Prejudice in 2013

By Nathan Wood, Staff writer FPP


The other day I was studying with a friend on campus when a lady came up to us. She expressed to us her discontent of not having a place to study at night on the weekends. She said something along the lines of “Don’t you hate it that they close all the buildings when us students have to study?”

Although I thought it was strange that she approached us, we gave slight nods. What she said next troubled me:

“Everywhere I go people are either talking or talking to me.” Then she goes into a whisper: “This black guy came up to me and started talking to me. I mean like what the f***? I mean, I’m from Florida and I don’t want to talk to any black people!”

At this point, I was in shock from what this lady said, but I was also trying to say the right things to get her to go somewhere else. Listening to racist comments makes me livid and sick. If it went any further, I would have had to say something, but luckily, she ended up leaving shortly after.

Now, I thought that maybe it was because of where I attend school (Tennessee), or maybe it was just by random chance that I came across someone who was racist, but those things still do not write-off the social ills still lurking today. Prejudice still exists today. The thought of people being inherently worse than others based on a factor they cannot control is absurd, yet people still seem to think it is an OK way to act. If we want to fix this in our society, a stride toward educating people must be made. It is the primary way to flush this attitude out of society. Although it may seem obvious, people need to know what prejudice is and why it is wrong.

After the recent Martin Luther King Jr. Day has passed, we look back and considered the fact that racism towards minorities, specifically blacks, has greatly diminished, and our legal system has greatly catalyzed this. However, prejudice still exists in many forms today: racism, sexism, age discrimination, and religion. The misunderstanding of ethnic groups can be eliminated through education. Although it is something every person needs to work on in varying degrees, over time, we can push towards a more egalitarian society.