The Most Discriminated Against Person in the World

So I was thinking, which is something I do a lot, about discrimination... more specifically about the fight against discrimination especially about the (black) civil rights movement, the (woman's) feminist movement (redundancy intended) and the (men and women's) gay rights movement. The ones I just mentioned are the "Big 3" as I like to call them because they're all the most commonly referred to movements relating to civil rights and the demand for the restoration of them by the affected groups.

These three movements, the gay rights one being the most recent, have fought and continue to fight for equal treatment not only under the law but socially too. The black citizens (male and female alike) demanded to be served equally in restaurants, sit in the seats they wanted to on buses, not be bullied away from voting, have equal access to public services such as education and hospitals and pretty much everything else. They were seen as inferior and stupid and so on and so forth while adult white (men) were seen as far superior in everyway and so because of that they restricted the education, movement, and rights of the black people in order to "keep them in their place." And as such the result was less educated black people due to the failure of their terribly underfunded school system that didn't teach them anything useful and the few that did manage to learn anything, such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, learned it fast and learned it early (he entered college at 15). So while not all black people suffered a useless, yet still mandatory, education system most did so because of the adult white male's stereotypical racist views of the black people being stupid, poor etc he physically forced them to become that way, he made them learn less and therefore made them earn less continuing the cycle of poverty and as a consequence crime (due to poverty) from his own stereotypical views! However, a few, such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, slipped through the cracks and achieved great things even while being threatened with his life if he dare stand up and fight back for the rights of all black men and women and unfortunately he was murdered but that did not stop his movement, his quest, his desire nor his war against oppression, if anything it strengthened it, he was martyred but his death forced off the chains of his people's oppression and finally they were free! Jim Crow laws were abolished and equality, or something close to it, became widely accepted and now, while racism still exists it is not near as bad as it was before. This is a movement to truly have awe for because they have suffered so much at the hands of white adults.

Now I shall speak of the women's feminist movement which came during and right after the black civil rights movement, the climax coming when abortion was legalized. Women have long since been oppressed by males of any color. Their movements restricted. Their votes denied. Their automony outlawed. Women could not even open bank accounts without their husbands approval up until the 50s and even then the checks had the husband's name on it. When a woman was married she was known as Mr. John Doe her identity was completely dependent on the consent of her husband, her last name lost forever, she was no longer the master of her own body and since abortion was illegal for the longest time her husband could rape her repeatedly to get her pregnant and then threaten harm to the growing fetus inside her and/or after it was born, especially if she didn't want to abort it. She was a prisoner in her own body and there was nothing she could do about it. Women were routinely committed into mental institutions if their husbands got angry at them or if they fought back. Women having the desire to have sex were actually diagnosed as having "hysteria" because while women were supposed to submit to sex whenever their husbands wanted it, regardless of whether or not she did, she wasn't supposed to have any desires to have sex, ever. Women fought long and hard and finally got the vote in 1919. Then in the 70s the women's rights movement exploded. Women were seen as separate from their husbands and they were free. They were recognized as full citizens.

The most recent civil rights movement is, of course, the gay rights movement. Homosexuality has long since seen as taboo (well since Judaism came along really, before that no one cared) and it was even seen as a disease. Homosexuals have been beaten, abused and murdered because they simply didn't like people of the opposite sex. All they wanted to be treated equally without fear of abuse (which of course involved getting married). Nowadays some can even get married! At least in the US. While gay soldiers still face being fired from the military simply because they like people of the same sex. So their fight still rages on and so does the fight for blacks and women.

(UPDATED 9/2/10)

