minorities from full participation in society. Preferential treatment programs may be one means toward this goal. But these programs also raise ethical issues that direct us to consider their potential benefits and harms, the justice of compensating groups for past harms and present disadvantages, and the fairest way to distribute the burdens of compensation. (Andre, Velasquez, and Mazur) So, at the end of the day things have changed just not very much and the reason is with every new generation we have to start all over again teaching right from wrong. Belief systems run deep, all the way to the core of our essence, and if change is going to happen then it has to come from the person themselves, and the truth is that no matter how hard we try we can never get away from ourselves, I am reminded of a song by the Who called, Wont Get Fooled Again the song ends with the lyrics, Meet the new boss, same as the old boss (Pete Townsend, 1971) and just in case you are wondering who that is well, folks it is us, we the people. I truly believe that most of us have a good heart regardless of how we were brought up or what our experiences have been, but life with its situations, problems, and decisions have a way of interfering with good vibrations. While I do believe that there is more good than bad unfortunately it is also true that it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch. We live in a reality where balance can only thrive by having both sides present that means yes and no, right and wrong, and good and bad as long as we are breathing this air this is what we have to deal with. So we look to those who can lift us up by their words, their presence, their energy and soul

7 to make a difference in our lives and show us the way to look past ourselves, seeing beyond what we are, to what we can be.

References

Lew Rockwell.com. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.lewrockwell.com

Spencer, H. (2012). The survival of the Fittest. Retrieved from http://www.herbertspencer/socialevolutionist.

Townsend, P. (2012). The Who Official Band Website. Retrieved from http://www.thewho.com

Published by The State Group, Division of The Washington Post Company.. (2012). The Root. Retrieved from http://www.theroot.com

Santa Clara University. (2010). Affirmative Action: Twenty-five Years of Controversy. Retrieved from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v5n2/affirmative.html

Schaefer, R.T. (2006). Racial and ethnic groups (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall..