Diversity, except....
Today I had the great honor to attend a fantastic diversity awareness workshop. We had many great discussions, and thankfully no activity involved putting post-its on our heads that displayed a random ethnicity of which we were unaware but had to guess based on how others treated us.
We talked about issues related to race, gender, religion, disability, and class. We discussed hate, stereotypes, and oppression. We saw a particularly interesting film titled 'The Passion of Sister Rose' about a Catholic nun who battled anti-semitism in the Catholic church (for those who don't know, at one time most Catholic textbooks stated nasty things about Jews and blamed them for "killing christ.")
We talked about how various groups, over time, have been both the victims and the perpetrators of hate. Jews killed Christ, they are the devil's children. Gays are going to hell. Muslims are terrorists. Women are responsible for all sin because Eve at the fruit of the forbidden tree. Short people got nobody to love.
The list goes on!
Today's villain, the group it seems "okay" to hate (meaning enlightened groups haven't yet figured out it's still discrimination) is the Pit Bull.
I know. Dogs aren't human. Nevermind that they ARE intelligent, sentient animals. Nevermind that many of the same ultra-liberal animal rights activitists that throw paint on people who wear fur and claim that animals are souls, too will proclaimly loudly that Pit Bulls should die (Ingrid Newkirk, PETA, in a June 2005 letter proclaimed her support of shelters killing all Pit Bulls and a complete ban on Pit Bull breeding to exterminate the breed).
I don't understand how people who believe in "animal rights" and that animals are souls and swear that eating meat is akin to supporting murder could advocate for the extermination of an intelligent, sentient animal based solely on that animal's appearance and/or happenstance of DNA. Then again, I own a Pit Bull. Call me biased... or perhaps a better word than biased is EDUCATED by first-hand and long-term experience.
Sure, there are those out there who have been bitten or attacked by a Pit Bull and who therefore demand all Pit Bulls be put to death, just like there are those out there who have been assaulted or raped by someone who has dark skin. Of course, having dark skin doesn't make one a rapist or murderer. By the same token, having short hair, a wide chest, and a medium muzzle doesn't make a dog vicious.
It should go without saying, there are Jews who aren't good with money. There are muslims who aren't terrorists. There are women who aren't emotional. There are men who can ask for directions. There are labradors who won't retrieve.
And there are Pit Bulls who are not vicious.
To blame and kill every individual that, by unfortunate happenstance, is part of a group where, at one time, one or more individuals within that group has done something objectionable is to ultimately condemn every species to oblivion.
In other words, people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Humans have killed more humans than all dogs combined, in case you missed the point. (And the N a z i s were Germans, and the U.S. engaged in slavery, and some Arabs flew planes into the World Trade Center).
I propose a radical concept. Let's hold individuals accountable for their OWN actions, not the actions of others that happen to share some commonalities in appearance.