Oppressed People In Our Society

LGBT people have made significant impact on getting recognition in the legal and political field of the United States such as freedom to marry, marriage license with recognition by the other states, and my favorite child rearing. But the battle isn’t over, although you may believe that those 3 types of recognition should be good enough to satisfy the LGBT communities, others only believe that those 3 recognitions pertains to upper-middle class or upper-class LGBT individual. The other LGBT individual want to fight for more and I agree with them this isn’t enough. Although, there has been progress many LGBT folks still deal with discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity within employment, housing, and access to services. And there may be law emplaced that shadows the protection for the LGBT people but there isn’t an explicit protection for them at the state level. A perfect example, of violence on the LBGT communities was the mass-shooting in Orlando gay club. Emma Green wrote an article called “The Extraordinarily Common Violence Against LGBT People in America” where she talks about the hate crime that eventually turns to murder in this case in America. Green stated in the article that:

“the Southern Poverty Law Center found that “LGBT people are more than twice as likely to be the target of a violent hate-crime than Jews or black people,” (Green,2016).

“They are more than four times as likely as Muslims, and almost 14 times as likely as Latinos,” (Green,2016). Hate crime have been around for decades. A hate crime is considered any malicious crime that derives from hatred towards a specific group or person. Which make sense the more acceptance of the LGBT people there will be more violence. As the world become more tolerant of LGBT people, the individual that oppose that tolerance and become more radical as in this instant with the Orlando shooting. The working class are still victims to hate crime, even after the civil rights movement that has happened.

When talking about the working class I know that in today’s age the working class is a big group that not only involves Blacks, Latinos, and native American there are white middle class too. But for this paper we will be looking at more specifically at Blacks, Latinos, and Native American because, in United States history these 3 races were the most victims of violence towards them. However, we can acknowledge that there were very few poor whites that were enslaved but those white slaves were not expose to the life threating their counterpart endured or if they were its wasn’t show to the public eyes. My question is what makes someone hate another human being to the point of killing or harming that other person? Hate crime can be driven by race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation as mentioned earlier about LGBTQ. One potential example of a hate crime could be when Jesus was crucified by the Romans because, they did not agree with his religion views. I like to believe that hate crime started then and only progressed even more entering the Trump Administration. Another good example is slavery, according to Digital History they wrote an article about The Middle Passage. The Middle Passage refers to the trade of African American from the Atlantic to the West Indies in the article it stated:

“At least 2 million Africans–10 to 15 percent–died during the infamous “”Middle Passage”” across the Atlantic. Another 15 to 30 percent died during the march to or confinement along the coast. Altogether, for every 100 slaves who reached the New World, another 40 had died in Africa or during the Middle Passage” (Digital History.edu).

Lynching and whipping were also, a major tool to struck fear to the African American enslaved and also, was the common form of killing a slave besides disseizes and attacked by dogs. However, looking at history ahead after slavery and its abolishment; you may think that slavery is over, but it hasn’t. Slavery over the years has taken many different forms instead of gathering for lynching or having attacking dog chasing after you, the people in politic, Police officer, judges, made slavery in legal practices such as War on Drugs, War on Terror, Stop and Frisk, and now in the Trump administration Taxes. Taxes raise a huge problem because, it would hurt minorities and make the wealthy even more wealthy and only expand more the disparity on them and minority communities. Things Estate Tax, Corporation Income Tax, Qualified Tuition Reduction, Student Loan Interest Deduction, and Paying for the Tax Cut. All of these categories will impact minorities now and the next generation on getting an education and finding a good program that would help Blacks, Latinos, and Native American in the filed they desire to work in. Republican say that the new Tax renovation will open up more jobs and boost the middle class but what they also forget to call the attention on how the tax plan only makes thing worst on the racial wealth disparities that has been emplaced to make the wealthy even wealthier.

My last point I would like to talk about is people with disability. Disability is a word very complex for an exact definition. There has been attempted to explain what Disability is but, the word itself is different to everyone. The American Disability Act (ADA) define Disability as a person with Physical or mental impairment that limits few major activities for individual. From my first-hand experience my girlfriend is one of the many individuals who have disability and I can tell you from my point of view I have heard all types of definition for the reasoning of her problem. For example, an administration would define my girlfriend disability with injury, health, and her physical condition which puts a limit on what she would like to do. A clinical point of view would tell her because, of her engaging in a gainful activity such as working out or going on a bike ride is reduced because, of simple evaluation by her physician. Finally, my favorite is the research perspective, where because, a doctor does a research on people with disability either same or worse than my girlfriend they believe that they have seen it all and know it all simply because, they are much more aware of the many factors can be associated with disability. My personal experience with the researcher perspective, was when my girlfriend goes to this doctor/researcher for people with disability just asked my girlfriend with disability and has to call out of work or drop classes because, of her pain level is to the point where her family and I have to help her with getting up or dressed, asked her a few question and said, that it doesn’t add up and that it could be mental. Got a bit side tracked but it’s okay, men and women are always a target to getting robbed, sexual assault, aggravated assault but, people with disability is more at risk to these violent crimes because, they cannot properly defend themselves compared to a non-disable counterpart.

I came across an organization called End Abuse of People with Disabilities that deal with the problem for all people with all types of disabilities and seek justice or making it aware to practitioners, other organization, government agencies, and the communities that people with disabilities are being targeted and the rates of violence against them are increasing. End Abuse of People with Disabilities wrote an article called “Violence Against People with Disabilities Occurs at Alarming Rates” and they stated that:

“In 2012, for example, 1.3 million violent crimes—including rape and physical assault—occurred against people with disabilities and that number has been steadily increasing since 2008, making people with disabilities one of the most harmed groups in the United States” (End Abuse of People with Disabilities).

Some people tend to dislike people with disabilities because, of their own weakness in their life or they tend to hide their emotion of their own failures so they would look down on disabled people in order to make themselves feel better or have some form of power. People self-esteem is another factor a person can have a low self-esteem that they have to find another person with a lower self-esteem to feel superior. Now the question is why are people with disability being targeted or why are the more likely to be abused? The answer I believe is 1st. society and 2nd. Government/Governors. Now why Society is to blame because, when thing is not normal or what the standard of living or how you present yourself within that society you get isolated. To that society we consider them different, useless, powerless, and inefficient human being, which from my understanding and knowledge that is the gate was for discrimination which will turn to that individual being a victim to a crime. Government/Governors, I understand there is a lot going on your plate, however, sometime should be dedicated to fixing what’s going on at home like in this instance with people with disabilities being targeted or not getting the right services provided to them to make sure of their safety and wellbeing.

In conclusion, the work is far from over with regards to violence or any types of oppression on any group and the fight for equal equality has only begun. In order to stop the oppression that has been going on for decades whether your Black, Latino, Native American, White. We have to join as ONE and stop the oppression that we put on ourselves such as black killing blacks, Latino killing Latinos, and stop the hate that minorities have on each other when one of our own makes it or tries to bring people together in order to show the people that are maintaining these oppression to continue to affect our lives and the next generation to come. We want a world where it is okay for you to be black, Latino, Native American, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and that we do not have to live in fear that our life is at jeopardy every day. We can change the world unless we change ourselves or we can not the racism and the violence that it comes with unless we change our behavior as people and communities.”