When hearing the word equality, what comes to mind? For most, their ideas of equality date back to 1964, when the Civil Rights Act ended all segregation laws. With all of the legal issues aside, our own American citizens began shoving racism, inequality, misogyny, and discrimination under the rug. I’m not sure when it became acceptable to ignore these significant issues within our society, but somehow we do.  So many minorities have been silenced, deprived and ignored throughout history. Skin color, nationality, gender, or sexuality; discrimination seems inevitable, yet so unacknowledged. There are finally some people speaking out for transgender individuals, victims of hate crimes, bullying and just being treated as a lesser person for unfair reasons. Although there are people giving a voice to those that are being silenced, there are still so many people that will push our concerns aside with a simple “It’s 2017, there’s no such thing as inequality.” or “Everything offends people anymore.”. Same-sex marriage is legal, we call people by their correct pronouns, and avoid mentioning race at all costs. To most people who aren’t victims of inequality, that is enough. Anyone who isn’t outraged by this is just simply not paying close enough attention.

Our society is in pieces, and there doesn’t seem to be anyone looking to fix it. What we have is not working. As proud as we Americans are of our society and how developed we are as human beings, our minorities are still being pushed aside. We are not giving voices to those who are in need. We are a country in pieces, this isn’t the land of the free. This is the land of the top two percent, the land of the privileged. As citizens of a country once known as ‘the melting pot’, we need to spread love and acceptance to all. Give a voice to those who don’t have one, be a friend to someone who needs one. As an underage citizen, you may feel that there isn’t much you can do to fix the world in which we live, but there are plenty of ways to stand up against inequality as a teen. Be kind to everyone you meet, no matter their gender, religion, race, nationality or sexuality. This is a country that was once a place people traveled to in order to be safe; let’s make it that way again.