Shakespeare for the Suppressed

So, this post is mostly a comment on Nixon's post. I totally agree with what he says about the difficulty humans have in getting over their prejudices and old ways of looking at things and getting outside of their comfort zone. But I can think of a couple of cases where that was the case, though the process was long and laborious and required lots of sacrifice. One example I can think of is with women's rights. It has taken a long time for women to gain the ability to participate in society with as much freedom as men, and to gain the rights that were traditionally men, but I believe it has happened. As one of the few females in engineering, I am quite grateful for the progress that has been made on this front. There are still people who argue that we are not there yet, and there will always be those few that have their own personal prejudices and biases, but nominally those walls of bias and prejudice have been obliterated. Another example I think of is the Civil Rights Movement. This one has definitely been long and laborious (from the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 til today), but it has come a long way since slavery in the 1860s. It might not be over yet, but having a black President (however you feel about his politics) I think is a pretty big sign that for most of the country, we're getting there. Having lived in Mississippi for 14 years, I saw people (generally of the 60+ category) who still struggled with the idea of equality for all. Perhaps with all of these things, the old generation must first pass away before new ways of thinking "outside of the comfort zone" can be adopted, but with enough work and sacrifice and people standing up for what they believe, it has occurred in our country's past. Can it occur on the international scene, like Nixon was mentioning? I think a lot of it has to do with people letting go of age old prejudices, and at least in the US, that has happened for many groups of people. To tie it back to Shakespeare, he definitely addressed this idea of prejudice and the repercussions that result therefrom in Merchant of Venice. Though perhaps it was not a clear warning against the dangers of prejudice (and if it was, is fear of repercussion from the oppressed parties the best reason to avoid prejudice? Though the if you prick me speech was pretty powerful) , it certainly brought up this age old struggle.