Among other things, patronizing people based on
gender or race is taking away from the credibility of
success and makes the question for having something
earned even bigger. It affects every aspect of life.
People getting rewarded based on what gender or race
rather then merit or achievement. Everyone talks about
discriminating people but few talks about patronizing
people.
It’s nothing new either. For example, baseball great
Jackie Robinson is in the baseball hall of fame, has his
number retired on every baseball team in the US
(including those teams not existing in his time), but not
for the right reasons. But here’s the interesting part.
Everyone today knows he is a black man. But most
people who don’t follow baseball don’t know very much
else about him, his accomplishments as an athlete, his
life or even where he’s from. Some people don’t even
know he was an American. So, for all the hardship and
hard work he had underwent to play baseball, he isn’t
even being remembered for much more than his skin
color.
The same has happened or is happening to many
others through out our history. Sarah Fuller is being
exaggerated for her accomplishments as a college
football kicker where she was only involved in eight
plays, all in 1 whole season (6 squib kicks and 2 extra
point attempts), and as a soccer goalie, injured most of
the time, (total of 3 saves). All of this on scholarships.
Affirmative action and programs like it were made with
good intentions, but really send the wrong message
and is discrimination in itself. We need equal rights,
and not ways to “even it up”. Obviously, people have
really gotten carried away with patronizing people and
using personal disadvantage as a means of promotion.
Nowadays, patronizing accomplishments based on
race or gender also have come to rewriting history,
exaggerating someone’s accomplishments and other
practices that conflict with the meaning of fair play and
opportunity. Are we that shallow that we actually need
to credit people this way? We need to establish equal
rights for real, not just “leveling out the playing field”.
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