If "YES," please un-friend me.

WHY does the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics show that an African American male born in 2001 has a 32% chance of going to jail in his lifetime, while a Latino male has a 17% chance, and a white male only has a 6% chance? And African-Americans comprise only 13% of the U.S. population and 14% of the monthly drug users, but are 37% of the people arrested for drug-related offenses in America? And housing prices in neighborhoods where people of color are the majority are often targeted for redlining, a discriminatory practice by which banks, insurance companies, etc., refuse or limit loans, mortgages, insurance, etc., within specific geographic areas, especially inner-city neighborhoods?

WHY are Muslims more likely than Americans of other major religious groups to say they, personally, have experienced racial or religious discrimination in the past year (48% of Muslims surveyed). Despite Muslims around the globe mostly saying (99%) that suicide bombings and other forms of violence against civilians in the name of Islam are rarely or never justified, including 92% in Indonesia and 91% in Iraq.

WHY, in 2015, women working full time in the United States typically paid just 80 percent of what men were paid for the same job, a gap of 20 percent. Among full-time workers in 2015, Hispanic and Latina, African American, American Indian, and Native Hawaiian and other POC women had lower median annual earnings compared with non-Hispanic white and Asian American women.

WHY, despite the Equal Protection Clause, basic human decency and the Supreme Court’s rulings on abortion concluding that “a woman [has] autonomy to determine her life’s course, and thus to enjoy equal citizenship stature” constantly being waged in a religious context versus a human rights context, restricting women from equal protection and health care?

WHY, despite basic human decency and the Supreme Court’s ruling that homosexual couples “are entitled to respect for their private lives,” and that “[t]he State cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime,” and that marriage can, in fact, be between two same sex people, do non-heterosexual persons face workplace bias and overt acts of homophobia, whereby hate crimes committed against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and/or transgendered individuals constitute the third-highest category of hate crimes reported to the FBI?

WHY do to up to 70 percent of women experience physical or sexual violence from men in their lifetime — the majority by husbands, intimate partners or someone they know, and in the United States, between 40 and 70 percent of female murder victims were killed by their intimate partners?

WHY even today, do stereotypes about Jews hoarding money, media moguls exerting undue influence, and a disproportionate amount of wealth and control in the hands of the Jewish community persist, despite being false, and also dangerous?

WHY since 1996 (and before) have politicians criminalized poverty through use of stereotypes such as ‘welfare queen’ and demonized single motherhood, despite the fact that most welfare direct beneficiaries are children and most families receive benefits for fewer than 48 months?

WHY are people of color disproportionally receiving welfare benefits?

WHY has long-term unemployment, defined as being jobless for 27 weeks or longer, become markedly worse for workers over age 55 than for the general population?

WHY do the Americans With Disabilities Act and the EEOE clause and the Voting Rights Act – among others -- exist to protect vulnerable populations?

It is the people with the most advantages and least disadvantages - those with power in a given system - that have the most responsibility AND ability to create change, protect vulnerable populations, and reduce overall disadvantages for all groups?

1. Let vulnerable and/or minority populations speak for themselves and listen to their valid concerns.
2. Ask all people, your friends and neighbors, how you can support them, especially when and if they feel threatened.
3. Never be a bystander to hate. Speak up and show solidarity. Step in to protect and comfort.
4. Unfriend, unfollow, and boycott any individual, organization or media outlet that disseminates or profits from hate speech, subtle or overt bigotry, victim blaming, or anything but respectful dialogue.
5. Don't engage in hate on social media, in fact, fight hate on social media. Reply to offensive Tweets and posts with "I may agree with some of what you believe, but that was racist (sexist, homophobic, cruel, etc.) and I cannot condone or support that language." The same is true for real life.
6. Don't, while in your own "in group" give a "pass" on casual racism or hate speech. Always speak up.
7. Make an effort to be involved in a community where you are not the majority race, gender, class, religion, etc.
8. Learn history, read books by people who are not of your same race/class/gender/sexuality/etc., travel far from your place of residence and engage with people in a different place (i.e. volunteer or attend a church service whilst vacationing).
9. Write letters, emails, Tweets, posts, and take part in any other sort of non-violent form of communication and demonstration against hate, especially if the hate speech or actions emanate from people in positions of power. Here is a way to share your ideas and standards: https://apply.ptt.gov/yourstory/

If you disagree with any thing on this page, write down exactly why and take this page and your carefully considered response to a group of people who are not a part of your in-group - stand as a minority viewpoint for a new perspective - and ask them to evaluate your justifications from their perspectives. Opposition viewpoints are important for a robust dialogue, and humanizing the conversation is important - person to person. If you can't find a group of people who are not in your in-group (racially, religiously, class, education, or sexuality-wise) that you would feel comfortable having this conversation with, then you are likely in an echo chamber.

Read this story about David Duke's god-son: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-white-flight-of-derek-black/2016/10/15/ed5f906a-8f3b-11e6-a6a3-d50061aa9fae_story.html

1. https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-racial-discrimination
2. http://www.gallup.com/poll/157082/islamophobia-understanding-anti-muslim-sentiment-west.aspx
3. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/22/muslims-and-islam-key-findings-in-the-u-s-and-around-the-world/
4. http://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/
5. http://www.uclalawreview.org/the-equality-argument-for-abortion-rights/
6. http://www.civilrights.org/resources/civilrights101/sexualorientation.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/
7. http://www.bwss.org/resources/information-on-abuse/numbers-are-people-too/ 
8. http://archive.adl.org/anti_semitism/jewsandmoney/\
9. http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1632&context=jgspl 
10. http://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/cb15-97.html 

(a) https://www.verywell.com/examples-of-victim-blaming-460802
(b) http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-origins-of-privilege

-- Proverbs 31:8-9 // Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.
-- Proverbs 17:5 // Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker; he who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished.
-- Zechariah 7:10// and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.'
-- The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people. Martin Luther King, Jr.
-- He who allows oppression shares the crime. Desiderius Erasmus
-- The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression. Thomas Jefferson
-- And what is wrong with you that you fight not in the Cause of Allâh, and for those weak, illtreated and oppressed among men, women, and children, whose cry is: “Our Lord! Rescue us from this town whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from You one who will protect, and raise for us from You one who will help.” [004:075: Al Quran]
-- Who can protest and does not, is an accomplice in the act. [The Talmud]