The article is obviously transphobic. The beginning of the article makes a counter statement against the anti-discrimination law by stating people, “should instead be more accepting of the people who aren’t as comfortable with working with people who identify as transgender.” Imagine If the word ‘people’ was replaced with ‘KKK’, and the group ‘transgender’ was replaced with ‘black’, the statement would be incredibly racist. The statement simplifies to accepting discrimination for personal feelings. I don’t believe the author intended for the article to have such a negative response to transgender. They are obviously more annoyed with the political agenda of the government rather with the social issue at hand, which explains their ignorance.
For one, discrimination is a serious issue, which still exists in major cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles and everywhere else. The article also seems to undermine transgender discrimination, by stating if people are not willing to accept transgender, we cannot use the law to change one’s minds. The author seems to think the law cannot be used to protect people, because the law cannot change the general public’s belief and mindset. If the same belief were used during the civil rights movement we would still reside in a county with racist attitudes. The use of ‘narrow and personal’ as adjectives for the issues at hand explain the articles ignorance towards the entire issue. Basically the article undermines the need for laws to protect against discrimination and it doesn’t provide any evidence towards why we don’t need new laws.
I specially like how you note author's collapsing of "accepting discrimination" with "personal feelings."
ReplyDeleteI think you pointed out what's really such a shame about this article. I feel like in reality if the author only had one transgender friend to speak to, they would understand exactly why they both face similar struggles. Like why work so hard to have a campus full of different kinds of people if we're not going to ever have them communicate with each other?
ReplyDelete--Jheanelle G.
Conner's points on the power of the law on people's understanding stands out to me, because I had just argued the same point in Jheanelle's "It Gets Better...Physce!" post. I agree that laws cannot change people's opinions overnight, they just don't create understanding in those that are blind to discrimination or worse, those that see their discrimination justified, as is the case with the author.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to Jheanelle's point about how while our university boasts the diversity and the most international students, there is still a lack in understanding. Just the same way students won't go in the middle of the day to talk to strangers around Tommy Trojan to learn about their personal struggles and accomplishments (if there is someone who does do this, I want to meet them and join them), the anti-discrimination laws won't push employers to seek out transgendered employees to understand their marginalization.
However, there is still reason to enact such laws and to take pride in a diverse student body. Only with such legislation can discriminated individuals fight back with legality. And only when international students and American students are put in the same classroom can they learn about each other's culture. Understanding cannot be forced, but it can be fostered.