Racism

Now, I know I've said that time and time again that racism and discrimination is one thing I totally hate. Well, it is. Racism and discrimination is kind of like a crowbar that pries people apart. We're all the same inside. It's just on the outside we're different, and that's what makes us unique. If we all looked the same, this world would be boring, I like a little diversity.

Here are some types of racism/discrimination:

Redlining: process of denying/increasing the cost of services like banking, insurance, access to jobs, supermarkets, health care in racially defined areas
Scientific racism: using science to prove there are differences between the races
White supremacy: belief that whites are superior to everyone else
Homophobia: discriminatory/racial violence towards those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender
Biphobia: discriminatory/racial violence towards those who are bisexual
Transphobia: discriminatory/racial violence towards those who are transgender
Sexism: discrimiantion towards someone because of gender
Labeling: putting someone's ethnic background before American
Anti-Semitism: prejudice against/hostility towards people of the Jewish faith or people who are Jewish
Apartheid: legalized racial segregation that occurred in South Africa from 1948-1993
Ethnic Cleansing: using force/intimidation to remove a group of people from an area
Genocide: deliberate and systematic destruction of a part or whole ethnic, racial, religious, or national group
Institutional Racism: racism/discrimination that occurs within private businesses, universities/colleges, public govt. offices
Racial purity: selcection, by a govt., of what is considered to be the most physically, mentally, intellectually and morally superior people to raise the next generation. Also known as selective breeding.
Racial segregation: separation of humans intto racial groups
Racial profiling(Stereotyping): the act of assuming things about a certain ethnic, racial, religious or national group with out more knowledge of that culture or group.

Hate Crimes

Hate crimes are committed against someone because of religious beliefs, race, ethnicity, etc.
Examples include:
-Anchorage, Alaska: White teens videotaped themselves shooting native Alaskans with paint balls
-Springfield, Missouri: A black male and a white woman were at a local Denny's and the male was stabbed to death by white male patrons in the company of the white woman
-San Diego, California: elderly Latino immigrants were attacked by white teens. The body of a Latino teen was also found in the same general area of the immigrant attacks
-Marquette, Kansas: a black male employee of a construction company said that he was being racially harassed, through racist grafitti, and name calling
-Bronx, New York: a Jewish synagogue was vandalized by 4 Arab-American males

Gay Bullying/Gay Bashing

Gay Bullying: verbal/physical actions that are direct and indirect towards those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender
Gay Bashing: the same thing as above, just another name. Examples of this include sexual slurs, expletives, intimidation, or threats of violence
Gay bullying involves intentional and unprovoked attacks, repeated negative actions by more than 1 person, and strong physical and psychological threats and attacks.
Sometimes people who are LGBT may fall victim to names like queer, fairy, homo, sissy, faggot.
An exmaple of the kind of result gay bullying can have is the case of Matthew Shepard. He was a University of Wyoming student who just happened to be gay. He was beaten to death on Oct. 12, 1998 by 2 teens, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. They robbed Matthew, pistol-whipped him, tortured him and left him to die. 18 hours later, he was found by a biker going by, Matthew being in a coma, was mistaken for a scarecrow. And also on a trip to Morocco Matthew had gone on, he was sexually assaulted.

RIP Matthew. :D