In light of the current presidential election and recent civil unrest in this country, it has become so apparent to me just how many people are not up to speed with the issues in our own country and the world. It is understandable that everyone cannot be completely educated or aware of every single issue that exists but to not be educated on any is really troubling to me, especially when it comes to voting for a presidential candidate who can effectively represent you and your values. Here are just some issues and topics that we need to become more invested in as a society:

1. Civil Rights/Racism

Unfortunately, even today racism still exists in our country. Of course it isn't nearly as blatant as the times of slavery or the Civil Rights Movement, instead it has become institutionalized or ingrained so deeply into our society that in order to address it layers and layers of issues would have to be peeled back first. It can be found in so many different factors in our society and in our government. There just too many to count. Although institutionalized racism is plaguing our society, it is harder to combat because not only is it less apparent, it is also widely denied to even exist. Many people think racism is long gone and that our country is in a post racial state. However, through a little research, observation and open-mindedness it can be realized that white privilege is still very widespread and that race is still a factor that unfortunately divides us.

2. Gender Equality

The gap between men and women, although smaller than in the past, still exists. Like the racism of today, sexism is something that the media and government has instilled into our society. Most blatantly, women still only make 80% of what men make in the workplace, even when they have the exact same job description and title. Women are still treated differently in the media and in government. Society's beauty standards are nearly impossible to meet and women are classified by the way they look as opposed to who they are or what they've accomplished. All of this also coincides with rape culture and the habit of victim blaming that constantly occurs. Men still control what women can do with their bodies and some government policy prevents women from being in control of themselves. If more people became more invested in this issue and spoke out against these instances instead of conforming to them, it would be much easier to achieve gender equality.

3. LGBT Rights

Over time our society has become more accepting of the LGBT community, however they are still not treated as equals. We still do not fully understand this part of our society so we act out of hate and fear against it. We get so wrapped up in their sexuality or gender identity that we tend to forget that they are not that much different from us. We still rally against them and write legislation limiting their rights as citizens but we do little to try and understand more about the members of this community. If we all took a little time to become a bit more educated on what it means to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender it would be easier to become more open-minded to it and not act out of ignorance. The LGBT community deserves to acknowledged and valued as citizens just as much as any one else and with a little more understanding and awareness it is not hard to accomplish.

4. Islam

With the rise of radical terror groups in recent history the stigma towards Islam as a religion has become more and more negative. Unfortunately people often associate the actions of ISIS or Boko Haram with Islam as a whole. However, if they dug a little deeper they'd find that less than 1% of the 1 billions Muslims in this world are radicalized and that ISIS does not share the same philosophies as most who practice Islam. By digging a little deeper someone could also realize that ISIS oppresses and kills countless Muslim people every day. Labeling all Muslims as terrorists is ignorant and irresponsible, and if a little more effort were given to learn more about ISIS and Islam it would be easy for our society to stop making this mistake. Because of this labeling Muslims are harassed, discriminated against, and even killed out of fear and ignorance, even though they are often also victims of ISIS.

These are just 4 of the numerous amounts of topics that we need to become more aware of. If everyone just put in a little more effort to educate themselves about things that are going on in the world, jumping to conclusions and stereotypes would be a lot less common and issues that already exist could become resolved. It is so easy to become educated these days, so make an effort to better yourself and better your community by becoming invested in and aware of things going on in your country and in the world.