Discrimination

Fifty years ago, a woman sat on a bus. She'd paid for her seat and was feeling tired, so when a man demanded that she relinquish her seat for him just because his skin was a different colour to hers, despite the fact that this was the custom of the time, she refused. The rest is history.

Fifty years on, we have come a long way. But not far enough. Although legal safeguards are in place to protect people from this kind of discrimination, we still place far too much emphasis on appearance. Look at recent attacks on people with an Asian appearance in this country because people associate Islamic fundamentalist terrorists with all Asians. Never mind the fact that not all people of Asian-descent are Muslim; never mind that not all Muslims have darker skin. Let alone the fact that, as one special episode of The West Wing highlighted: Islamic fundamentalist is to Islam as the Klu Klux Klan is to Christianity.

But even moving beyond skin-colour, we still place far too much emphasis on appearance. Fuelled by the media, we have an image of the "perfect" appearance, and define others by their failure to meet this idea. When looking for a way to describe somebody, how often do we focus on their physical features: "the fat lady", rather than "the lady with the red handbag", "the black man", rather than "the man with the big smile"? I've often noticed that people tend to comment on somebody else's weight if they are large: it is one of the first things that strikes us.

It's easy to do but perhaps if we are truly to continue to move forward in the spirit of Rosa Parks, whose passing we marked this week, we should try to close our eyes to people's appearance, and not judge others by their conformity or non-conformity to some impossible ideal, but rather to look at what is beneath the skin instead. Our sight is a blessing but, perhaps, it can also be a handicap.