It’s time to embrace the diversity

From the news desk

Andrew D. Brosig
Posted 5/16/18

A question is emerging across the country – What’s become of the Land of the Free?

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

It’s time to embrace the diversity

From the news desk

Posted

A question is emerging across the country – What’s become of the Land of the Free?

Actually, there are several questions, wrapped up in that one query. 

Topmost among these is when did intolerance and hate become de rigueur? When did acting on petty, baseless fears focused on nothing more than our differences – the very things which once were celebrated as making this country strong – become the norm, rather than the aberration?

This trend is being reflected in news stories proliferating across the country. We’ve all heard of the two African-American men harassed at a Starbucks while waiting for a business meeting, simply because they chose not to place an order immediately upon walking in the door.

That event kicked off a flurry of hash-tags across the internet, focused on things apparently, it’s now becoming questionable, at least, to do while black. Now it’s becoming the thing to do to call law enforcement for such simple acts as having a picnic in a park or falling asleep.

The first instance comes from Oakland, Calif., where a white woman felt compelled to call the police on a family, out in a public park, grilling burgers. That’s right, grilling hamburgers, not usually considered a nefarious action and something I’d imagine will be happening somewhere in this country this very evening.

The woman’s claim was that people weren’t allowed to use charcoal grills in that particular area of the park. But, according to news reports, it’s something that happens virtually on a daily basis.

The woman also reportedly “hurled racial slurs at the group,” according to some news reports. When challenged by another individual who shot video of what was going on, however, the woman claimed, “It has nothing to do with their race.”

When police arrived on the scene, according to those same news reports, they took down information for a report, as police are wont to do. They then left – without issuing any citations, allowing the barbecue to continue.

Another incident involved an African-American graduate student at Yale University. She’d reportedly fallen asleep while studying in a common area of the dormitory she lived in. A white student walked in, found her there, and called campus police, telling her she couldn’t be there.

Again, no charges were filed.

You might be saying, “Well, those happened on the east or west coast. There’s reason to be scared there.”

But here’s a recent example from a little closer to home: Police pulled two young Native American men from New Mexico from a recruitment tour on the Colorado State University campus in Fort Collins after a parent called, claiming the men were “really odd.”

According to news reports, the men drove all night from their home to tour the campus. The Washington Post reported that, according to a recording of the call to police, the woman claimed they “are not, definitely not, a part of the tour. And their behavior is just really odd.”

Other news outlets reported the caller claimed the men were listening too intently, refused to answer questions and, in the Post report, “were lying the whole time.”

The older of the two men, age 19, said they were quiet because they wanted to learn about the campus and his young companion, age 17, is shy, according to the Post report.

Personal safety is a real concern today. It’s true, you don’t know – with increasing ease access to all variety of weapons – exactly what another person is capable of or is planning to do. 

But does that immediately mean jumping to the conclusion they’re up to no good – or they have no right to even exist, never mind fair, equitable treatment – simply because of the color of their skin, how they dress, who they love? 

It’s even happening in our own back yard. Last week, bowing to public pressure and threats of monetary repercussions and parents refusing to allow their children to attend, the Eastern Wyoming College Board of Trustees pulled from consideration policies which would have ensured equal treatment for the latest group of scapegoats – people who are transgendered.

These thoughts and feelings are nothing new. Simply look to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ‘60s for proof. But there seems to be a growing mind-set in this country today, proliferated and even encouraged at the highest levels of government, that acting on those thoughts is right and proper.

Hate and intolerance are never – and should never – be right.