Many people, when they hear "racism," "sexism" and "homophobia," picture brainless individuals shouting racial slurs at black students, women suffering under the Taliban regime or the murderers of Matthew Shepard committing a heinous crime. But it all goes deeper than the obvious expressions of hate.
One evening, I was in the nearly deserted Atrium, when I decided to grab a bite to eat. As I went to pay, a student who just happened to be black walked into the food court through the exit.
"Excuse me," the cashier said. "You need to walk in through the entrance."
"Why? It's not a big deal," the student replied.
"Uh, yeah it is," the cashier said tersely.
All right, so the student was breaking the rules, but this case was special. First of all, I've walked into the food court through the exit at peak hours, and the cashiers never said anything to me. And secondly, even if they did stop me, I seriously doubt they would have spoken to me as if I were a child, as this particular cashier did to the black student.
Sometimes, racism manifests itself as thoughtless insensitivity.
According to the 2005 edition of the Associated Press Stylebook, for example, journalists are supposed to use the term "American Indian" rather than "Native American," even though the overwhelming majority of people whom I actually know or to whom I am related prefer either "Native American" or reference by the individual nations to which they belong, such as Lakota, Tlingit or Hopi.
And it doesn't stop with racism.
Sexually adventurous males still have the distinctive title of "playas" in American high schools. Their female counterparts, on the other hand, are "sluts."
A while ago on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," the host had invited a white male conservative television pundit, a black female journalist and Spike Lee.
Though Lee remained silent throughout most of the show, the debate quickly degenerated into a shouting contest when he began spouting Louis Farrakhan's conspiracy theories concerning the flooding of New Orleans, with the conservative pundit yelling back. Meanwhile, the woman - who was clearly the most intelligent and level-headed of the three - saw her opinions ignored.
And last but not least, there's homophobia.
It's often rationalized on the basis of religion or "tradition." While most of the international community chooses not to associate itself with Apartheid-era South Africa or Afghanistan under the Taliban, most countries still gleefully maintain relations with oil-rich countries that execute gay people - for example, Saudi Arabia and Iran, as well as the United Arab Emirates, where several gay men were recently sentenced to forced hormone injections.
In America, opposition to gay rights becomes just another political opinion, and demeaning gays as "sinners" who lead an aberrant "chosen lifestyle" can be justified by quoting a few verses of the Bible or Quran. Meanwhile, people who hold those views get away with saying it's not prejudice - it's just their personal religious take on morality.
Combating these three scourges of the modern era must go beyond simply punishing people who mindlessly shout racial slurs from their cars. What we must do is attack the prejudice and intolerant attitudes that induce people to use such language in the first place.
Whether it's bothering people of a different skin color, demeaning women or condemning as "immoral" people who act on homosexual desires, prejudice in general must be revealed not only for its immorality but also for its pathetic stupidity.
Write to Alaric at ajdearment@bsu
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