Life is so simple, but we insist on being dumb!

Last evening while finishing up one meeting for the Junior League of York a urge came over me to attend the City Council meeting that was being held.  At the moment when I arrived at like 7:30 pm it just so happened that they were taking public comment about an amendment introduced to defund the Human Relations Committee for the City of York. 

I couldn’t have arrived at a better time.  Though about a week and a half ago I had the opportunity to present our budget in the most transparent way that I knew how, some members of council couldn’t fathom the need of having a commission such as ours. 

So let me be blunt.  Does discrimination exist? Is equality not the breath that we all live and die by?  Is it someone’s and everyone’s responsibility to protect such equality?  I’m screaming “HELL YEAH!”  As I mentioned last night, as a former police detective, soldier for the US ARMY, and as a capable and never demure woman of African descent, I have experience discrimination in all forms possible.  In the work place, in public, and in social situations.  Am I going to cry about it no, but am I going to fucking raise hell about it with the appropriate parties, YES!

Surprisingly, the only two (2) women that serve on council (one African American the other Caucasian) were the ones who introduced and were supportive of this amendment.  The three (3) males (who are all Caucasian) were adamantly opposed to the suggestion that there would be no city based department that represents EEOC and the enforcement of civil rights.  I was seriously confused.  Had they never been discriminated against, had they never had to stand strong in a testosterone driven workplace, had they never had to speak up when faced with clear hypocrisy; WTF, I just didn’t get it.

Did you know that since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was introduced, there has been an annual increase of over 100 percent of employment based complaints in the United States; most being sexual harassment and sexual discrimination.  What if I told you that the most unlikely of people have filed these type of complaints…

People who you would never think had to bear the cross of discrimination in their workplace, people who handle discrimination with grace or humility, people who you would never in a million years say “yeah she’s a victim”, what if I said I was.  Does that matter?  It should.

Discrimination happens to the intelligent, strong, courageous, brave, indifferent, different, a mother, father, brother, sister, friend, neighbor, but more importantly the unknown voiceless person who has yet found a way to fight it.

It has no type.  It has no boundary.  Discrimination is the killer of all things that we as human beings love and hold dear to us.

Discrimination is the mother fucker that will fester and crust over as a scab to our human dignity and if no one is protecting or educating this community, then what the fuck is that saying.  Basically, fuck equality and fuck you!