Original Oratory – The Joke Where No One Laughs

So let me tell you a story, the other day in Forensics class someone was like

“Tanya? …” and I was like “ No, its Diana!” and they were like “Shoot! I swear all

Asians look alike.” And in my head I just thought “Right… Okay well, just like how all

Asians are good at math, and just like how Asian parents are ALWAYS strict, oh and the

old Asians are always good with computers. Right. That explains my D in Trigonometry

right now and how I don’t even know the difference between hard drive and the monitor.

Oh and by the way I love that one joke where it’s like, “Did you hear about the look alike

contest in China? Yea everyone won. Yea that’s getting old folks! I know it already!!!”

And I just ended up saying “Gosh Becky, seriously don’t be my friend anymore.” Has

this ever happened to you? Have you ever been discriminated against? Yes, it happens

and yes, here I am to say that this evil word called discrimination has expanded beyond

its actual roots. And has become something that is feared in America that society

constantly throws around. “I didn’t win because I’m black!” “I didn’t get the modeling

gig because I’m too fat” “ I didn’t get the job because I’m gay!” “I didn’t get the

scholarship because I’m Muslim!” We’re constantly in fear and also using discrimination

almost as an excuse for the things we don’t achieve or accomplish. Discrimination has

transformed into an Americans’ version of an excuse of which we have become way too

sensitive to. Through this I will address the history of this problem, then I will tackle on

the yee ol’ question how this problem affects us, and last how you can start the solution!

To begin describing one of our country’s flaws we must first identify an analogy

used to describe our country ethnically and culturally. Melting pot - is an analogy for the

way in which homogeneous societies develop, in which the ingredients in the pot are
combined so as to develop a multi-ethnic society. The term, which originates from the

United States, is often used to describe societies experiencing large scale immigration

from many different countries. (1) This idealism called the melting pot has become a

reason for modern day Americans to demand even more rights. Which in turn have made

us extremely sensitive to the media and everyone elses’ opinion, that in a way we have

become too culturally sensitive. Yes, we try to be as politically correct as possible but

where do we draw the line between freedom of speech and offending someone, where do

we draw the line between defending your rights and looking for something to nit pick at?

In the last ten years we’ve seen the development of societial frequencies becoming more

accepting with homosexuals, racial ethnicities and cultures of all kinds. Of course there

are the occassional closed minded people but for the most part America has become

accepting of other people’s cultures more so then any other country on Earth. Now as we

can see after last years’ holiday with clear displays of fighting over the “religion aspect”

of the holidays, Atheists and Christians have fought back and forth as to what is

politically correct and what is not. This development of picking and agreeing to disagree

has changed into an issue of actual freedom of speech and compromising of civil rights

and liberties. In a letter to the editor by Andrew Wisdom in the Daily Collegian he states

“Anytime anyone doesn't like something someone says, they whine about it. Whether it's

a network airing a controversial movie or a football coach answering a question about an

alleged sexual assault, somebody is going to launch a boycott or demand that someone

apologize or be fired - The paranoid passive majorities have even started policing

themselves so as not to upset the vocal minorities.” The coach that Wisdom was referring

to was the case of the National Organization of Women's group asking Joe Paterno the
former Penn State football coach to apologize or resign because of his statement

concerning a sexual assault case at a press conference," Jan. 9, 2006. (2) Another case of

sensitivity is something that we all heard that happened about 8 years ago when Atheist,

Michael Newdow, went to the Supreme Court with a Pledge of Allegiance case telling

that school children should not be involved in the “religious activity” forcefully. (3)

Although a highly debated issue at the time, how much does pledging your allegiance to

your country really affect your lifestyle Atheist or not Atheist? Another classic example

of being too culturally sensitive, although all cultures should be represented they’re

called minorities for a reason, according to the Central Intelligence Agency 78.5% of

Americans claim Christianity as their religion. (4) In essence America is a large interest

group and a community of people ruled out by the majority. There were cases such as

people actually wanting to get rid of Christmas and banning Rudolph the Red Nose

Reindeer and other outrageous stories. Another story is the recent events of Proposition

Eight on the ban of gay marriage also emphasizes this problem. People scream on

YouTube and shout on blogs how wrong it is for California to ban gay marriage however

what they fail to see is although this country claims freedom it is still a young country in

the works of progressing. Attacks on the Mormon community were made by the gay and

non-gay community that opposed Proposition 8, graffiti, picketing, and name calling

were all among only a few of the things that occurred while voicing their opinion through

their persuasion of politics, although some view as wrong, some also view as right. This

massive stream of opinionated people have led to the Christian community to feel a sense

of disrespect to their beliefs. They stand for freedom of speech but then also demote

others’ freedoms of speech. Our sensitivity is ultimately our weakness as a country to get
anything done, our urgency to cater to every minority is quiet appalling. But our

democracy is still set in stone, 52% of Californians voted to ban gay marriage meaning

that although close, half of the people in California still are against gay marriage.

Compared to what African Americans have faced in the past, on a scale America has

become too sensitive, especially with how fast this country progresses.

This problem affects us in every way because it distracts us from bigger and

worse problems. Potential nuclear world war, natural disasters, a failing economy, entire

countries that hate us, and the welfare of the planet are on the agenda and we don’t have

enough time to be sensitive to issues like banning Rudolph the Red Nose reindeer, and to

recognize a sign that is not being posted to represent a certain community.

Bibliography

1.) Henry, James. The American Scene. Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
1968.
2.) Wisdom, Andrew. "The Daily Collegian". Penn State. 1-5-09
<http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2006/01/01-18-06tdc/01-18-06dops-letter-
02.asp>.
3.) Hamilton , Marci A. . "CNN.com". CNN. 1-5-09
<http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/03/26/hamilton.pledge/index.html>.
4.) "CIA World Book". Central Intelligence Agency. 1-5-09
<https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html>.