Society, especially Australian society, is one where we participate in a multitude of daily activities; we are constantly interacting with people of different races, all of whom have a different set of values. At times it might be easy for us simply to avoid the types of people that we dislike associating ourselves with, but a lot of the time we choose not to associate ourselves with them because we don't fully understand them. Homophobia is a particularly worthwhile example to mention, because even though these people are much like us, there is a general "fear" of this particular group of people. If we actually bothered to take our time to get to know them, we'll find that they're a lot like us; they just have a few different preferences! (For the record, no I am not a homophobe).
This is still pretty much in line with my first post; just being aware and a little bit more sensitive of particular issues in society helps us to become a little more educated, and therefore might let us reconsider our particular choice of words. Recently, in the major sporting leagues of America (NBA, NFL), there has been a few incidents where star players have used the word "fag" in a fit of anger; spurring a fit of anger amongst homosexual communities. Having said this, they weren't using the word out of conscious awareness that it had homosexual connotations, rather, having this word simply pop to mind when angry.
But having applied this to one group of people in society, just be more aware that the area you live in probably has a multicultural diversity which means that words that we deem "harmless" are actually quite insulting to others. Think about it; how many groups of people are present in your local area, and are you aware of the full extent of the meaning of your words? Remember, the whole point of these short blogs are to familiarize you to issues that you probably experience in day-to-day life, and how you are going to act to change your world you live in.
Finally, just to finish up, it's not just the actions that you perform that hold influence; it's also the way in which you choose to react to people and their particular choice of words. The next time a friend says something along the lines of a gay slur whilst in a fit of anger, maybe it would be best to bring their attention to it? Maybe they are actually unaware of the weight that their choice of words holds; so assist to enlighten them in such issues so as to improve society.
Next up this week, I'll start my first post on health, talking about a couple of issues that I think are prevalent at the moment. Stay tuned! :)
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