A Small Rant On Oppression And Inequality In America

Every Friday in my AP Language and Composition class, we have a current events discussion. Each week there is a pair of students who are it for "My Week", this pair chooses a topic, posts the topic, three links (one for pro, one for con, and one that is neutral) on a Google presentation along with questions for the discussion for everyone to see.

One week, a pair did their discussion about the Women's March in Washington following the election. I should put on the record that I am a big believer and supporter of everyone's rights. That being said, I understood the premise of the March and I supported the big picture. Upon this in-class discussion, there were a few women in my class who I knew were very conservative and I knew that they would not support the march fully because the overview of the March just made it look like women protesting Trump, which many were.

But in my opinion of it, they were not protesting him directly, they were protesting his views and comments on women. They were marching to protect the rights that women now have, but didn't before. The one's that women of the past worked hard for and women of the present continue to work for and women of the future will work toward. They were marching because there is now a sexist president in office and that is scary.

Anyway, I am a very open-minded individual I think, I usually try to succeed in seeing all sides of an argument whether I agree or not. But some of the things they said took me aback. I didn't understand. When discussing that the march was for women's rights they said things like "we don't need anymore rights," and "we have all the rights we need," and "what else is there to ask for?" I sat there in my seat and thought in 1776 white men who owned land could vote, then in 1856 all white men could vote. In 1870, almost 100 years after voting was initiated, black men could then vote. It wasn't until 1920 that the right to vote was extended to all women. It hasn't even been 100 years since women were granted the right to vote.

There are still inequalities. Women don't get paid the same as men. The wage gap is very real. Women are taken less seriously in a business setting. Men are more likely than women to get picked for a promotion. Men are listened to more than women are. These may seem small in comparison to a lot of things, but for the female community they are big. It just astounded me that there are women in my age group that are either unaware or just don't care that there are still inequalities. Sure, we are in America, the land of equal opportunity, but that doesn't change peoples' thinking. The oppressive thinking that many older minds are conditioned to think, that sort of thinking that gets passed down to their offspring. Equality to me is actual equal opportunities. Gender not having a role in decisions and qualifications having 100% of the reason those decisions are. It's the same with race. It's 2017 and people are still racist. I get you can't cure racism, just like you can''t "cure" homosexuality (@Mike Pence). But, I guess that's another thing that I can't open my mind wide enough for to understand why someone's pigment determines their character, but it doesn't and their gender doesn't either. People are people. No matter what their sexual orientation is, their gender identity, their size, their education, their living quarters, their family. Everyone deserves equal opportunities. It's 21st century America. Decisions should be based on qualifications, not our differences.