Today I witnessed something that I well and truly despise. Something that I almost cannot even comprehend. Something that in an ideal world I should not have to comprehend.
In today's Nation of Islam seminar we discussed a variety of very interesting topics, so many in fact that the class overran by around two minutes. Yes, two minutes. An almost insignificant amount of time in the grand scheme of things. I mean, there are 1440 minutes in a day and 525949 in a year so two minutes out of that is not an extortionate amount. Well, that is what I thought. Upon bringing the discussion to a close a man walked in to the seminar room whom I can only assume to be a lecturer. With a smile on his face he preceded to patronise our lecturer, explaining to her how the concept of time works and at what time seminars start and finish. A fact that I am sure she has come to terms with in all the years she has worked at the institution. With a mixture of shock and discussed slapped across our faces we left the room and immediately began questioning who or what that man believed himself to be.
Since I can remember, barring teachers in primary school and the first few years of secondary school, I have never perceived anyone to be of more social importance than anyone else. Yes, your job title might read CEO or HRH the Queen of England but I would no more respect you than I would the man cleaning the street at 5am on a Sunday morning making sure all is spick 'n' span by the time the world awakes. All people must breath, eat, sleep and drink. Nobody is immune to illness and everyone must deal with heartbreak and enjoy happiness.
Earlier this year the Queen came to visit our campus to which many of my friends and hundreds of other students hastily grabbed the nearest thing they could find that was draped in the Union Jack and ran on to campus to secure a prime position in preparation for her arrival. I, on the other hand, carried on with my day as per usual and sat at my desk doing work while my Facebook feed was clogged up with blurry photographs of a faraway dot of white hair which one assumes was that of the Queen's although it could have easily been a sheep for how clear it was. Now I am not going on a rant criticising the Royal Family or the decisions of others to celebrate them. I am merely stating my beliefs and when confronted with the question as to whether I made the ten minute journey on to campus that day I answered with this - "No offence, but I wouldn't go out of my way to visit some stranger's grandmother so why would I go and stand behind a fence to welcome the Queen?" An answer that I am sure will annoy many people who reside on the British Isles but alas it is the answer I gave.
Unless you have achieved something miraculous and have done an enormous good to society then I will not hold your person in any higher regard than I do my own family. If you're a doctor or a bus driver, a lawyer or a teacher, a postman or a business owner you are all the same. We are all human beings and we all deserve the same amount of respect (except if you are a horrible person or committed some sort of crime then you do not deserve the same amount of respect. Sorry.). Personally I don't care if you have a university degree or if you left school at 16, as long as you are a kind person that is all that matters.
My blood boils every time I hear someone make a negative comment about someone else be that how they look, what their wearing or where they call home. Just because you swing a Louis Vuitton handbag around your arm and drive a Range Rover to uni everyday does not make you any better than the person who buys all of their clothes from the charity shop. This also works the other way. I have lost count of the amount of times I have heard people criticise individuals for having money, for driving around in fancy cars and for going away on what I think are awesome sounding holidays to the furthest corners of the earth. Just because people have money does not automatically make them horrible.
As human beings we need to take each other for who we are not for what we have or our job titles or where we received are education or the amount of money that is in our bank accounts. We must learn to respect everyone because nobody is better than anyone else in this world and everyone deserves to be treated with the upmost respect. So don't be a patronising, rude or just any sort of annoying hoity toity person who believes they are better than somebody else because that is just a sign of complete and utter arrogance and, to a great extent, ignorance.
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