Yahoo fails to truly shine

Beginning at birth, we essentially, in part, become a product of our society. Our very actions, likings, and tendencies are influenced by socializing agents that perpetually surround us. Socialization, though beginning in our infantile stages, continues to persist throughout our lifetime. At every stage within our lives, our thoughts and actions become tempered by more overt influences such our family, friends and teachers. However, there are also some less obvious instances that seem to chisel and refine our behavioral nature. We are often, in fact, influenced and socialized without our direct knowing. The internet search engine mogul, Yahoo, recently evidenced this less overt method of socialization via the highly accessible world wide web.

On Monday, Yahoo launched a site geared specifically toward women between the ages of 25 and 54. According to yahoo, this female demographic has been underserved by the company’s current properties. Yahoo stated that women, are essentially, “the caretakers for everybody in their lives,” further going on to say that “they didn't feel like there was a place that was looking at the whole them- as a parent, as a spouse, as a daughter.” Yahoo, though they insist that they were targeting the entire female demographic, however, failed to acknowledge the fact that today’s women between the age of 25 and 54 are also heavily involved within the work-place. In neglecting to include the working woman in “the whole them” category, Yahoo indirectly implies, and only reinforces, the age-old belief of a more domestic woman—one who remains relegated as the caretaker and homemaker.

Therefore this particular Yahoo site tends to only influence and hegemonize the more antiquated notion of a women. As traffic moves through and about this website, they will indirectly be influenced in their ways of thinking of women as merely the parent, spouse and daughter. It will impose onto its visitors, the notion that women as the parent, spouse and daughter is the norm, and perhaps even a model of woman to strive to become. Though this mere fact will not be made explicitly apparent to the site’s visitors, the messages and inferences that can and potentially will be made after visiting such a site tend to support this acute notion of a woman, thus imparting more subtle messages that only strengthen and socialize women and other visitors to think in this very way.

Justice Shall Prevail

Though some continue to posit that racism and segregation is merely a quandary of old, arguing that our nation has shifted toward a new trend of meritocracy, many others, however, ardently believe that racism has not really declined; it has only been more cleverly camouflaged behind the increasing amount of politically correct verbiage and practice. I however, have taken the moderate ground in this debate. America, I do concede, has made enormous strides when it comes to civil rights. However, fragments of racism and preferential treatment still remain within our growing egalitarian society, which can be evidenced by a particular event in which four African American employees were strip searched by their white managers after a mere $100 dollars went missing, though their white co-workers who were also present at the time were not subjected to such ill treatment.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as a result, has filed a lawsuit on their behalf for such preferential, invasive and unwarranted search of these African American employees who were so unjustly violated. With this recent transpiration of legal action against this north Georgia restaurant, it is quite comforting to know that such ill-advised treatment of individuals is now a contested practice and that there are avenues that mistreated individuals can take to seek recompense and justice within contemporary America. However, public apologies and monetary forms of restitution will almost never fully reverse the psychological, emotional, and sometimes even physical effect on any given individual.

Such acts of racism and maltreatment may forever linger within the minds of those directly affected, possibly breeding angst, hopelessness, and perhaps even feelings of inferiority. Social slights, often caused by racist actions/remarks have even proven to be quite stressful on individuals, which could further be detrimental to one’s health later down the road. It is more than unfortunate that such heinous acts of racism still happens today, despite such steps that our nation has taken to break down the barriers of segregation and racism. Thankfully, institutions, such as the Equal Opportunity Commission, have been built into today’s social structure with the hopes of reversing such unequal vintage acts of old. They continue to advocate for individuals who unfortunately lack the means and resources to bring about justice while concurrently advancing our nation to achieve the equality that countless others before us have so valiantly fought for.

Ref Should Bench This Judge...

Perhaps the blindfolded lady justice emblazoned upon the emblems of almost every U.S. court is all that remains of our judicial system’s longstanding tenet of equality before law. While all U.S. judges supposedly pledge to decide cases based on integrity and impartiality, it appears that Washington County Circuit Judge Kennedy Boone must have recused himself from such a longstanding requirement and tradition.

Judge W. Kennedy Boone’s act of referring to three black lawyers as “the Supremes” serves as a stark reminder that society still breeds instances of both intentional and unintended racial and gender related inequalities, though such instances may now be more hidden. Though contemporary belief may sometimes hold that in this day and age, education serves as buffer for racial and gender related slights, Judge Kennedy Boone’s comment aimed at several African American women attorneys seems to prove otherwise. Despite his high level of academic achievement coupled with an oath pledged to do equal right to both the rich and poor while impartially performing his duties, Judge Boone is a living example of how society today still exhibits certain acts of microagression against individuals who differ from themselves.

While some may expect such behavior from ordinary citizens, it seems rather unfathomable that our nation’s very judges who are held with such high esteem can still spew such comments with little initial regard. Though this pour of outcry against the Judge’s behavior remains a testament to how far this country has come to reversing racial and gender related inequalities, it also exhibits the fact that we have yet to fully achieve true equality across the board and proves that there is still substantial work to be done.