Discrimination

Head lice seemed to infiltrate my family school year after school year. It started in mid-fall, almost without fail. The school nurse checked the kids on a semi-regular basis, especially if an infestation was suspected. And every year, we'd get sent home. We couldn't return until Mom had thoroughly doused our heads with lice shampoo and ran that damn micro-toothed comb through our hair until our scalps were sensitive and burning. She'd strip the beds of all their sheets and wash them. Still, the little buggers didn't go away without a fight.

I know other kids in school looked at us like we were dirty, filthy members of society who needed to be quarantined because we infected others with our horrible disease. Despite everything we read on head lice, that it has nothing to do with cleanliness, people still jeered at us. And we were just children. We didn't do anything wrong. Yet, we were stigmatized as unclean. Even once we were allowed to return to class and the nurse inspected our follicles, everyone kept their distance. We were tainted.

It's always the fear of the unknown that causes stigma. Beliefs, whether real or imagined, help perpetuate the stereotypes that cause discrimination. And the other kids, their parents, and even school faculty scowled at us. Even if they knew the facts.

Starting in the fifth grade, I was picked on because I was different. Maybe it was the way I walked, or the way I carried my books from class to class. Perhaps it was the way I talked. There was something about me that other students didn't like, and I became the butt of their cruel jokes. I was tormented, really. Always watching my back, wondering why I was being treated like some kind of freakish monster. A monster who needed a good lashing.

My feminine characteristics had kids calling me hateful, homophobic names throughout high school. On numerous occasions, my locker was slammed, I was tripped in the hallway, books were knocked out of my arms. I didn't even know I was gay at the time. I was more or less indifferent to either sex. It wasn't until a couple days after I graduated that I went on my first-ever date...with a girl. All the guys, from jocks to nerds, never got to see me walk hand-in-hand with a female, and most would always remember me as that queer. Their bias against me had me question who I was, but once Lisa and I started our romance, I was quite certain I was heterosexual, an upstanding citizen in "normal" society.

Truth is, people are discriminated against every day, and for any number of things. Behaviors or appearances that are abnormal, are often grounds for stigma and hatred. Women experience the glass ceiling quite often in the workplace. Gays and lesbians suffer from crimes against them because of their sexual orientation. Black men and women are constantly followed in department stores by security. Transgendered men and women are often ridiculed for their appearance, and segregated by their biological sex. People living with a disability, either physical or mental, are often deemed damaged or broken. Muslims are profiled because of their skin color and clothing. Overweight men and women are constantly mocked by everyday society because of their size.

The list could really continue endlessly. Everyone is stigmatized for some reason or another. Stereotypes perpetuate people's feelings about others. Especially if the other groups are not like them. Humans feel the need to segregate people into subgroups, using descriptions and labels. If we can decide who's who, it's easier to classify them and steer clear of them if a they pose a threat. Regardless if it's a simple outbreak of head lice, or something that can't be fixed, like the color of someone's skin.

We all feel the need to be included, but different. Until we can all learn to accept one another as people, we will never truly be an inclusive society. War will continue, both at home and abroad.