• McKinsey recently released a new report “Women in the Workplace”.
  • LinkedIn articles are heatedly discussing inequality.
  • Apps are being developed to reduce workplace bias in the hiring process and daily operations.
  • Age discrimination, race discrimination…. the list goes on and on..

I am sad. As a human being, I am sad. As a woman, I am sad. As a mother, I am sad. I have watched women with sons spew hatred toward men while claiming to love their sons. How? Is he only loved until he becomes a man or is he the exception? Is he the exception because you stripped him of his identity in the name of liberation? This child who is now a lost young man …. I have watched as men react in anger against any word spoken that challenges their role as men. I have watched as gender identities are questioned, challenged, and hated. I have watched as skin color, voice inflection, accents, and languages are challenged and hated. I have watched and watched and watched… I have seen blatant discrimination against children of varying races in our schools when discipline is doled out. I have seen children set up for failure by school administrators because of the homes that these same children have no control over. I have seen debates on who should be allowed to have what …

Why all the hate?

When did it become acceptable to hate what makes us different? When did we go from loving who we are and others while understanding it is those differences that make us stronger as a whole?

Why do we have to break or harm one group to make another feel stronger?

Is there iniquity? Yes. Is there a problem? Yes. Will the angered voices fix it? No. I read one person’s comment stating all this hate is the result of election season. I don’t think it’s that simple. This has been ongoing, building up like pressure under a volcano.

Maybe a part of me is idealistic, a dreamer of sorts. I have a daughter getting married soon. I expect within a few years I will have a grandchild. My fair skinned blonde haired green eyed girl will be marrying a dark hair “yellow skinned” dark-eyed man. We joke about what their children will look like. But when I imagine being a grandmother I don’t see a girl or a boy. I don’t see hair color or skin color. I see sweet little hands, innocent souls, and laughter.

Until every human is willing and able to look past a skin color, a hair color, sexual identity, and every other form of exterior identity to see only the soul inside nothing will change. We are souls with bodies. The rest of us is packaging – which is why when told I have beautiful eyes I respond, “thanks, they came with the body.”

Read more: Mortgage Discrimination