Discrimination Exists: It’s Time We Get Over It and Move On

Tuesday, December 09, 2014

B. Scott Taylor, GoLocalPDX MINDSETTER™

I’m getting dizzy talking about Ferguson and New York City and about blacks and whites, (not that I haven’t spent many hours doing just that, and not that it’s not important.)

Fighting about who has it tougher or who gets treated better or worse gets us nowhere.

The truth is that none of us are treated “equal” at any given time or place in our lives. Don’t count on it. It has never been the case. Ever!

Discrimination and prejudice are pillars in our society that are at times bitterly unfair, but display honest human emotions and perceptions and can be found in every aspect of our lives.

Rich or poor. Young or old. Black or white. Good looking or ugly. Short or tall. Skinny or fat. Funny or boring. Bald or hairy. Smart or dumb.

The list goes on and on and depending on what the consequence of that discrimination is or was, you will get treated favorably or unfavorably.

The saying “life isn’t fair,” is an understatement.

Everyone knows that and yet some people try to bend time. They try to twist something backward or forward into a perceived moment when things were fair or will be fair.

This is absolutely delusional.

Killing innocent people is unfair.

Getting a job because the hiring boss likes blond hair and you remind her of her favorite niece is unfair. Getting promoted because you’re a good golfer and your boss wants you to be on his Scrabble team at his WASPy club is unfair. It happens all the time.

If one wants to keep track of what color a human being is when innocently killed, so be it. It does not change the fact that it will continue to be senseless and unfair, undeserved for whoever that person is. This is unjust yet should be expected.

Unless some primal change occurs to a species that has participated in the practice of discrimination and profiling since the beginning of time, we can expect more to come.

So navigating these truths becomes a strategy. How do we get to the finish line fulfilled and mostly unscathed?

I decided that—since growing up I was poor, white, lacking high intellect, a bad speller, of average height, unlikely to be a male model, and had skinny ankles—I would use what I thought were my strengths and give life a go. I got cheated, and treated unfairly, misjudged and profiled in many circumstances. The fact that I was treated unfairly although perhaps in different ways than others did not make me feel superior or less cheated.

This is a futile competition.

So who wins if innocent whites are killed more or if innocent blacks are killed more?

It’s horrible either way, right?

People can be punished, laws can be made to stop obvious offenses but it will not change the fact that discrimination and favoritism, racism and innocent human beings dying exists and will be a way of life now and in the future.

To what degree this exists is up to us as human beings. As humans we happen to also possess innate, common emotions like love, understanding, empathy, forgiveness and humor. Maybe because we possess these emotions we can trick the system for the good of all. Maybe we don’t try to change what is unchangeable but we try and dupe our own sorry selves into being better then we naturally are.

Originally from New York, Scott Taylor moved to Portland in 1996. He's an entrepreneur, Internet millionaire, former MadMan, author, eco-industrialist and disruptive force.