Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 2

Ok Brain, let’s get sharp and think about the second article of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

Article 2.

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Oh do we all, worldwide, have work to do on this article. This article calls for no discrimination of any form for any reason whatsoever. The first example of work that can be done is an experience an acquaintance of mine had. My friend’s first name is Mohammad. Mohammad was born and raised in the Middle East. He recently graduated with a Master’s in Business specializing in Project Management. He applied for many jobs for which he was very qualified (he also had solid work experience in related areas) but never got called in for interviews. This occurred in Boston, MA in 2008, in my backyard! I personally feel that because his first name is Mohammad that readers of his resume were immediately struck with a stigma towards him and were blinded to his qualifications.

Maybe I am wrong and there were other significantly more qualified people applying for the same jobs, however to me it seems he wasn’t even considered as a candidate from the moment they read his name at the top of the resume. This may not have been a conscious judgement call by the reader. In fact to me it seems our culture in the United States of America has subconscious reactions to the name Mohammad, similar reactions that we have to the date 9-11 or the phrase terrorist. This is largely in part due to the current socio-political state of the world and our country’s role in that. I do want to share that after several months of searching for a job Mohammad left the Boston area and found a position in California.

I could have shared with you my views on the caste system in India and how they are quite contrary to this article on the basic human rights as agreed by all UN Member States. Or I could have talked about any number of instances of ethnic cleansing occurring all over the world. But, I chose to share an experience that someone had in my backyard as often we forget that there are problems there too.

Drum roll, and now for the solutions…in this particular instance I almost feel we should not list our names on the top of our Resume. This would help eliminate discrimination of gender and of ethnicity. While that may be a small solution to isolated problems, we need to think about the bigger problem which is the subconscious reaction. This is difficult because this reaction comes from our society as a whole, our government and their efforts to get a message across the media to support their political actions, our media trying to spin articles to add sensation and keep our interest, and our neighbors who are fed the same information and have similar subconscious reactions which affect us all.

My solution, while simple in nature is to get to know people that are different from you. When you get to know Mohammad you recognize him as an intelligent, well educated and highly qualified individual, not just as Mohammad a name that holds a cultural stigma. We are all human and are all built from the same parts. While we may grow up in different cultures, languages, religions, skin colors and costumes, we are still flesh, bone and brain underneath. Maybe we should issue worldwide school uniforms so we all look the same, I joke. One of my personal passions is to learn about people from other cultures, understand why their culture believes and practices what they do. Understand why these differences make sense to them and all the while understand these differences as they relate to basic human rights. Again, I encourage you to reflect on this article and share any reactions or ideas this article inspires in the comments section.

Peace be with you.