Discrimination Is Alive and Well in 2014
In the past few weeks both Jon Stewart and John Oliver have done incredible segments on their shows about how discrimination is alive and well in 2014. Jon Stewart used his first episode back on The Daily Show after a two week break to talk about the Ferguson shooting and the fact that racism is still alive and well in the US today. And John Oliver used his show, Last Week Tonight to bring up the embarrassing fact that in 2014 we are still paying women less then men.
Lets start with the gender pay gap. The fact that this hasn't been solved yet is insane. What is the problem? Why are we not paying someone doing the same job the same amount of money. In full disclosure, Jenn's previous job focused on women in the workplace and the discrimination placed on them. So yes I'm probably a little biased but it doesn't change the fact that there is still a pay gap and it needs to be fixed. Why in 2014 are men and women being paid differently?
I'm happy that we're making strides as a nation and as a world to try and treat people equally. There is no reason why a women in 2014 (or any year for that matter) should be paid differently then a man for the same job. Period. I appreciate that President Obama is at least saying the right things even if his staff (as you will see in the video) is not being paid the same. Good job Obama (sarcasm). But come on people this is ridiculous and needs to be fixed. Good on John Oliver for bringing this to the forefront.
Next up is the tragic shooting in Ferguson. I haven't been following the Ferguson shooting that closely but I thought Jon Stewarts first episode back after a couple week break might have been his best work of the year. Quite frankly we don't know the facts of the case and I think Stewart took some liberties with that. But his most salient point wasn't really about Ferguson at all. His point was that we as a society try to downplay that racism is still a thing in 2014. If anyone tells you there isn't racism in America, then they should really watch this. Make sure to stick around for the last couple of minutes where Jon really drives it home. If you're like me it will make you sick to your stomach.
I tend to try and keep my political beliefs off my blog. I use my blog more as a way to track the moments of my life then push my own beliefs on people. But every once in a while issues like these come up and it upsets me. My degree in college was Sociology. And to be honest it hasn't been super practical for my day-to-day career and life. But one of the things I loved about all the classes I took was a core understanding that people are inherently scared of things that are different from them. And I think these two videos show more then anything else is that there are people in this world desperately trying to cling on to the ways of the past. When the past really wasn't all that great to begin with. I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes of all time:
“The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.”
