Age discrimination speech
· INTRODUCTION
- Good afternoon, my name is Jessica I am 15 years old and I am here to share my experiences and feelings on age discrimination.
Around a year or two ago is when I first became aware of how much of an impact age discrimination has on my life.
· WOOLWORTHS
- I was shopping after school for a friends present and as I went to enter Woolworths, I was stopped by the security guard who told me I couldn’t go in.
puzzled I asked him why and he replied because you are a young person. Even more puzzled I asked what that had to do me not being allowed into the shop and he told me that young people were not allowed in because they steal
· FEELINGS ABOUT WOOLWORTHS
-This made me as a responsible teenager angry that I was not allowed to even enter a shop because of people’s ageist attitudes.
-I went to see the manager with an adult later; I felt that this was unfair treatment of young people that couldn’t be justified. The manager told me that teenagers shop lift, cause trouble and that they “are all the same” he also told me I looked like a thief
· FEELINGS AGAIN
-The situation made me feel helpless. There was very little I could do and I felt angry that such discrimination was allowed to take place.
· BENTALL CENTRE
-since then I then began to experience age discrimination more frequently. Another example is when it was my friend’s birthday and after coming out of a restaurant we went shopping in our local shopping centre. We hadn’t even been in the centre for 5 minutes when we were approached by a security guard.
-He told us we could not be in a group of more than 4 or we had to leave we asked but what if you are a family of 5. They said the rule was only directed at young people because they cause trouble
· FEELINGS AND ATTIDUDES, LAST STRAW
-being young also restricting how many friends I could take shopping, or invite to my birthday was the last straw for me. I was fed up of being followed by security guards in shops, being denied access and being judged purely on my age
-FUSTRATED. I was also frustrated. I felt helpless, forced to just watch this injustice take place as I strictly speaking have no rights
· FACEBOOK SITE
- and this is why I started my own page on facebook. I created a group called “against age discrimination in Woolworths and the bentall centre” I wanted to see if other people felt the same, and the response was incredible
- I currently have 210 members and more people join everyday.
-Many people came to me with similar stories
- This also motivated me to find more examples of age discrimination and more often enough, it came to me
· MOSQUITO
-The mosquito to me has given me a lot of hassle as a young person and I find the device completely unjust.
- There is a mosquito out side Mc Donald’s in Richmond which me and my friends can hear even eating out food once we have paid for it and sat down inside.
· CONCLUSION
-As a Teenager in today’s society I feel it unfair for me to suffer from a common stereotype that many people now associate with young people. I feel deeply saddened that such devices like the mosquito, should be able to exist especially how it irrates young children as well as teenagers.
-As tomorrows next generation I feel that we should be able to be treated with the same rights and respect as adults. The unfair treatment of young people in my opinion is getting worse and it needs the help of adults to stop this from happening.