While I’m guest posting here, I feel the need to speak out on a certain issue. Some blogs — and I won’t name names — have been promoting discrimination and ridicule against one of society’s most vulnerable groups — pandas.
People like to make fun of pandas because they’re different. You may think that’s just harmless fun, but it’s not. Just last week at an elementary school in Tennessee, a panda was beaten up on the playground while taunted with slurs such as “baby thumbs” and “bamboo-licker.” While we’re laughing at pandas, what our children are
learning is hatred. And that’s not alright.
Pandas are just like us. But instead of eating at Arby’s or Taco John’s, they eat bamboo. That’s not worse or better than us; it’s just different. Still, because of superficial differences like that, some people don’t want pandas around their children. They think pandas should go to their own schools, and some even say things like, “Why do pandas even need an education when all they do is sit around and eat bamboo all day?” This is just ignorance, and it’s not what we should be passing on to the next generation.
When we see our large black and white friends, the pandas, and think of how different they seem, we should remember that in the end they are people too.. Well, I guess they’re bears — or maybe raccoons — but the point is they are living, breathing creatures who deserve our respect. It’s not like they’re soulless gingers or something.