Analysis of George Aiken's View on Prejudice
Prejudice: Why It Is Awesome?
"If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon."
- George Aiken
George Aiken's quote is full of simplicity, complexity, and social value. It is a quote that can easily inspire discussion on the workings of the civilized human's mind. Aiken depicts that, through the nature of modern society, there is a great deal of competition, classification, and superiority. Aiken was a United States Senator from 1941 to 1975; this is evidence that he was aware of the prejudices that flooded and still flood the United States. He lived from 1892 to 1984, making him a man of the civil rights movement. It is very much factual that racism, sexism, and ageism were at their prime in the early- to mid-20th century. Since then, Western society has introduced the ideals of equality through lack of prejudice. This is an impossible feat by George Aiken's standards, as society will turn to another reason for social hierarchy if racism and religious intolerance were to become nonexistent.
Aiken's quote is absolutely valid. Its meaning is very straightforward: humans sustain themselves on the belief that uniformity does not equate to equality. Aiken's political background is important to the quote because the most blatantly racist actions have been demonstrated by the government for centuries. The United States government allowed slavery to build the Southern economy. Society itself prevented women from having any power that a man had. Townships were founded by men of common religion and witchcraft was both active and the cause of many innocents' deaths. Women, blacks, and black women have been incredibly limited to American society because white men did not value them as intellectual beings. Even today, George Bush hates black people and lets them die in New Orleans. If the situation described in Aiken's quote became reality, those people would still die
"If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon."
- George Aiken
George Aiken's quote is full of simplicity, complexity, and social value. It is a quote that can easily inspire discussion on the workings of the civilized human's mind. Aiken depicts that, through the nature of modern society, there is a great deal of competition, classification, and superiority. Aiken was a United States Senator from 1941 to 1975; this is evidence that he was aware of the prejudices that flooded and still flood the United States. He lived from 1892 to 1984, making him a man of the civil rights movement. It is very much factual that racism, sexism, and ageism were at their prime in the early- to mid-20th century. Since then, Western society has introduced the ideals of equality through lack of prejudice. This is an impossible feat by George Aiken's standards, as society will turn to another reason for social hierarchy if racism and religious intolerance were to become nonexistent.
Aiken's quote is absolutely valid. Its meaning is very straightforward: humans sustain themselves on the belief that uniformity does not equate to equality. Aiken's political background is important to the quote because the most blatantly racist actions have been demonstrated by the government for centuries. The United States government allowed slavery to build the Southern economy. Society itself prevented women from having any power that a man had. Townships were founded by men of common religion and witchcraft was both active and the cause of many innocents' deaths. Women, blacks, and black women have been incredibly limited to American society because white men did not value them as intellectual beings. Even today, George Bush hates black people and lets them die in New Orleans. If the situation described in Aiken's quote became reality, those people would still die