Hey Everyone,
Yea, yea, it's me, Shelly1. I know I haven't been on for a while and I haven't been visting Whyville much because of it always being busy, and I really missed writing for you guyz, so I thought I'd throw this together since I have strong views on this... anyway, let's get to my point.
I agree with Wench totally about the discrimination and labeling in Whyville. It is getting out of hand; it is in fact part of the reason I don't come on Whyville very much anymore. The discrimination, racism, labeling, whatever you want to call it HAS gotten out of hand.
When I first started coming to Whyville, I had a lot of fun. There was no labeling in our little town of 200. People were always happy to see you and everyone was treated as equals. It didn't matter what your race was, your hair style, what you wore, how long you had been on... none of that affected us. That all has changed, which was expected.
As our small town got older and grew, new people with different opinions, racial views, and people that were just used to being labeled came and started affecting the way our community thought and acted.
Today, Whyville has a big problem with discrimination. Constantly you see people arguing over it, in everyday conversations, through the Times, through their emails. Everyone is constantly putting someone down about how they look, about their opinions, their style, there friends, and anything else they can possibly find.
We all know it shouldn't matter to us! Newbie/oldbie, black/white, blonde/brunette, dumb/smart, goth/goodie-goodie -- the list just goes on and on, people! But does any of that really matter? People picking and nagging and judging and labeling and discriminating! We all know it needs to end. But no matter how hard we try, we find ourselves doing it. It's human nature. We all find ourselves thinking, "Oh look, a newbie.", " Ew, what is that person wearing?", "Ug, I better not ask her for money, she's an oldbie.", "I'm not talking to him, he's white!", "Omg, another stupid blonde." And I can just keep on going....
Yes Wench, I agree with you. I know it should stop, and I've tried to stop it many times. But the fact is, most people in Whyville are happy with it. They don't realize they are constantly doing it, and yes, I admit to having labeled and discriminated people and groups before, but unfortunately that's just the way it is. People have their own views, groups, and opinions. If only we could all get along, stop labeling and discriminating.
That's not going to happen though, and for most of you, this article will probably go through one ear and out the other. I've read articles like this and Wench's a million times it seems, this battle has been fought over and over again, but it doesn't seem to get through. Some people have dedicated their whole lives in a fight against discrimination. It gets through to some, but it soon becomes yesterday's news, and people forget and return to their old ways. It seemed so important at the time; you had such strong views... but they faded. No matter how many times it gets brought up, it never seems to change anything... what have we come to?
Even if this doesn't make a difference in the lives of most of you, I hope I reached some of you. Please hold onto this. Yes, it may be human nature, but you have free will! You don't have to discriminate against people for stupid things, or go along with the crowd. You don't have to exclude people because of the way they look or because of religion, race, or clique. Yeah, it'll be tough, because we're just used to it. The media does it all the time; everyone else does it too. But it's still your choice.
So next time, before you judge or label someone, think twice. Maybe even make the effort to get to know them. What if it was you in their position?
~Shelly1~
