One of my biggest pet peeve when it comes to people is their arrogance; but not only their arrogance, but also their ability to completely ignore important details.
Last week, I was sitting in my archaeology class as we were watching a video about Native American people and how this certain tribe was susceptible to diabetes due to lack of exercise and an unhealthy diet.
Not only is this offensive to diabetics, but also to all Native American persons of that specific tribe. It was extremely belittling to these people and it also created a stereotype for those people that they do not deserve. Whenever the people in my class who viewed the video are now going presume that the tribe is lazy and unhealthy. That is not fair. However, I am only here to write about the diabetes aspect of this problem.
In the video, it explained how these people did not have the resources to eat anything other than junk food and if they regulated their diet more regularly and exercised on a daily basis then maybe diabetes would not be a genetic problem within the tribe. They did fail to mention that this is related to type 2 diabetes. They just specified the whole problem as 'diabetes'.
Usually, I can look past things like this when my friends are talking or asking me questions about diabetes. However, when a video like this is made by a team of extremely intelligent archaeologists who are supposed to be shedding light on the issue of preservation, they are not able to mention the differences in diabetes. They just kept talking about the problem like it was no big deal.
Now I may not go to the gym or eat as healthy as I should, ever, but when I see stories coming from supposedly reliable sources then I get angry. This is exactly the type of thing that makes people think all diabetes is the same. Now whenever my peers see that I am a diabetic, they will assume I got it from reasons that I could control. I got diabetes randomly, at age 5. Completely out of the blue.
Sorry for the rant, but I needed to say it.
Hope everyone is having a good day :)
In the video, it explained how these people did not have the resources to eat anything other than junk food and if they regulated their diet more regularly and exercised on a daily basis then maybe diabetes would not be a genetic problem within the tribe. They did fail to mention that this is related to type 2 diabetes. They just specified the whole problem as 'diabetes'.
Usually, I can look past things like this when my friends are talking or asking me questions about diabetes. However, when a video like this is made by a team of extremely intelligent archaeologists who are supposed to be shedding light on the issue of preservation, they are not able to mention the differences in diabetes. They just kept talking about the problem like it was no big deal.
Now I may not go to the gym or eat as healthy as I should, ever, but when I see stories coming from supposedly reliable sources then I get angry. This is exactly the type of thing that makes people think all diabetes is the same. Now whenever my peers see that I am a diabetic, they will assume I got it from reasons that I could control. I got diabetes randomly, at age 5. Completely out of the blue.
Sorry for the rant, but I needed to say it.
Hope everyone is having a good day :)
