just another face in the crowd...

In my Psychology of Race, Class and Gender course, my Professor talks a lot about individual responsibility in regards to our preconceptions and judgments of others. She speaks quite often of her inability to be satisfied with her contributions to society on a "social" level when it comes to discrimination of the above (race, class and gender), but as a middle aged white women in America, she has time to sit and ponder the plight of those unlike herself. What about the people who live this life, every day? Those who can't find jobs because of race, have been shunned from family because of gender opposition and those whose "class" doesn't allow them the opportunities of the finer things in life? People argue, we are all afforded the same chances -- yes and no. If you are born into an abusive, violent home and that's all you know, it takes someone from "outside" to pull you into a world that you've only been an outsider to up until then. How can you dream of a world you've never had? Yet, people do it. It's constant testing of character, of strength, of the will to survive in a world that beats you down for every bit of uniqueness you display. What are people so afraid of? As individualistic as Americans are, it's mostly in reference to what's good for the upper class population. It's amazing how they come together to keep the poverty line flourishing, but to help your fellow man? Say what? That's unheard of. It's me, mines, what's best for me and mines. Reflecting on the lives lost or hurt by actions aren't apparent until televised, like Iraq and Afghanistan and September 11. Carnage doesn't matter until it makes a guest appearance in the media, then artificial concern is mustered up. But who really cares? Who really gives a shit about people that have nothing to do with them? So celebrities have money to give to various causes, lucky them, but there are so many people who religiously give of money and time to others that are less fortunate when they themselves don't even have that much to give...the unsung heroes in our society. How do they get recognized? How do we hear the stories of those that they have helped? I just wonder how come it's so easy for those with to look at those without as just more faces in the crowd. Just because you won't see into me, doesn't mean you can't see me. I'm still there. We are still here.