So I never really got around to saying who the most discriminated against person in the world was. Well based upon what I have mentioned before. The three big civil rights movement - black, women and homosexual - are most certainly discriminated against but what happens when you have a black female homosexual? They have not 1, not 2, but 3 strikes against them. They have given their haters 3 reasons to hate them. But what about if this black female homosexual was 15 years old instead of 18 or 25 or 37 or 42? What if this 15 year old black female homosexual had HIV and was uneducated and below the poverty line? What if this poor soul had been raped in her childhood by her father and had to have an abortion? But wait, since she was under 18 and lived in a southern Christian state that required parental consent for her to have an abortion but her father had raped her and her mother was in jail? How about if her family was Muslim or atheist? Which would be worse? What if they were Muslim and SHE was an atheist? What if she wasn't 100% black but her mother was from Syria or North Korea? What if she wanted to run away from her abusive family? Since she's under 18 she is not allowed to do anything without parental permission. She runs away but hired thugs hunt her down and kidnap her to take her back to her family. Or perhaps they want to send her off to a "behavior modification camp" where she will be beaten and further sexually abused if she does not lay on the floor for 8 hours a day or go on hikes for 12 hours without rest or food or water. What if she has anemia and must eat and she passes out? What if she has a physical deformity or must sit in a wheelchair? Will she have any recourse? She's under 18 so she cannot sue, she's not yet 16 so she cannot emancipate (a big word for being "free from bondage/imprisonment/slavery"). What can she do but die?

That is the most discriminated against person in the world.

Kids should never be tried as adults but not because they're immature

There's been some debate raging about whether it's right to charge a "minor" as an "adult." There are essentially 2 main arguments both for and against this.

The for side generally has the saying, nay, the motto of "adult crime adult time" which is to say that things like rape and murder are only "adult" crimes which so-called minors (should) never do. However, this is a fallacy and a big one. If one merely takes a peek back in human history, during our more primitive eras one might say, there is strong evidence that these "children" raped and murdered in the thousands if not millions over the centuries. Children are just as capable if not more so capable of killing and raping other people especially adults! So why is it such a surprise when children kill or rape other people? Because society simply not only views, but demands by law, they be innocent and pure and we all know that's a load of horse manure. Children are not pure and they are fleetingly innocent (everyone reading this went through or is going through puberty, right? You know what I'm talking about, once you hit puberty your innocence is gone for good). Since children are fundamentally not pure and very fleetingly innocent what then are they that accounts for their... childlike... behavior? Naivety, of course. Children are kept in ignorance about the real world, they're told nothing about the legal system and their access to it almost impossible, unless of course, they're charged with a crime.

The against side's argument is simple as it is idiotic though I can't blame them for thinking this: minors are incompetent, minors are stupid, minors are immature and therefore they're less "responsible" or "culpable" for their crime. Now THAT is getting a "break" because you're young. I'm not necessarily against getting breaks but not because you're being seen as stupider than a doorknob. The whole idea around this is that they be given the "opportunit[y] to become productive adults. " Which of course means they're not being productive now (because they're incomepetent and are accused of a crime). This IS the brain argument at its height (that people under 25 have undeveloped brains and are incapable of making very rational choices) which is quite frankly a load of bollocks. Why is this a load of bollocks? Let me teach some biology really fast (note: I'm no brain surgeon or doctor): Once you reach 25 your brain does NOT finish developing and become a "complete" brain but instead it goes in reverse -- it means you get stupider. Ever heard of menopause in women? That's reverse puberty. You essentially turn into an oversized baby the older [and wiser?] you get.

But what about really young kids? Like the 9 year old charged as an adult? He killed two people didn't he? I don't know. Perhaps he did. Only he knows for sure. So is his brain underdeveloped? Is he less responsible for his actions? Should he have been charged as an adult? His brain is still developing, that is true as are his emotions, but it's not "underdeveloped" and he's not "less" responsible for his actions but he shouldn't be charged as adult. Why? Because he isn't one! He has no rights as an adult and being charged as one only grants him to ability to be given bail (apparently), he can't vote, he can't smoke, he can't sign contracts, he can't buy a house, he can't buy a car, he can't consent or refuse medical treatment and so on an so forth he can't do anything! Am I saying he should granted the right to smoke or buy a house etc?! Well, he doesn't have the credit to buy a house no lender would dare touch him and should he be allowed to smoke? Smoking kills. You smoke you have the high chance of dying from it but hey so does sugar (hello diabetes) but there's no age limit on that.

It's common sense here. Charge him as an adult give him the rights of an adult. He can go to the juvenile system until he's an adult (which for these purpose seems to be 21! WTF?) then transfer him to the adult system but don't label someone with no rights and only responsibilities and say they were responsible when they did it but deny them the rights of someone who actually is an adult! It's unfair, it's unjust and it's cruel.