Hold on there! I don't think racism and sexism will disappear overnight because a black woman received an honor that no other woman in history had accomplish. I applaud Michelle Howard and she is a role model for women to show it is possible to break the glass ceiling in a male dominated world. I wish this symbolize an advancement for racial and gender equality but reality is a much different story. There's still a very long road to travel if such a disappearance was to ever come to fruition.
This is very inspiring news. It's great to see such steps being taken in the right direction. Hopefully someday something similar to this will happen and it won't even be news, because it is such a common occurrence.
Indeed, I think that it's about time that woman have the same rights as man and achieve the same high ranks. Not that I aspire to the military though, but even so I think that opportunities should be equal.
You don't want to live in a country where the government can actually control your speech and especially your thoughts. Therefore, prejudice and other not-so-great things won't ever be totally eliminated. As long as people are different, it will exist. And sometimes "profiling" can save one's life or many lives.
Hi Livvy, I agree with what you have said. Prejudice, unfortunately, remains a big problem in our society and probably will remain a problem for a long time. I think that the danger with news like that is that it makes it easy for us to conclude that because one person has made it, the entire problem has been solved. This is dangerous because issues like prejudice are very deep rooted in the collective psyche of our society and even when we cut down some of the "branches" of this metaphorical "tree", the roots are still there to help them grow back. I will have to disagree with JR Erwing's post where he said that life will never be totally fair. While this is true and we as humans will never achieve perfection, this does not mean we should not try. There was a time when it was impossible for people from different corners of the world to communicate instantaneously (like we can today thanks to the internet), and if people simply said that we will never achieve it- we wont have the internet that we all enjoy today. My point is that there is always room for us to improve and we can- as long as we continue to strive for it, create a much more just and equitable society. It might take a long time, but I think that it is something worth striving for. Don't you?
Yes, both sexism and racism continue to be factors and I would not be surprised if Michele Howard had to work harder than any man to reach the position she's at.
Exactly Kayrockwell. Just because one person either hasn't been affected by it, or has triumphed despite racism, or any other form of discrimination, doesn't mean that the problem is suddenly gone. After all, you wouldn't say that the job market is fine just because you were able to get a job in the current economy, would you?
