In a Perfect World

There are so many things I could address with the problems we currently see in today's society. While social class, gender, and race are their own category, I feel they all can be put under one word: discrimination. While this country may have moved three steps up during the 1960s, we have certainly moved two steps back. To me the main problems with society now is still that difference makes one unequal. Whether it be sexuality, the sex you identify yourself as, the pronouns we use, the cultures we see, and the colors that come with it, everyone is not equal. At least not in this country anymore. I want to focus on two main categories, race and transgender individuals.

Today discrimination against race is just as bad as it has been before. The only problem here is that in our history, how many people have died for this cause to finally have equality? In a video called, The Children's March, over 3,000 children were arrested for protesting against segregation. If this isn't enough inspiration for us to fight back and finally demand the equality everyone deserves, then I don't know what is. Some children thought they were going to die, therefore they were obviously willing to risk the rest of their lives for the cause. In 1960s Birmingham, police brutality was mostly portrayed with fire hoses, dogs, and just being arrested. Today, police brutality is portrayed as just killing someone once you find that they're black. During a peaceful protest in Newark in 1967, police brutally beat John Smith, a black cab driver, during a traffic stop. He was beat merely for the color of his skin, and for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. On April 29, 2017 15-year-old Jordan Edwards was unarmed, leaving a party, and was shot in the head five times because he was black. As you can see, police brutality has not changed, but has only gotten worse. A startling statistic is that African Americans account for 13 percent of the United States' population, yet they account for 24 percent of fatally shot people at the hands of police. This is the sixth anniversary of the Black Lives Matter movement. Their principles include diversity, restorative justice, globalism, queer affirming, unapologetically black, collective value, empathy, loving engagement, transgender affirming, black villages, black women, black families, and intergenerational values.

Another problem with today's society is the fact that transgender people are not treated with the respect that have rightfully earned. The LGBTQ community is highly persecuted for the lifestyles they live. Many people are born with the wrong sex, therefore making it harder for them to conform to society's ideals of how they're supposed to be acting. This is where the nature vs. nurture debate comes in: sex vs. gender. Most transgender individuals stem from intersex children cases. The problem is that the parents end up choosing the wrong sex, and with little to no help from the surgeons. Most surgeons persuade parents toward female genitalia, because of it being an easier surgery, but because of society's standards surgeons are very persuasive in choosing one because of the child not being accepted with both. Some surgeons say that a penis smaller than two centimeters will only produce shame for the child, so a sex reconstruction is socially necessary. Apparently going through some life threatening surgeries is better than being an outcast of society because you have a small penis. Society’s standards of sex and gender are obviously warped to a standard that makes everyone feel the most comfortable, because no one is comfortable with change and difference. Difference is making others feel unequal and mistreated, which is why the transgender suicide rate is so high. According to a study done by the Williams Institute School of Law and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, they found that 47 percent of trans women and 28 percent of trans men commit suicide. Individuals that have never told anyone that they’re transgender still have a suicide rate of 33 percent, but transgender people that tell everyone have a suicide rate of 50 percent. It’s hard to imagine that half of the open transgender population don’t feel accepted by others, and feel their only solution is suicide. Today there is the National Center for Transgender Equality that supports and fights for the rights in favor of the transgender community. They fight for anti-violence against the community, because more than one in four trans people have faced bias-driven assault.

In conclusion, I want us all to see the inequality we live in everyday. Although some of us may never experience discrimination a day in our lives, we should want equality for everyone. Treat those as you wish to be treated. I was born white, therefore I'll never understand what it's like to fear your life when you get pulled over for speeding on the highway. I was born with the right genitalia, therefore I will never know what it's like to live in the opposite sex's body when I know I don't belong there. I obviously can't put myself in these other individuals' shoes, but I know if I were them, I'd want the same equality as everyone else gets.