Throughout this semester, I wrote about letting go of this flawed society.
I focused the majority of my columns on advocating for minorities’ fair treatment and commanded respect for our rights.
From the subtle abuse of different groups through microaggressions, to the injustice done by the Louisiana Legislature in its failure to recognize same-sex unions I’ve attempted to bring to light the reasons treatment of minorities in modern society still has a long way to go.
It’s time for LSU students to forget this limited scope of what makes a person “normal,” and the way to do this is to accept people’s differences.
My fellow columnist, Jana King, wrote a three-part series on racism this semester that explored the topic from a detailed perspective.
As a minority, I believe, like King said in her first column of the series, racism has reduced its instances of hatred and violence. However, racism is still engraved in society in the sense that we are so focused on detailing one another’s differences that we forget that, despite the color of our skin, we are all human beings.
The key to ending of racism in this world will never be by subconsciously segregating ourselves into our own groups.
At LSU, ceremonies like the robing ceremony and the Lavender graduation are examples of progress because the University is acknowledging different cultures.
But why should culture be celebrated in another ceremony? Why is there a need for a separate graduation ceremony for other cultures and the LGBT community?
Diversity shouldn’t be seen as a reason to separate social groups.
We should all be proud of our cultures and ethnicities, but I don’t think holding on to these ideals should stop us from interacting with people who share different beliefs, have different skin tones or happen to like people of the same sex.
The problem begins and ends with people.
America is flawed; the people who are currently in charge of our state and federal governments have an antiquated view of what is acceptable.
While slavery disappeared many decades ago, there are still laws — as well as human mentalities — preventing the peaceful interaction among people of all races, genders and sexual orientations.
As future graduates and the people getting ready to take over, college students have the obligation to let go of the “what is normal” mentality for the U.S. to truly say racism is over.
Another fellow columnist, Justin Stafford, wrote Wednesday agreeing with the affirmative action ban in Michigan, claiming it is no longer necessary in this day and age; because equality does not mean “we all get the same things,” but “we all get the same opportunities.”
However, society is not ready to get rid of what forces them to include minorities.
America will recover from its racist roots someday, just not yet.
As long as people keep poisoning young minds with ideas of separating the races, keeping same-sex couples as social pariahs and sticking to an antiquated system of social order, people won’t be able to live amicably amongst themselves.
It’s time for us to take a stand against our diseased social view of the world and start teaching the reality that we should all know by now:
Society decides what is normal, and someone’s race, gender, sexual orientation or religion should never be a deciding factor in this category.
Jose Bastidas is a 21-year-old mass communication junior from The Woodlands, Texas.