Sarah Robson
The scrutiny of the security guard or assistant in your favourite shop; the scowls of supermarket customers towards checkout chicks; murders blamed on the P-smoking youth… Prejudice towards young people is alive and well in our society. Young people are an integral part of communities, both locally and globally, however we are still subjected to prejudice by older people.
In many countries, especially New Zealand, the media is largely responsible. Here, many are led to believe, through the influence of the media, that we are all binge-drinking, STI-ridden, boy-racing, sexcrazed, disrespectful human beings. We cannot deny that some young people have problems with the issues mentioned above, but it seems that it’s only ever negative issues such as these that make the headlines. This results in the branding of our generation as the bad generation.’
When was the last time you saw something positive about young people on the news, local or global?
A recent study in the United Kingdom found that 71 percent of newspaper articles about young people showed them in a bad light and that one in three of these articles were about crime. In the case of the recent double murder in Feilding, some residents initially held P-smoking young people responsible for the crime — an attitude partly fuelled by the comments of One News repoter John Newton. However, a few weeks later, a 52 year-old man was charged with the murders.
Children and young people, particularly those in developing countries are often seen by the rest of us as passive recipients of charity, or as victims, rather than people who are doing positive things in their communities and who are perfectly capable of helping themselves. This image has negative consequences for young people. Prejudice towards young people limits the positive impact young people can have in communities.
At 17, I’m superior
While young people are often the victims of ageism, we are also the perpetrators of it. Young people have a tendency to prejudge those younger than themselves. Admit it — you’ve done it yourself — complained about the disrespectful’ Year 9s and their immature’ behaviour. One Year 13 at Feilding High School says, “I think I’m superior, age gives you a sense of being superior.”
As well as being an ego problem, this form of prejudice is also created by a lack of mutual respect: they don’t give us respect so we won’t give them any respect.’ Could this be part of the reason for the prejudice of older people towards us? Across many cultures, it is taught that you should treat your elders with respect, but do we take heed of this advice? We may think elderly drivers should not be allowed anywhere near the roads, but many young people with licenses put other road users in just as much danger.
Attitudes towards young people obviously need to be altered if we are to become good global citizens. We need to be valued and respected — at school and in our communities — so we can have an input and have our voice heard.
To combat the prejudices of ageism, we can’t simply blame older people or the media — we also have to look at ourselves. It’s up to us, and to older people, to challenge it.
- Challenge your own prejudices: everyone has prejudiced thoughts, so don’t feel guilty, just recognize that you have them and work to think and act differently.
- Get to know people from groups who are discriminated against. It will help with understanding and not being scared.
- School yourself up with the Prejudice Institute’s factsheet.
- Write letters to Editors or to politicians — make sure they know it’s something you care about.
- Link up with other people or organisations to organise pro-diversity, anti-prejudice events or groups.
- Call it when you see it.
LEARN MORE
Understanding Prejudice — this is a great website for getting your head around prejudice.
Oxfam International Youth Parliament - check out some of the cool things other young people are doing around the world — disproving the stereotypes.
This article was written as part of the Global Focus a collaborative project of Tearaway Magazine and the Global Education Centre. It was first published in Tearaway magazine and is reprinted here with their permission.
Welcome to a world of music censorship, a subject that can get a lot of people very, very angry. Music is expression. Ideas, beliefs, and opinions are all set to a catchy tune.
Even more disturbing is the possible influences that white supremacist rock n’ roll (thankfully, a very small genre) may have — one distributor’s website featured an ad for a computer game called Ethnic Cleansing (violence for the whole family!). Hardly among the top 10 ways for making the world a better place.