Andres+C's+2+Final+AmEx+2015+Speech

Just Treat People Nice, Man. ‘Equality is not a concept. It’s not something we should be striving for. It’s a necessity” Joss Wheden. We were all probably told from a young age that everyone in society is equal, however not all of us are treated equally; the different perceptions we all have of people in the world today cause depression, exclusion, and disunity. We are unfortunately unequal in civilization because of things like homophobia, sexism, and racism. We grow up mirroring the ideas of those around us; discrimination is therefore, not something we’re born with it’s something we learn.
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It is estimated that in the U.S., a teen takes their own life every 5 hours because they are gay, bisexual, transgender, or lesbian, and cannot deal with the added stress and cruelty that society puts upon them. Homophobia is prejudice against homosexual people and homosexuality. In today’s society, there are increasing suicides in the youth due to anti-gay bullying that is currently unaddressed at school, verbal and physical abuse, which resonates in the child’s mind making them believe they are inferior in any kind of way to those of straight orientation. And when a kid can go home to mom and dad who had the audacity to tell him “get over it” as if depression is something that can be remedied by any of the contents found in a first aid kit, as if homosexuality is a choice that we have jurisdiction over, or as if we can change who we are attracted to. And if you can’t see anything beautiful about yourself, get a better mirror, look a little closer, stare a little longer because there’s something inside you that made you to keep trying, despite everyone who told you to quit, you built a cast around yourself and you signed it They Were Wrong! And maybe you don't belong in a group or a clique, but that shouldn’t change your lifestyle in any kind of way you have to believe that they were wrong.

They’re not the only ones that grow up this way, women who are fighting for their equality are often ridiculed and judged for trying to once and for all reach the same economic and political status men have enjoyed for so many years. I’ve noticed that fighting for women’s rights has too often become mistaken with man hating. I have often confused it myself and made remarks about it, but Feminism is by definition, the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities, because how can we advance as a civilization when half of the population feels inferior and unwanted. I’ve realized that feminism has become an unpopular word, and it no longer stands for the movement of equal gender rights, but now instead stands for the taking away of male ones. Why has the word become such an uncomfortable one? We must also realize that men don’t have the benefits of equality either, we don’t often talk about how men are being imprisoned by gender stereotypes and when they are freed they are still often condemned by society and will remain an outsider. We don’t often talk of the suicide rates in young men, and we very often overlook the father’s role in parenting and consider it unimportant to the child’s development. It is time we perceive gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals (Emma Watson)

Surrounded by people who used to say that rhyme about sticks and stones, as if broken bones hurt more than the names we got called and we got them all, beaner to wetback, illegal to immigrant, so I’m doing all I can to overcome these stereotypes presented before me. You Have To Believe That They Were Wrong ! To this day, despite a loving husband, she doesn’t think she’s beautiful, because of racial slurs that were constantly spoke to remind her of where she came from. And they’ll never understand that she’s raising three kids whose definition of “beauty” begins with the word mom, because they see her heart before they see her skin and she’s only ever always been amazing. But I want to tell them that all of this is just debris, leftover from when we finally decided to smash all these things we thought we used be. Labeled and judged before the first words were spoken, assuming I’m illiterate or ignorant, and often times reiterating in my head “how can I, as a human being, possibly be illegal”. Uncertainty kicks in “am I illegal”; insecurity says “I am”.

To quote one of the first books we read in Foothill Brave New World “I am I, and I wish I weren’t” But in an America I want to grow old in I will be. And the fading voices scream out, words will never hurt me; of course, they did. But our lives will only always continue to be a balancing act that has less to do with pain, and more to do with acceptance.

Heavily inspired by poem "To This Day" by Shane Koyczan Emma Watson's speech to United Nations: I'm a feminist was quoted
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