tolerance and discrimination

what do you think about homosexuals, about prostitutes, about fat people? are you a tolerant person? yesterday i received an e-mail from my girlfriend about my sign of the zodiac. I’m born under the sign of pisceas, which shall be easy to influence or in other words, they have the tendence to swim with the tide. although I think that doesn’t fit me, according to the maxim “only dead fishes swim with the tide, I do think that most of us do. and the majority again likes to make jokes about minorities. it’s easier to laugh, if someone makes a joke about people seeking asylum, aliens, jews, prostitutes or homosexuals, then to stand up and leave or just to mention:”I think, this is not funny.” and a lot of jokes we hear are at the expense of minorities. but would we tell a joke like this to this persons? we should be able to, if it’s so funny. I can understand, when people make jokes about people they don’t like (hitler, bin laden) or about people, who aren’t typical minorities, like blonde women. i do. but what about the others?

we have a lot of people, who are hostile to strangers and jokes about yugoslavs, turks or albanes are very common. the people the jokes are made about are often exchangable, but why do they always have to be about minorities? what about gay or lesbian people? you are born heterosexual, some gay, some are lesbian and others are bisexual – so what? what about fat people? some of them let themselfes go, ohters are born with an genetical defect. everyone of us could be fat or gay or just ugly. why can’t we just tolerate different people instead of making fun of them.  

who decides, who or what is beautiful? the majority does, the society, the advertising industry. in the society we live, you have to be tall, slim, intelligent and fit. times are changing. in the past, women with big behind were regarded as beautiful and men had to be fat, which expressed a good health and a well social standard. but it’s not only about time. there are also geographical differences. in cameroun women have to be fat and once I heard about an african tribe where men had to be extremly slim and tall. others enlarge their ears or lips, which would be very bizarre in our society.  

I think we all pointed our fingers at people that looked different or strange, people with disabilities for example, when we were younger. our parents told us not to do it and not to stare at those people. but the problem is not the questioning look of the children. instead of saying: “don’t stare”, parents should try to explain their children why this people look different, even if it isn’t always easy. we are older now, but sometimes we may still stare, are prejudiced towards somebody because of his appearance. it’s almost naturally but I think we can and should try to be mor tolerant in such situations.  

every person is different and individuality is one of the most important things in life. how boring life would be, if everybody had the same clothes, the same hairstyle or indeed the same opinion. the bottom line there’s no accounting for taste and different opinions make life interesting in exactly the same way. it’s all about tolerance.