Civil Rights, People, Civil Rights.

There are lots of ‘disgraceful’ acts which make their way up into our news; the lady who put a cat in a bin; people being charged with ‘public indecency’ because of wearing pyjamas in public; children being taken to court for not attending birthday parties. These are things that provoke people to say they weep for humanity or really worry about where society is headed. On a tangent and from an entertainment perspective, society is becoming more visually fascinated with the world, and whilst not many could withstand a silent theatre production, the intrigue of my generation lands far more on the ocular than other senses. That’s why we have 3D-iMax cinema, 4K and curved-screen TV’s. That’s why Disney Classics are being restored and released on a yearly basis; people hate the scratchy-tape look. Admittedly, the ears are far more easily offended than eyes, but the focus seems to be – at least overtly – more on visual effects. Is that the reason people are racist? I mean, yes, the world’s powers have become a lot more tolerant of different cultures, beliefs and looks, but unfortunately, racism still exists. Is that because it’s far easier to tell someone’s skin colour apart from their voices? Or is it simply a prejudice that clutches onto some people? At any rate, this story (a Portuguese commission for the 50^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights) just proves how the present generation have come on in leaps and bounds in terms of prejudice and acceptance:

A white woman sits down for a flight, looking uncomfortable with her travelling companion; a black gentlemen. The woman calls a flight attendant over and says she couldn’t possibly spend the flight next to a "negro". The flight attendant says there are no more seats in economy, but will speak to the pilot. She comes back and announces that there is indeed a seat in 1^st class and that the pilot agrees he wouldn’t have any of his passengers sit next to such a ‘despicable’ passenger. She then beckons the man to first class and the woman is left alone in economy.

See, in this day and age, prejudice should be combated like this; don’t accommodate the accuser, make more comfortable those being rebuked. A case of racism is agreed upon to who is being abused and who is the bigot; the person making preconceptions over the colour of another person skin is being racist, and should not be accommodated, but the victim – in this case the black man – should be apologised to on behalf of the racist, and if necessary paid compensation. After all, racism is against the law in England.

That’s why I was absolutely horrified to see the latest “cat bin lady” story. A young man with a horrendous, crippling and life-limiting condition (Muscular Dystrophy, a condition my own brother, Josh, has) was asked to leave a cinema after another viewer complained that his ventilator was apparently making ‘too much noise’. Firstly, let me explain about the ventilator and the vitality of this bit of kit.

1.   Muscular Dystrophy (MD) is a group of muscle wasting conditions, whereby the body either: cannot produce muscle fibres correctly; destroys its own muscle fibres, or; produces muscle fibres without the adhesive enzyme needed to connect them together. This causes muscle tissues to weaken and deteriorate. Lungs function only via the intercostal muscles (the muscles connecting ribs) and the diaphragm (a band of muscle stretching across the abdomen). When these muscles are wasted in MD the lungs cannot function: you lose your ability to breathe. A ventilator acts as a pump for your balloon-like lungs, and essentially keeps you alive by manually breathing for you.
2.     The noise a ventilator makes is a hushing sound, sort of like wind, or someone making a 'shh' sound. This type of noise is white noise, and the human brain usually blocks this out, or at least doesn’t focus on it, and the white noise descends into the background of your unconscious minds- basically, you shouldn’t notice it’s there.

So from this, we’ve established that a ventilator is essentially portable life-support, and the sound it makes is pretty natural and non-invasive. So why did Richard – a 31-year-old suffering with a condition which has a life expectancy of about 15 years; a miracle and a medical breakthrough – why was this fine gentlemen removed from an Odeon cinema screen in Epsom, showing a film to 198 others? Why was this stupid act of discrimination allowed to happen? Has the world not moved on from removing black people from buses in 60 years? I would hate to think that the world has an obsession with placing certain standards and social equity groups in every generation, to the extent that some prejudice always has to be prominent in order for people to feel better than others.

Sure, it might have been a mistake. The usher may not have been trained as to ‘how-to-handle-complaints-about-vulnerable-customers’. However, I’m sure their moral compass would have told them to evict the complainer, had they been asked to remove an Asian or black girl from the cinema. And sure, this isn’t the same situation – 6 people complained that the noise the ventilator made was a ‘nuisance’ (and maybe they could indeed hear the ventilator), but when I go to the cinema, I hear people laughing and texting throughout the film. If I had complained about a mobile phone, I still wouldn’t expect those people to be evicted, just to be told to keep the noise down; those people have a choice, and are perfectly able to turn their phones off. Josh and Richard don’t have the opportunity to turn their ‘nuisances’ off. If they did, they would die; that’s the reality of this situation. So the only option left, you might think, is to ask him to leave.

But the air hostess didn’t accommodate the racist, did she? She didn’t move the bigot to 1^st class so she wouldn’t complain any more, but rather, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights would believe the flight attendant to compensate towards the abused, and make him more comfortable. It’s not as easy to evict a racist from a plane, as it is to ask prejudiced movie-goers to leave a screen. I’m not looking for a 'sincere' apology to Richard – he’s already had this. I’m not looking for someone to explain why it happened. I’m looking for people to change their frame of mind. Don’t reward people with prejudices. Racism is illegal. Why isn’t prejudice against people with disabilities illegal? Or just a step away from that, why do people not think a little more -- not to be totally anal about what’s PC and what isn’t -- but just to find other solutions; if people can’t accept others’ differences, they should look away, get a little more perspective and come back another day. Not be allowed to continue in their reign of bigotry.

It’s not time for apologies, it’s time for change.