Be Proud and Discriminating

I used to say that I am proud of something without even doing or achieving anything.  How is that possible? By the way, news just came in that 25 yr old Danilo Malinoc Gunaban of the province of Buligan just won the first ever World Water Polo Championship for our country. That’s great news! I’m proud to be a Buliganon! 

Discrimination is an irony. Or maybe on how people think what it is all about. By trying to avoid it, we do crazy things that eventually aggravate it. When people try to make someone or a group who were once discriminated feel special, it's always a borderline saying that they really are not special but just for the sake of making them feel good now, they will celebrate things to show them that they are. And for those among them who aren't even feeling the ill treatment for their group, they’ll be reminded again of the harsh things which were once done to their people in the past.  Then they will now feel the discrimination which they never noticed was there in the first place. Discrimination is one thing that when every time people talk about it, the more it gets committed. The more it is tried being avoided, the more it gets worse.

Discrimination happens, no doubt about it. Though there were instances when we try to avoid it and console the victim, the way we do it in itself is a message of discrimination. Like the commemoration and grandeur cheers on feats of some people and attaching their achievement to their race, ethnicity, color, beliefs, gender or anything else about them, except for their hard work, focus and discipline. Then some people of their own race, ethnicity, color, beliefs, gender, or whatever that they think they are similar will relate themselves to that person without even doing anything that reflects his greatness. That is discrimination at its best. I mean worst.

Justice!

Then there's the annual celebration of remembering specific color, gender, ethnicity, affiliation, etc to commemorate their contributions to the society. It’s good if done once. Or maybe twice.  But doing it annually is like a joke. It is like saying it’s not usual for them to do such big things that we have to be reminded yearly how great they are. We’re all humans anyway. We’re all capable to do things what our neighbor, classmate, friend, or any other living human beings can do, of course, excluding the things which some of us are limited due to our biological make. We all are of the same mold anyway.  The irony of this is that more we do these “memorials”, the more we segregate the people. And the more we tell people that our color, our sexual orientation or the thing between our legs matter to what we give into this world, the more hate it produces and discrimination becomes more rampant. We strive to be "color blind" and look beyond gender by telling people that we must look at the contribution of humans because of their color or gender.  

And unfortunately, one of the major effect that these acts achieved in the past few years is that it turned the table around. The oppressed of the past is now getting on the offensive side. And most of the time, by using the "discrimination card".

Okay, the news on the first paragraph is fake. You can’t win a championship alone in water polo. It’s a team sports. And there’s no such thing as a province of Buligan in our country nor there such a Danilo Maniloc Gunaban guy. Or maybe there is. And if there’s one such guy named like that then I’m sorry. Though if ever he achieves something great in the future then I will be proud of him. But I won’t dare say I’m proud to be Pinoy because of it. He will be successful because of his hard work and discipline, not simply because he is a Filipino.  If that happens and if I would say I’m proud to be Pinoy, then I’m discriminating.