Schwalbe and My Life!

It’s no secret that I’m an advocate for the gay community. One thing I do to help out is that when people say ‘that’s so gay’ or use the f word to describe objects for people, I tend to speak my mind. I hate it when people say that because they don’t understand the severity of their words. As I was reading, Schwalbe mentions the idea of racist jokes for the intention of being funny. He also says it reinforces that people are stupid, vain, immoral, or inferior. He says “the sentiments expressed in the joke might decrease sensitivity to others’ feelings and to their needs for help” and make people seem unworthy of friendship. He also states that it can be subtle and have a delayed effect and it doesn’t matter if harm wasn’t intended. Its something I see every day at Stevenson. People call every little thing gay and don’t think about others who may here them. I start thinking of the kids who are not open about their orientation who have to hear stuff like that every single day. Like Schwalbe says it decreases sensitivity to others so that when this person is open about them selves, people might think they are ‘immoral or stupid.’ In the issue of the Statesman that came out before break, I spoke about this issue because teachers now a days don’t seem to care when these harsh words are said in their classrooms. The reason I stand so strong about this issue you can tell many different races by sight but you can’t always tell who is gay. So when making a racist joke about African American, for example, students will generally stay away from anyone of that race so they don’t get offended. But when students are gay, many times you can’t tell and they end of saying these offensive words, and the poor student is forced to hear it. And I hope as Schwalbe says later, “if we understand how others circumstances differ from ours, we are more likely to show compassion for them and grant them respect they deserve as human beings.”