About the 'Yikes' in a Previous Post

In my last post, I stated that I had been asked to be assessed for the right to hold and use my driver's license solely because I had reached a certain chronological age. I responded with "YIKES!"

Many of my peers don't react visibly that way. For whatever reason. Here is why I did.

Let me share the following story told to me by a Latina woman.  She grew up in El Paso, Texas in the 1950's. Each year on the first day of school, the Mexican children – only the Mexican children – were taken from the classroom to have their heads checked for lice.

Let that settle in.

Racism blatant enough to cause an audible gasp. How could such a thing happen?  It doesn't happen today because, thank God, society is sensitized to the prejudice of judging others on the sole basis of ethnicity.

School officials in El Paso did not set out to ostracize or alienate their Mexican students, I feel sure. They were seeking the common good. The presence of head lice is a public health issue and the schools have a responsibility to ensure a safe, healthy environment.  The way they attempted to ensure this common good, however, was racist, based, quite obviously, on the premise that lice infestation is more likely among Mexicans. Epidemiology tells us such assumptions are patently false. So to act in the way these school officials did, was simply racist.

The laudable goal of assuring a healthy environment should be sought. It just has to be done in a way that is not racist, in a way that does not denigrate any class of persons because of their ethnicity.

The connection with requiring a driving test on based on age?  I hope it is obvious. To make assumptions about anything, or to demand certain procedures to be followed, based solely on chronological age is ageist.

Do we want to keep drivers and all those whom they might encounter when they are behind the wheel safe?  Of course we all do. We just have to do it in a way that is not ageist. Can we do that? Of course we can! When there is an awareness of how vicious and self-harming ageism is to all of us, we will look for another way.

I hope it is soon.