Earlier this week in the library I overheard a girl and boy sitting next to me talking about sexism. The girl went on about how female politicians, or females involved in politics, are being treated completely unfairly. She brought up the fact that in politics you may hear that "Sarah Palin is good looking", or that "Michelle Obama is overweight", but people never criticize how the men look. People just accept a ratty old looking man, but a bad looking woman stands out. I found this particularly interesting because in my last blog, I brought up how very often only the people who are being unfairly treated realize sexism or racism.
In the blog before that I wrote about how Rahm Emmanuel deserved to be a mayor regardless of his privileged upbringing. After what I heard in the library I began to wonder how much someone's perspective actually depends on things like how they grew up.
Earlier today,while watching The Colbert Report, I heard something else relating to how a person's upbringing changed his view. The video can be watched here one minute into the clip. Basically Mike Huckabee claimed that Obama was born in Kenya (which is not actually true) and has different perspectives than any other president because of this.
This again got me to thinking how someone's childhood effects who they are as an adult. I was reminded of my earlier belief, and now again believe that regardless of how people grow up, they can change their opinons. Even if Obama had grown up in Kenya, would that really make him unqualified to make decisions as a president (even though a president must legally be born in America)? It is too simplistic to judge someone on how they grew up, and politicians especially should be judged on their policies and decisions, not their childhood.
Trevor, I enjoy reading your blog a lot.
ReplyDeleteI believe one's upbringing definitely effects one's perspective and understand of things. People relate events and ideas to what they have experienced through out life. I, personally, will never truly understand poverty, and therefore really am not qualified to represent it. In relation to one of your previous blogs, people see those who have not experienced the problem's of the masses (being lower class or something like that) as being unqualified.
I'm a Sophomore at a private boarding school, and we're trying to convince my English teacher to not make us read Huck Finn. We also have to do a blog, but it can only be accessed by fellow classmates:/ Your topics are interesting. I really do enjoy them!