Ridding society of prejudices and hate is …show more content…
a colossal goal, and achieving it can only come from shifting the way our society operates and allowing everyone to be seen and treated as equals. Achieving this goal can only come from changing the way our current society functions and making it apparent that all of us must change for the better. Changing society is most definitely a difficult task and will likely take generations to accomplish, however it is still possible and in order to sustain our population and allow everyone to be accepted by each other in the future, we must work on achieving these goals now. Also, we can facilitate the process of making these changes to our society by using certain strategies and achieving certain mindsets in order to do so. Joseph P. Overton explains how we can accomplish changing society in a theory he developed called the Overton Window.
Imagine, if you will, a yardstick standing on end.
On either end are the extreme policy actions for any political issue. Between the ends lie all gradations of policy from one extreme to the other. The yardstick represents the full political spectrum for a particular issue. The essence of the Overton window is that only a portion of this policy spectrum is within the realm of the politically possible at any time. Regardless of how vigorously a think tank or other group may campaign, only policy initiatives within this. (qtd. In Carter …show more content…
n.pag.) As Overton states, change must happen gradually or it will likely not be accepted. Putting a stop to hate will take serious time and will likely occur over the span of multiple generations. This is important to note because in order for the change that ends discrimination in our society to be implemented, it must first be accepted. If we attempt to make change happen all at once, there will likely be extreme backlash of the ideas that are being attempted to be instated.
It is also paramount that we focus on educating our youth about equality, as they will determine the success in the field of eliminating tensions between one another and accepting each other’s differences. As stated by Vicki Botnick, a licensed professional on goodtherapy.org, “the ways we talk about people, stereotype, or express fear are noticed by our children, we have to be careful about our own, perhaps unacknowledged, prejudices. If we sprinkle a more compassionate viewpoint into the way we talk and act, our kids are more likely to take on this softer point of view” (n.pag.). Children view their parents as their idols in life, and they will go out into the world spreading the ideas and viewpoints that they most likely acquired from their parents early on. If we teach our youth proper values and acceptance, they will then likely proceed to spread these values they were taught to others in their life. The unfortunate issue with changing society through the process of teaching our youth is that while it could be incredibly successful, it would be difficult to perform. In order to have adults teach their children that hate and discrimination are unacceptable acts, you must first change the mindset of their parents. Changing the mindset of those who already have a certain mindset about a topic is most definitely not easy. This is part of the reason why stopping prejudice is so problematic, as most children will act how they were raised and taught to act, so this continuous cycle of hate makes its way throughout every generation. Changing society will be a difficult task to accomplish however society must keep the mindset that it is possible.
While it is crucial that humankind eliminates hate, discrimination and bigotry, it is also important that we institute these actions within the parameters that are necessary to do so. It is inhumane to prosecute an individual for their intentions and beliefs as this violates the first amendment in the United States constitution which states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” As clearly stated in the first amendment, the people are allowed freedom of thought and speech, meaning that if they are not to actually commit a crime or endanger one’s life, they are within the parameters of the constitution and should thus not be charged or have a certain amount of time tacked on to their sentence. This is important to eliminating hate from society because simple laws will most definitely not eradicate hate as a whole, and by putting people in prison for actions that are allowed by the constitution, we are simply creating more hate in those people who will then spread that mindset to others. In order to change society, we must be tolerable of those who may hold certain prejudices, simply advising them to change their mindset. People are significantly more likely to change their minds if they are not directly or hostilely confronted about an issue that they may hold strong beliefs about.
Another flaw with hate crime laws is that those who are being accused of hate crime will serve longer periods of time in prison despite they may have committed the same act as another individual, however in their crime they were found guilty of a hate crime.
This is another example of how hate crime laws are flawed, as they can actually be unfair in the judicial system. “By punishing perpetrators of the same crime differently, they contend, hate crime laws privilege some victims over others”(“Hate Crime Laws: Are” 11). As mentioned in the quote previous, hate crime laws actually sentence people who had malicious intent to longer periods of time in prison, despite the fact that they may have committed the exact same crime as another person. In order to eliminate hate from society, we must, as mentioned by Martin Luther King Junior, use love to do so. Putting people in prison for extended periods of time will simply infuriate them more and drive their hatred and prejudices. A primary example of this in text is the the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Once the trial has taken place and Tom Robinson is declared guilty, Bob Ewell is still enraged despite the fact that his family won the case. The simple fact that it took as long as it did for jury to decide on a verdict was enough to infuriate him. Had the jury declared Tom Robinson innocent he likely would have taken out his anger on other African Americans living in the town. This example of racism in the book can be
translated to someone who may be sentenced to extended periods of time for having committed a hate crime and being sentenced to extended periods of time in prison. This would simply drive their hate and prejudices farther rather than eliminate them.
Hate, discrimination and prejudice all unfortunately play a large role in how society operates today. By eliminating these items however, we can make our planet more productive and create a more friendly environment for all people. To eliminate hate, we must change as a society and teach acceptance rather than trying to accomplish this task through the process of laws and other items that may simply increase the hate we see in society today.
Works Cited
Botnick Vicki , MA, MS, LMFT, GoodTherapy.org Topic Expert Contributor. "Teaching
Tolerance: How to Foster Acceptance in Children." GoodTherapy.org Therapy Blog. N.p., 10 Aug. 2016. Web. 16 Mar. 2017.
Carter, Joe. "How to Change a Society in 5 Easy Steps." TGC - The Gospel Coalition. N.p., n.d.
Web. 16 Mar. 2017.
"Hate Crime Laws: Are hate crime laws effective?" Issues & Controversies, Infobase Learning,
28 Aug. 2014, http://icof.infobaselearning.com/recordurl.aspx?ID=14183. Accessed 21 Mar. 2017.
"Hate Crime Laws." (n.d.): n. pag. An Introduction to Hate Crime Laws. Anti-Defamation
League. Web. 21 Mar. 2017.
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Grand Central, 1960. Print.
-Martin Luther King Junior