Posts tagged discrimination.
from left to right;
I am afraid to hold my boyfriend’s hand.
My friend’s parents sent her away.
I found death threats in my locker.
I submitted to electroshock therapy.
I lost half my friends after coming out.
My grandmother sends me hate mail.
My school won’t let me take my date to prom.
I am not here anymore.
My dad tried to beat it out of me.
No one is proud of me.
Wow.
MSNBC.com contributor Eve Tahmincioglu reports that the top echelons of most U.S. companies remain very white and very male. And it’s not just heartland companies like Wal-Mart: Count Urban Outfitters among the offenders. Tahmincioglu writes:
Last month, Calvert Investments and Connecticut’s Treasurer tried to get Urban Outfitters to agree to consider bringing women and minorities onto its seven-member, all-white male board.
“What we asked was that every time they consider a slate of directors, they also consider a woman and or a minority as part of that slate,” said Aditi Mohapatra, a senior analyst with Calvert, an investment management company that focuses on socially-conscious investing. The shareholder proposal didn’t require that more diverse candidates be appointed, she noted, just that they agree to make a concerted effort to at least think about diversity.
Urban Outfitters didn’t budge.
“They said, ‘We don’t have any diversity problem,’” Mohapatra said.
(via motherjones)
What does it mean to be “urban”? Urban Outfitter’s 7-person board of directors is entirely white and male… and that’s the way they like it, thank you very much. Now get back to buying $60 vintage hoodies, you meddling whipper-snappers.
…rather than attack the underlying feelings of prejudice and hate behind the words, we just waged a war on the words themselves. Without eradicating the underlying problem, the “PC” movement was doomed from the start. People were not taught the history of the words they were told not to use or what types of behaviors followed these words historically…
Like any weapon that is mishandled, PC can be dangerous. Truth is PC has become a double edged sword benefiting no one. Those who were supposed to benefit from the PC movement: feminists, people of color, the GLBT community, people with disabilities, etc. were once happy to claim the PC movement and demand that prejudicial language not be used. But, once people began stifling their speech, discrimination continued. It just went to the very PC, but very silent, underground world of innuendo, institutionalized segregation, racism, and homophobia. Stealth discrimination is rampant in our country, and the PC movement is the cloak of invisibility that hides it…
…The outcome of the failed movement means that today you can still treat someone like the “n” word, but never call someone the “n” word. It allows men to treat women unequally, pay them less, and disrespect their value- - all without the use of words indicating prejudice.
…But let’s be clear: a lack of those words may indicate political correctness but it does NOT indicate a lack of discrimination. Discrimination in its various forms remains undeterred and we’ve found new ways to avoid it or rename it to sound more PC like “tolerance”, “the income gap” and the “education gap”…
…When it comes to race and issues of discrimination in American society, we are horribly lost. Political correctness is no longer a tool to quell discrimination but instead a tool to perpetuate it. And the negative stereotypes are supported by irresponsible media who racially profile as well as the public’s desire to maintain the status quo institutionalized racism that is deeply ingrained in our history and psyches.
— From Alice Walker’s I Love Myself When I Am Laughing…and Then Again When I Am Looking Mean and Impressive. “How it Feels to be Colored Me”
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