For this blog I first need to fill you in on a little bit about me. My girlfriend's uncle is in the army, and was recently stationed in Iraq, when he came back he brought a bracelet of spent shells. This bracelet was too big for her to wear, so she let’s me wear it. I wore it nearly everyday. One day some teacher/administrator told me not to wear it any more. This teacher/administrator had actually joked with me about them being live and going off in my eyes, so when he told me to take them off and never wear them again, I wasn’t sure whether or not if he was joking. I continued to wear them and one day he saw them and took them away from me. I spent 3 days after school trying to track him down to get them, and finally got them from the principle.
Now here is where today’s subject rises. Should people be allowed to do something, that others are not allowed to, because of culture/religion? Why are ideologies passed down through a religion any more important than those that are formed on ones own or passed down by any other means? My view is that censoring things is wrong, yet I would have to cover the word "Fuck" on a t-shirt because there is a school rule against profanity. However, a Muslim is allowed to wear a head garment, while there is a school rule against wearing hats, head bands, bandannas or anything of the sort. In fact, the veils are not even a religious ideology as much as they are a cultural thing. It never says that woman have to wear them in the Quran. Yet they are allowed too in school. If the bullet bracelet was a part of my religion/culture would I then be allowed to wear them? If some ones culture had them carrying a knife/gun around all the time would school let them do that? Of course not, they would say veils don’t hurt any one, well neither does the word fuck, neither does a hat, and neither do spent shells.
What we see here is contradictory rules in the school system, something looked at from one point of view as fair, is very unfair, and one sided from the other. This, my friend, is what out entire world is based of off. This is incoherent fairness at its best.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It's maddening, isn't it? The most bizarre inconsistency is that schools are to be places where we are to teach society to be productive and prepare them for the "real" world. Part of that is to enforce some kind of tolerance for all groups. The down side? What groups do we "tolerate" more. For centuries, religious-based morality seems to have alway trumped what is considered acceptable. Seems strange that an environment that is not supposed to show biased toward religion or lifestyle choices still has to suppress profanity and clothing style because of the ideas of modesty, decency, and morality.
ReplyDeleteThe big question is, do profanity, styles, attitudes, or whatever affect the way we interact with each other? Can they get in the way? Do they support intolerance or acceptance? The answer to these questions will begin to change and shape the rationale behind the policies.