Age discrimination is a large issue in the United States today. All ages can be discriminated against, teenagers are considered shifty and untrustworthy, elderly considered incapable, youth considered boisterous. It affects not only the people who are discriminated against, but also those who lose valuable relationships by judging them based on age.
An example of this is one day me and a couple of friends were hanging out one night in Times Square just going into random stores looking around, taking pictures, and doing what normal teenagers do when they’re in a group. We all walk laughing into the M&M store. We walk by the section where they had the random little M&M toys, walk by the candy, and then walk out without making any purchases. What is the first perception of this? It might be, and in many cases it is, that we stole something. Maybe the employee working behind the register will even go as far as to call the police on these teens, who didn’t steal anything, but were discriminated against simply because we were “unruly teenagers”.
This happens every day, all over America. We don’t tell the youth very much, because they “won’t understand”, they’re “too young”. We gawk when elderly people run marathons, or even participate in simple recreational activities such as volleyball or swimming, because they are “old”, and “incapable”.
People who are discriminated against, no matter the reason, can be hurt by it. Age discrimination is the same as racial discrimination, or religious discrimination. They can be offended, because it isn’t something they can help. Like my example with my friends, we were simply having fun as we walked into the store. We had no intention of stealing anything or causing any trouble, we could have even been honor roll students and athletes, and we were still discriminated against for being teenagers. I can relate to “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” by Richard Rodriguez because even though in his essay he basically talks about how he was discriminated against for his culture and the way that he and his family spoke, me and my friends were discriminated as well even though it had to do with age rather than nationality. My experience as well as Richard’s experience both has the same moral: Everyone deserves equal opportunities, regardless of age, race, or religion.