Hair discrimination. The struggle is real!

Recently, I had a discussion with a co worker about the color of our hair. She noted my current profile picture was different than the one I use for communications at work. Yes, she is right. There have been two instances in my life where I was not a blonde or some variation thereof. They were short lived. I am not sure why the first time I dyed my hair a darker color did not last long but I can probably guess that I absolutely hated it.


The second one, of course more recently, was for wholly different reasons.


I dyed my hair black. I had never had black hair before. I always wanted black hair. I bit the bullet and went all out. Immediately, I noticed how people responded to me. For those that knew me well, they were like "WELL! Oh! Um. Ok. You changed your hair?"  Others, even perfect strangers would look at me and begrudgingly go...."Oh, its you." I found it odd that people would respond to me that way. I felt like a sheeple. No, more like those little people you cut out of notebook paper that are holding hands. You know, a never ending chain of the same exact people? I did not like how that made me feel. All my life, people have lit up like sunshine when I came in the room or at least acknowledged that me breathing was at least worth a smile and a hello.


To further make me decide never to do anything so stupid in my life, ever again, I went back to blonde and everyone lit up when I walked into the room. Now unless someone is wholly perturbed by my presence, they at least smile and wish me a hello.


I wonder how people do it. You know, the ones with black or dark brown hair?  They must be miserable. I wonder what life would be like were we all blonde? I am guessing the world would be a happier place. However, in the current state of mind I carry, I find that hard to believe but hey, wishful thinking always helps. Yes?


Back to the discussion with the co worker. She made these very same observations. Then she summed it all up with 2 words that fit appropriately.

HAIR DISCRIMINATION

Think THAT will ever become a protected class of citizens?  "We are an equal opportunity place. No person shall be discriminated against due to age, sex, religion, race, orientation, or HAIR COLOR."  I look for it to be the next civil rights thing after we finally realize that our GLBT friends finally get what they deserve: Equal Treatment under the law. (Ah, but that is a digression that will take MONTHS and YEARS for me to cover. Also, it is a political opinion in this era and you know me......I do not discuss my political opinions.)

What do YOU think?

No life should be worth less than another

I was contemplating the meaning of life this morning. No particular reason but the answer 42 does not satisfy the curiosity I have about the meaning of life. I see how people treat each other. Some men believe that women are less worthy of things because they are women. Racial divides are another way to devalue a life. Others believe children are less than the rest of the human race. I hate to say this, but we all come from a woman. Even test tube babies do. Everyone is in some sort of racial class, being black, white, Irish, or American. Lastly, we each were a child once upon a time. Oh, there are also religious divides. I happen to believe that so long as your religion works for you and you are not forcing your religious opinion on me, then why should I waste my heard earned air tormenting you about it.

Everyone's life is worth something and it feeds into the circle of life on this planet. Also, because human beings on this planet choose to have pets, those domesticated animals should have the same regard from their people or people in general. If you are utilitarian, treating a dog or cat as less than worthy is going against the total units of happiness for society. Therefore, you should treat pets as part of the family and not as some nasty disease in your home.

It just hurts my soul to see people being treated so badly and animals being neglected because people have no regard for the lives that are in the carriages of the bodies that are being mistreated. Everyone's soul has a purpose. No matter what you may believe, they were created for a reason and that is not for you to decide whether or not they are better, equal to, or less than you. It would be nice if everyone would assume that each life on this planet were an equal. This way, there would likely be a whole lot less hatred in this world and (out of selfish reasons of course--->) my anxiety attacks would likely come to a halt.

I simply cannot stand to see, read, or hear about atrocities people inflict on other living things on this planet. It simply makes me sick. Even old people are being treated badly.  Those people have been around long enough to EARN respect. When they become invalid, why beat them? They are defenseless. Just like children and domesticated or farm animals, beating them will get you nowhere. It is evil and mean and should not be tolerated nor should it even occur.

I am not sure if  all of these things that we read about in the papers have been going on en masse like this for all of history but it seems to have become more rampant as time goes on. Maybe there is a correlation between the acts and the growing population but it just makes me sick.

What do you think?

Of religion, women, and American safety.

I went to the gas station to purchase lottery tickets the other day.  While making my purchase, a beautiful young lady came in with a head covering on. I paid her no mind but did notice that she pulled back the part across her face to reveal a beautiful, flawless face.  The cashier interrupted my purchase to immediately tell this young woman that she had to totally remove the scarf or be refused service and have to leave.

She became wide eyed while removing the scarf and said "But this is for my religion!" She was quite pleasant about the whole thing but it was painfully obvious she was offended.  The cashier continued (I put my wallet down to watch this) "I don't care, for safety reasons, you cannot have your head covered and come into this store. It is a city law!"  As he completed this statement, I turned to look and see a man with a ball cap come in, purchase gas and leave without incident or so much as anything being said to him. Wow.  Mind you, I would not have thought much of the request for the young lady to remove her scarf but she was definitely NOT of Middle Eastern descent. Or, if she was, it was not that apparent.  She was black.

I began to take offense at this point but said nothing. I felt like those kids you see in the bullying commercials where they are watching a kid getting smacked around and taunted but are doing nothing. I felt like one of those kids helpless to do anything for the person that is being bullied.

So the girl removed her scarf and mumbled something to the tune of  "I can't believe this."  I made my purchase and went to my car. Because I like to scratch my tickets in the car and remained in the parking lot for a few minutes, I was present when that young lady came out. She must have prepaid for gas for her mother as she walked to a car at the pumps.  It was relatively quiet that day at the gas station and I heard that mother began to lecture her daughter on the dangers of removing her head cover and how inappropriate it was to do such a thing outside of school.  I could only shake my head but I felt absolutely awful for this child. She must have been about fifteen or so.  I could not allow this to continue. I started up my car and pulled a little closer to the mother and child speaking. (My kids were in the car and I was not going to leave them there. Besides, this is a teachable moment and I was doing a good thing.) I did note that the mother was actually listening to the girl but was wholly unimpressed with the fact that she removed her scarf.

I had to open my mouth and say something. I told the lady that I was not aware of the city law that says that you have to violate your religion to remove your head scarf and how ludacris I thought it was for the man inside the store to demand such a thing. I explained to the mother that she did show her face and that should have been acceptable. The mother stopped fussing and looked at her daughter. The daughter, exasperated at this point, simply said. "Exactly."  The mother then apologized to the daughter and I was happy that I could have alleviated some stress for that child. Imagine what she has to go through! She has to meet demands of merchants who fear for their safety because she acts like she is from the middle east and then has to listen to the ranting of her mother about the importance of religion and this horrible thing she did simply to pay for something or make a purchase in a free country. 

Honestly folks, showing her full face should have been enough.  People wear hats inside of buildings all the time. They wear do rags and Jews wear their little head coverings all the time. Remember the Amish? What about the lady who wears the shower cap on her head over her rollers because she has to run to Kmart to get something to set her hair with? Nobody ever asks those people to remove their head coverings for our safety, do they? Nope.

Point being, we are supposed to have freedom of religion and if that said religion is part of one person that committed atrocities to this nation, it does not mean that the rest of that particular population or religion is an immediate threat. I understand the safety part and she did what she thought proper in the circumstances and still had to stand in the line of fire with an elder and the cashier never knew about it. I wanted to drag that cashier out there to see what he had done. But....Such it is that we are....I was just glad I was able to say something to help her.

What do you think about this and do you have your own experiences to share?