Oppression Photo

In this photo, a Caucasian youth is shown frowning, while holding an Ethnic Gourmet T.V. dinner. With our society's divisive focus on multiculturalism, emphasis is put on that which makes us different, instead of what unites us as Americans. This fracturing of The U.S.'s population into several smaller subcultures based on race and origin leaves those similar to the student pictured here without a sense of identity or community.

However, the problem is more complex than that. It is not the fact that "white" people frantically search for some sort of ethnic identity that is troublesome, the problem is that members of our society are encouraged to define themselves by some sort of collective grouping at all. There is no more potent of an example of idiocy than when someone supports a cause or position, not because they have decided through logical deliberation that it is the right course of action, but because it is a "cultural value", or whatever else they may call the collective mentality's will.

To define one's self by a culture or race is to abandon one's claim to their own mind. When someone allows others to dictate their own beliefs and opinions, they lose all sense of individualism and independence. The fact that one is a member of a certain race or group does not necessitate them having the same convictions and ideals as the rest of that demographic. To support something because the black community, or the Asian community, or the Irish community supports it is collectivism of the highest order, and the fact that such a mentality exists in a country that embraces intellectual freedom as much as ours is appalling to say the least. Democracy depends on the existence of a free market of ideas, and this simply cannot be achieved when people insist on not thinking for themselves.