MEMOIR

Posted: October 17th, 2013

Memoir

            Marginalization is a disquieting issue that has found its way to our recent society having been born during our ancestor’s time. It is an issue that should have been buried a long time ago together with some of the unacceptable traditions, but instead it keeps haunting the peaceful civil existence of humanity. As much as the government and various authorities have tried to contain it, it remains very much alive in the hearts of many especially when it comes to disparities in physical attributes such as appearance, height and size.

I believed discrimination was over until recently when I went seeking for employment in a well-known transport company. Deep within, I knew this was the job for me given the considerable credentials I had attained from experience and from the driving school I had attended. As soon as I got there, I was beckoned into the office of the Human Resources manager who happened to be the sole owner of the company. Upon entering, I met the tall well-built manager who gave me a distasteful look. Thinking that this was only a part of the interview whereby he had a tough act so as instill fear, I smiled gently and handed him my resume, which he received reluctantly. I stood there for almost ten minutes without being offered a chair or anything else for that matter. I only got a long stare that suggested that the man was not happy at all.

Finally, he threw the resume on the table and told me to find my way out since I did not possess any quality or skill they were seeking. Rage and amazement engulfed me simultaneously as I asked what he meant since he had not even taken a glance of my resume to make such judgment. That is when he told me to walk around his company and see whether there was anyone resembling me or not. He also added that he did not employ ‘dwarfs’ as he considered them lazy and challenged. This was all overwhelming to take in at one go and so I decided to take my resume and leave the bitter man.

It took me a while to recover from that trauma. I realized that the assumptions I had of our society were exceedingly twisted indeed and that there were necessary measures that needed to be enacted to enhance change. Otherwise, we would all be doomed in the future. From my experience, it was evident that this man hated and discriminated against short people as he considered them lazy, and not fit to work in his firm. At first, the experience made me bitter and extremely angry. If I had knowledge of any organization that shunned and fought against this form of marginalization at the time, then I would have sued the man for the humiliation he had inflicted upon me.

On the other hand, I asked myself what would have caused such a person to react the way he did since I had done nothing wrong to him. From that, I concluded that maybe once in his life, he may have undergone a similar experience and he was only avenging that experience by venting his frustrations on me as much as I had nothing to do with his experience. It is from this that I decided not to follow the same path as the manager and instead strive to be different.

Doing the same deed to other people would only make me like him. Therefore, the best thing to do would be to act conversely and instead embrace all kinds of people regardless of their height by fighting discrimination and promoting unity (Friedman, 2008). When it comes to the society, measures such as promoting policies that discourage such behavior should be instilled. Bylaws should also be made to protect the marginalized and hefty fines inflicted upon those who fail to follow them.

Our society is filled with all kinds of people. There is a lot of hatred and resentment present within its members and all for very petty issues such as color of skin, height, size of the body and even weight (Langwith, 2008). Unless we as the community take it upon ourselves to learn and appreciate one another regardless of these factors, then we have a long way to go for us to call ourselves civilized. Members of a society should try to learn from one another and find ways to live in harmony with each other

References

Langwith, J. (2008). Discrimination. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven Press.

Friedman, L. S. (2008). Discrimination. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press/Thomson Gale.