Civil Rights

Civil rights are what define us as human beings. When we are granted them, we are free to enjoy the dignity and respect that come with our civil rights. When we are stripped of them, we are stripped of our humanity. The ways in which we still see civil rights abuses occurring throughout the country today show that we as a people are still struggling to see ourselves as equals, as one human being and another. External influences such as religion and racism skew our perception of equality, igniting debates over civil rights in which one side justifies stripping a person or group of people of their civil rights. This is how we have seen the issues of slavery and later segregation occur and why we continue to see civil rights abuses such as bans on gay marriage or denied services to gay people happen today. Civil rights are meant to be applied to all humans, regardless of their skin color, sexual orientation, etc., because what describes us should never get in the way of what defines us.