The world we live in.
This is what I’m thinking about current world events.
It is the simplest fact: We’ll carry the flag of what has affected us the most. When I was little it was the established rules of gender in the society that touched me, therefore in adulthood, naturally, I’ve been more inclined to advocate for feminist movements, in which the problems of oppression for all genders and sexual orientations are being seen and spoken.
However, and inevitably, advocating for a cause completely blind you off from other causes as important or more important than the one you feel identified with. The more I live the more I realize discrimination exists everywhere under the most invisible circumstances, and we are all aware to a certain degree. We do live in a discriminatory world, and we don’t even have enough lifetime to advocate for every single injustice we endure.
I for instance suffer discrimination in airports when traveling alone; you may think that is not “such a big deal”, but airports have enforced discrimination at ease, and legally supported. It doesn’t only happen in immigration desks, in small offices of interrogation, the airports by themselves are more vigilant of certain flights to certain places. If there is one flight from a European country to another European country, and one flight from a European country to a South American country, guess which boarding process gets intercepted and intimidated and discriminated by anti-drug forces and trained dogs?.
And every single immigration I’ve crossed, from about 7 countries, have been suspicious of my appearance, my nationality, my singlehood, or my travel history. If that is not a violation of human rights, and the right to free transit, I don’t know how to call it.
And now I happen to live in a country that replaces the word “suspicious” with “Venezuelan”, which by the way it happens to be my nationality.
I'll give you an example that comes to mind; the quote “statistics say” it’s an infallible resource in times like these. A fair amount of people have used it these days to justify what is going on in the United States. When I hear about statistics I simply remember that the world cared to search online more about the fire in Notre Dame than the bombings in Sri Lanka with nearly 300 casualties, with both events happening the very same week.
I know this statistic comes from simple Google search trends, but I believe it speaks volumes. Countries are more or less relevant from their presence in the media. What was different between Notre Dame burning and New York's twin towers falling?. We’ve left everything be filtered by the window of media, and we’ve systematically let media establish the priorities and discriminatory guidelines.
The biggest weapon media has is not even theirs, it's our ignorance. Discrimination is broad, starts with me and you, from ignorance, from not really caring about what happens anywhere, for the simplest things, like not wanting to learn how to differentiate a Chinese from a Korean or a Japanese.
It’s not even a matter of “taking action”, you do nothing going to the street burning tires, things won’t change unless it is a convenient time for the people in the position of power to change. It’s a matter of having an open mind and not tolerate any day-to-day joke that radicalizes or diminish entire groups. It’s a matter of acknowledging the world, understanding who is who, where is what, understanding what is funny and what is outrageous, understanding anybody can be anything regardless of his or her birthplace, ultimately understanding what respect truly means.
If we get to know the world and acknowledge all these things, if we would care to know about Middle Eastern food, Korean pop bands, a particular Japanese tradition, South American music or European languages… the world becomes less strange, more familiar, or at least, more realistic, which is what we really need; more realism less fiction. If we do this, we may learn to see the world as a big neighborhood, and we can learn to differentiate everyone and never again focus on media headlines.
Next time we try to advocate for something, I wanna get myself included, let’s remember and let’s think about all the other discriminative behaviors we may have that are deep within us and that we’re too numb to notice we practice too, adding fuel to the problem. Let’s acknowledge there is a whole discriminatory world which we all ignore consciously. And next time we say “I care” let’s acknowledge all other levels of discrimination and let’s deepen self-criticism to realize whether or not our position is unintentionally hypocritical.
It is the simplest fact: We’ll carry the flag of what has affected us the most. When I was little it was the established rules of gender in the society that touched me, therefore in adulthood, naturally, I’ve been more inclined to advocate for feminist movements, in which the problems of oppression for all genders and sexual orientations are being seen and spoken.
However, and inevitably, advocating for a cause completely blind you off from other causes as important or more important than the one you feel identified with. The more I live the more I realize discrimination exists everywhere under the most invisible circumstances, and we are all aware to a certain degree. We do live in a discriminatory world, and we don’t even have enough lifetime to advocate for every single injustice we endure.
I for instance suffer discrimination in airports when traveling alone; you may think that is not “such a big deal”, but airports have enforced discrimination at ease, and legally supported. It doesn’t only happen in immigration desks, in small offices of interrogation, the airports by themselves are more vigilant of certain flights to certain places. If there is one flight from a European country to another European country, and one flight from a European country to a South American country, guess which boarding process gets intercepted and intimidated and discriminated by anti-drug forces and trained dogs?.
And every single immigration I’ve crossed, from about 7 countries, have been suspicious of my appearance, my nationality, my singlehood, or my travel history. If that is not a violation of human rights, and the right to free transit, I don’t know how to call it.
- Have you passed by too many countries?; suspicious.
- Big Afro?; suspicious.
- No spouse and kids?; suspicious.
- Latino?; suspicious.
- One baggage?; suspicious.
- No returning flight ticket?; suspicious.
- Non-previous visa? even thou you don’t need one to enter; suspicious.
And now I happen to live in a country that replaces the word “suspicious” with “Venezuelan”, which by the way it happens to be my nationality.
- Did somebody steal something?; Venezuelan.
- People are protesting on the streets?; infiltrated Venezuelans.
- Are you Venezuelan?; I’m not renting you the room.
- Are you Venezuelan?; I don’t have change.
- Are you Venezuelan?; That price just went up.
I'll give you an example that comes to mind; the quote “statistics say” it’s an infallible resource in times like these. A fair amount of people have used it these days to justify what is going on in the United States. When I hear about statistics I simply remember that the world cared to search online more about the fire in Notre Dame than the bombings in Sri Lanka with nearly 300 casualties, with both events happening the very same week.
I know this statistic comes from simple Google search trends, but I believe it speaks volumes. Countries are more or less relevant from their presence in the media. What was different between Notre Dame burning and New York's twin towers falling?. We’ve left everything be filtered by the window of media, and we’ve systematically let media establish the priorities and discriminatory guidelines.
The biggest weapon media has is not even theirs, it's our ignorance. Discrimination is broad, starts with me and you, from ignorance, from not really caring about what happens anywhere, for the simplest things, like not wanting to learn how to differentiate a Chinese from a Korean or a Japanese.
“The Chinese are dirty communists”,
“In the US and Europe, they are all drug addicts”,
“in Asia, they only eat rice”,
“in South America, they are all indigenous",
“Hindu is the nationality of Indians”.
It’s not even a matter of “taking action”, you do nothing going to the street burning tires, things won’t change unless it is a convenient time for the people in the position of power to change. It’s a matter of having an open mind and not tolerate any day-to-day joke that radicalizes or diminish entire groups. It’s a matter of acknowledging the world, understanding who is who, where is what, understanding what is funny and what is outrageous, understanding anybody can be anything regardless of his or her birthplace, ultimately understanding what respect truly means.
If we get to know the world and acknowledge all these things, if we would care to know about Middle Eastern food, Korean pop bands, a particular Japanese tradition, South American music or European languages… the world becomes less strange, more familiar, or at least, more realistic, which is what we really need; more realism less fiction. If we do this, we may learn to see the world as a big neighborhood, and we can learn to differentiate everyone and never again focus on media headlines.
Next time we try to advocate for something, I wanna get myself included, let’s remember and let’s think about all the other discriminative behaviors we may have that are deep within us and that we’re too numb to notice we practice too, adding fuel to the problem. Let’s acknowledge there is a whole discriminatory world which we all ignore consciously. And next time we say “I care” let’s acknowledge all other levels of discrimination and let’s deepen self-criticism to realize whether or not our position is unintentionally hypocritical.
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