Passive Discrimination

The title of this post is what started a brief conversation on Facebook between me and an old high school friend, regarding this news article he shared. This post also a bit of a follow-on to yesterday's post, in that it deals with people's attitudes toward those different from them or what they believe to be the norm. In yesteryear it was racism (though it still is an issue today, sadly), today it is discrimination against LGBT people.

There was someone once (I can't remember who) who said something along the lines of how he would rather deal with an overt racist (such as members of the KKK), yelling racial slurs at him, than a covert one. Because with the overt one, he was at least being honest about his feelings, you knew where he stood, and could deal with it accordingly. But what do you make of the covert racists, the people who display a smiling, polite veneer, only to stab you in the back later?

It's an interesting point. There are many people who don't consider themselves racist, or don't consider themselves discriminatory against homosexuals. Yet their actions (or lack thereof) say otherwise. When you turn a blind eye to obvious injustices, when you sit by and do/say nothing in the face of abuses, you are condoning that abuse. You are just as culpable as the bigot dishing it out.

And the worst part of it? As Mark points out: these teenagers (who are naturally vulnerable to begin with) are already receiving hateful messages from the overt abusers. Now bring in the people whom these kids normally look upon with respect-- parents, teachers, pastors, politicians, other influential adults. For these supposedly sane, moderate, polite adults (after all, they don't go yelling epithets or making threats) to sit silently by and do nothing, or worse yet, shrug it off, sends an even more painful message: that the targeted kids don't matter, ARE second-class citizens, and will never be accepted.  That they agree with the bigots' message. And that *they* (the tormented teens) are the ones with the problem.

It's heartbreaking to think that the impact of such an attitude can do much more harm than the verbal sticks and stones hurled by bullies. That people in positions of authority, even though they don't outright verbalize any bigotry, convey that message even more powerfully when they condone it. Do they realize that just because they don't actively, outright SAY or DO anything discriminatory, it doesn't necessarily mean they aren't still BEING discriminatory?

That's passive discrimination. And it's far more insidious, in my opinion, than active discrimination. The people committing the latter can pretty much be dismissed for the lunatics they are, but the former? Such people wield influence and outnumber the latter. And that's scary.

So... think of your kids. Or the kids of someone close to you. Or any other loved one. Or even yourself. Think about what kinds of effects you can have by either acting indifferently to their problems (and thereby siding with the bullies)... or by providing love and support.

If only more people chose love and support...