(Young Adult) Bill Of Rights

Sexism. Racism. Homophobia. All are powerful monikers in today’s world for inequality. Why is another, just as potent source of inequality, almost never included on the list? Ageism. The discrimination against people due to age. The victims of this are small and powerless; children and the elderly. One main facet of ageism is teenage/young adult discrimination. Specifically, discrimination of those of high school and/or college age.

Teenagers. On one hand, we're painted as the shining hope for the world. We are told that it is our generation who will bring the US out of recession, our generation who will find a solution to the current energy problems. We are pumped up with rhetoric like this, delivered in inspirational speeches with catchy slogans. Success stories are waved around triumphantly; the teen who graduated Oxford at age 13, the young adult who was a junior fellow at Harvard at age 19. We’re told to emulate these people; told that all the paths are aligned for our success. Yet; there's a dark underbelly.

We are also painted as hoodlums. Gangsters. Troublemakers. A generation behind bars. It's a double standard. Teenagers are almost fully fledged adults, with almost none of the legal and social privileges. A so called 'dangerous' element. Constantly, we are discriminated against by adults because they have the power... and we do not. Statistically, our age group is the most arrested. When we attempt to change our world, and follow that aforementioned shining vision through protests and rallies; the only way we can change the world, we're arrested.

So... who are we? Who can we be, when you label us in so many different ways? When ageism, teenage discrimination, distorts so much? There are a billion faces of teenage and young adult discrimination. Each is a different form of authority in our lives. Teachers. Bosses. Cops. If a cop sees two people at the scene of a crime; a teenage male and an adult male, which will they arrest? Which one will be suspected the most? Let's assume they are both of the same ethnicity, same economic status, both with clean records. The only factor separating them is age. The teenager will most likely be hauled in, because after all, the other suspect is an adult. He must be fully moral and responsible. The teenager... he isn't fully fledged yet. He's a... larvae of an adult, so to speak, and therefore must be in the wrong.

Now... If the case was different and race was the only separating factor; say, a white man and a black man, and the black man was arrested, there would be uproar. Communities would rise up in outrage. Discrimination/racism charges would be filed. Heck, it might even make it to the Supreme Court. The policeman's reputation would be tarnished, and a crackdown on racism would commence. Yet, this scenario plays out a thousand times a year with age being the only separating factor. Where is the outrage? The discrimination charges? The people rising up? Nowhere... because those with power don't care. They support it, because they are adults, and that's the way their society works. However, there are no teenage judges. No teenage police officers or governing bodies to see our point of view. There are no teenage reporters (In papers with widespread influence; I'm aware of the existence of high school newspapers, etc) We have little to no power in the adult world, so these incidents go unnoticed, slipping just under the human rights radar. Every other inequality contains adults, and therefore the potential for acknowledgment. Even in other cases of ageism, where the one's being discriminated against are, for example, the elderly, there is much more public outcry... because those being discriminated against are adults

If you look through history, you'll find it sprinkled with young revolutionaries (Alexander the Great, for instance) Poets tend to create their most passionate work as young adults/teens, and mathematicians hit their peak. Why, then, are we still thought of as 'below' adults? If we continue to be thought of as sub forms of them, as 'larvae', teenage discrimination WILL continue. We need to establish that we are an age group unto ourselves, with unique properties, and deserving of an equal yet different status to adults.

Sources

Youth Rights
This I Believe
Panorama