Short People Unite
Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 12:13 PM
Short jokes have been recycled for decades or longer. Some unimaginative moron attempts to give these jokes a fresh look and feel, but those of us that have heard the jokes since early childhood are not impressed.
Less impressive, the bigotry practiced at our expense. The unshakable reminder that some poorly groomed piano plucker added to our misery with a one hit wonder of a song he titled, "Short People."
Life as a short person is a struggle. It is not so much because of any challenges we face (and overcome) with physical objects, such as large and cumbersome items. No. The greatest challenge for us is in proving our capabilities and worth as human beings to all the size bigots in this world.
The short jokes don't hurt us. What hurts us is when we know that we're more than just capable of handling a particular job, but some ignorant people decide that we're unqualified, because of our size.
We spend our childhood and adolescence learning how to defend ourselves from the abuse we face with every big bully we meet. This might be a laughing matter to anybody that thinks it's funny when big bullies beat up, rob, verbally and otherwise humiliate their small victims, but only to people that never felt the pain. We are treated as if we should hate ourselves, as if we should feel horrible for being short.
We are constantly bombarded with messages that suggest, "You should not bother trying. Give up."
Dennis Kucinich is being increasingly attacked because he is short. His size as a political candidate is attracting the bigots in the Republican and the Democratic parties. Yeah, the bigots of the Democratic Party are coming out of the woodwork. What have I discovered?
Some of those bigots are among the various groups of "underdogs" that turned to the Democratic Party to help them defend their rights to freedom from discrimination, hate crimes, and verbal abuse. For all the efforts to keep these people from advancing at work, in the community and through our government offices, one would think that these people would have learned to have respect for the rights of short people.
One might think that Gays would understand how wrong it is to discriminate against a person for unfair reasons. Not so with some of the gay Democrats at Visible Vote 08, which is a civil activist blog site for gay voters. One might think, if this group of gays don't like the unfair stereotypes and false rumors spread about them, they'd at least set an example by not being just like their persecutors.
Oh no!
But they are represented by organized activist groups. That's why, a person could be sued, or fired from their job for making a slur, or being involved in blocking their advancement into jobs where they have merits just because of their sexual orientation.
I'm not kidding when I say that I have had it! It's time that short people get more organized. We need to fight back to end the discrimination that we've been enduring and fighting to overcome all along.
I'm not suggesting we start pressuring people to stop telling short jokes. They only make themselves look stupid when they tell those jokes in attempts to make us feel self-conscious and inferior. Besides, we're instantly forgiving when we're picked on in a friendly manner, where no harm is intended and none taken. But when people attack us for a size as one way to punish, or discourage us for gaining, or seeking a position in which we're fully qualified and capable of handling, we should not let them continue this.
That's what many corporate media insiders have done. Now, the Visible Vote 08 group for gay voters, is doing the same. Does it take law suits and boycotts to get their attention and end the abuse?
Maybe, it does.
Less impressive, the bigotry practiced at our expense. The unshakable reminder that some poorly groomed piano plucker added to our misery with a one hit wonder of a song he titled, "Short People."
Life as a short person is a struggle. It is not so much because of any challenges we face (and overcome) with physical objects, such as large and cumbersome items. No. The greatest challenge for us is in proving our capabilities and worth as human beings to all the size bigots in this world.
The short jokes don't hurt us. What hurts us is when we know that we're more than just capable of handling a particular job, but some ignorant people decide that we're unqualified, because of our size.
We spend our childhood and adolescence learning how to defend ourselves from the abuse we face with every big bully we meet. This might be a laughing matter to anybody that thinks it's funny when big bullies beat up, rob, verbally and otherwise humiliate their small victims, but only to people that never felt the pain. We are treated as if we should hate ourselves, as if we should feel horrible for being short.
We are constantly bombarded with messages that suggest, "You should not bother trying. Give up."
Dennis Kucinich is being increasingly attacked because he is short. His size as a political candidate is attracting the bigots in the Republican and the Democratic parties. Yeah, the bigots of the Democratic Party are coming out of the woodwork. What have I discovered?
Some of those bigots are among the various groups of "underdogs" that turned to the Democratic Party to help them defend their rights to freedom from discrimination, hate crimes, and verbal abuse. For all the efforts to keep these people from advancing at work, in the community and through our government offices, one would think that these people would have learned to have respect for the rights of short people.
One might think that Gays would understand how wrong it is to discriminate against a person for unfair reasons. Not so with some of the gay Democrats at Visible Vote 08, which is a civil activist blog site for gay voters. One might think, if this group of gays don't like the unfair stereotypes and false rumors spread about them, they'd at least set an example by not being just like their persecutors.
Oh no!
But they are represented by organized activist groups. That's why, a person could be sued, or fired from their job for making a slur, or being involved in blocking their advancement into jobs where they have merits just because of their sexual orientation.
I'm not kidding when I say that I have had it! It's time that short people get more organized. We need to fight back to end the discrimination that we've been enduring and fighting to overcome all along.
I'm not suggesting we start pressuring people to stop telling short jokes. They only make themselves look stupid when they tell those jokes in attempts to make us feel self-conscious and inferior. Besides, we're instantly forgiving when we're picked on in a friendly manner, where no harm is intended and none taken. But when people attack us for a size as one way to punish, or discourage us for gaining, or seeking a position in which we're fully qualified and capable of handling, we should not let them continue this.
That's what many corporate media insiders have done. Now, the Visible Vote 08 group for gay voters, is doing the same. Does it take law suits and boycotts to get their attention and end the abuse?
Maybe, it does.
3 comments :: post a comment ::
link