Bigotry of Working Class and the Poor - Essay Example

?Bigotry of Working and the Poor Discrimination of the working and the poor people based on their race, and gender is prevalent allover the world, no matter it is a developed country or a backward nation. Today’s headlines proudly proclaimed, November 10 is observed as ‘Global Action Day for Malala Yousafzai’. Malala was a teenage schoolgirl in Pakistan who was shot in the head for the sin of going to school in a Taliban controlled area. Even in the 21st century, the human race is in such a cannibalistic state that it simply kills a girl for just trying to pursue education. Nearly all the teenage boys in those areas are forced to get only religious education without any access to technology, science or modern day current affairs. No male Malala is ready to die for them as they are kept completely ignorant of an outside world, internet, smart phones, video games and most importantly liberty. The dominant ideology here is not to suppress women alone, but total humanitarian development and evolution as a whole. While the children of the rich and the elite get educated in convents and foreign universities the children of the poor are forced to live a perilous life in complete ignorance. It is hard to believe millions of people are kept ignorant in the name of ideology just because they are poor even in this technology enhanced age. Representation of Poor As the Less Privileged Discrimination is prevalent in every possible field in several various forms. But the most dangerous of all is the discrimination of the working class and the poor people. Several laws are enforced upon them by the religion, by their community and the society in general preventing them from mixing with “the others” who are superior to them. The women are discriminated from men with low wages and lowly social status, Asian men are discriminated from the white men because of their colour and the working class white men are suppressed from the rich and the elite in the name of elite status. They are never given a chance to understand they too are made up of the same material and need not feel incompetent among “the others”. The mainstream media is very much responsible for creating unrealistic images of the poor and the working class. They often depict poor and the working class people as unlucky, faceless, undeserving demons. Take any gangster film working class poor people will be depicted as loud, arrogant and uncivilized. Coloured poor people will be shown as devious villains trying to take out the virginity of chaste white women, while the white men are portrayed as saviours who prevent the atrocity or race mixing. Similarly, poor working class women are portrayed as cunning, untrustworthy, seductive ladies with bad intentions. Else they are shown as dumb, submissive females (Espiritu). Most of the porn movies depict the black or coloured men and women committing what are considered sin by most of the society. They try to emphasize again and again the rich white class is benevolent, lucky and bearing the tortures created by the poor working class. Reinforcement of the “Get Rich” By the Society A child born and bought up in a poor or lower middle class background in any part of the world is forced to look into various images which makes him/her believe they can do anything to be rich as they are the ultimate symbols of success. Trying and imitating the rich white class in every way possible, using the exact things they use, everything becomes a part of this success chase (Moraga). A few days back, the news reported a teenager in China sold his kidney to buy a latest model iPhone and iPad. The youngsters are brainwashed to such an extent that being poor is wrong and getting rich or at least pretending to be rich is very important. They are ready to go to any level to do the same as their “imagination is arrested” preventing them to think beyond what is taught to them. Rarely enlightened youngsters like Malala from a poor background, who oppose what is forced upon them and seek liberty through right means like education and equality are forced to give up brutally through several violent means. Every successful person a child sees or hears about is mostly rich in money rather than in values. A recent survey indicated foot ball player Iker Cassilas is believed to be much more powerful than Jesus Christ by most of the European Kids. Every person is made to drive a mad race here, unmindful or their interests and capacity just to accumulate money without any second thought about what they are going to do with it. Enjoying the small things in life, helping others, accepting one’s status without striving with all the might to change it everything is a dream of the past. The poor and working class people become an easy target for the more privileged groups to exploit. They are suppressed in every way possible, in work, in getting educated, in getting proper medical help and being treated as an equal in the society. A detailed study conducted on the Harvard Law School Campus stated more than 50% of the students studying there are from the elite group of the society (Parrish, 2006). The situation is the same at all the Ivy League colleges. The best of everything including education is reserved for the rich, leaving very little chance of the other class to improve themselves. Oppositional Cultural Representations Just following the conscience is enough to create a difference. Understanding the extra penny we store in the bank is earned at the cost of some one’s daily food is important to create this awareness. This world is created equally for all. Every human, no matter what sex they are what God they worship or how poor they are having some basic human rights. Every person should take an oath to respect the same. The media should stop depicting the rich as the superpower and the normal people should come out of their greed and start earning what is really enough. The poor should understand being so is no sin and there are thousand different things to enjoy in their life too. We are not against improving ones situation, but it should be done with curiosity and happiness rather than stressful compulsion. One great example of such a scenario is the medical camps set up in Haiti. When the nation was plundered to rumble with a massive earthquake, several NGO workers from across the world camped there. They understood their main challenge was to change the mentality of the people. They started creating self-help medical camps rather than giving them free medicine. Once the people realized they are capable of treating themselves and need not copy the westerners exactly, their confidence and energy level grew by many folds, making them face their life with much more enthusiasm. Conclusion Bigotry of the poor and the working class people is not a problem segregated to one particular class of the people. They are the essence of maintaining a smooth world. Their manual labour is a must for the proper functioning of the world. If the middle class turns blind to their fate now there are chances of the rich doing the same to them in a short while. No law or Cultural Revolution could change the situation. Every person should simply understand they are not superior or inferior to anybody else in the world and start acting with conscience to prevent inequality wherever they see discrimination. It can simply start with shaking hands with the domestic worker and helping a watchman’s child gain better education. References Le Espiritu, Yen. “Ideological Racism and Cultural Resistance Constructing our own Images”. Gender and Sexism. Moraga, Cherrie. “La Guera”. Understanding Oppression and Privilege. Parrish, Rebecca. “The Meritocracy Myth an Interview with Lani Guinier”. The Wealth Inequality Reader. 3rd Ed. Boston: Dollars & Sense, 2006. Read More