What is the meaning of discrimination?
I sit in the bank watching people wait in line and I notice a number of people with walking sticks. I wanted to offer them a seat while I waited in line in their place. Suddenly, it occurred to me that wanting to do something different for a person with disabilities than to the others means that I am treating them specially. Doesn’t treating a person differently lead to discrimination?
Everyday, we try to live our lives by doing the right thing. But what is the right thing? Is it right to help those who are weaker than us or is it only fair to treat them like any other person standing in line? If you wanted to help the disabled because you think they are weaker than non-disabled people, are you guilty of ableism? If you helped the disabled, and not anybody else, are you discriminating against the disabled, or the non-disabled people?
When you walk past someone in a wheel chair, do you look at them and try to figure out why they’re in a wheel chair, nod and smile as they pass you, or do you ignore them and pretend you never saw them? How do you ever know what’s the right thing to do in order to not discriminate against anybody?
I sit in the bank watching people wait in line and I notice a number of people with walking sticks. I wanted to offer them a seat while I waited in line in their place. Suddenly, it occurred to me that wanting to do something different for a person with disabilities than to the others means that I am treating them specially. Doesn’t treating a person differently lead to discrimination?
Everyday, we try to live our lives by doing the right thing. But what is the right thing? Is it right to help those who are weaker than us or is it only fair to treat them like any other person standing in line? If you wanted to help the disabled because you think they are weaker than non-disabled people, are you guilty of ableism? If you helped the disabled, and not anybody else, are you discriminating against the disabled, or the non-disabled people?
When you walk past someone in a wheel chair, do you look at them and try to figure out why they’re in a wheel chair, nod and smile as they pass you, or do you ignore them and pretend you never saw them? How do you ever know what’s the right thing to do in order to not discriminate against anybody?
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