Say What?

This is awkward... but should it be?

This is awkward... but should it be?

Today, at 10:17 p.m., even though this will be published earlier tomorrow morning, I am going to tackle a major problem in our society. Racism.

Now, as a white girl in a primarily white school, I haven't come face to face with the problem that much. I'm not going to say I understand what students of darker skin tones are going through, because as a middle class white student I will never truly understand. 

Before you go saying that I'm racist, what I do understand about the subject is that no matter how different we are, we're all people. We're all the same species, which gives us no right to be tearing ourselves apart from the inside out. 

What some African-American students and adults are going through is wrong. We shouldn't be judging people by something as insignificant as skin color. We shouldn't be making other peoples' lives harder than they already are. 

So, if all of the sudden I became an African-American girl...you'd have the right to make fun of me and treat me as if I'm dirt on the road? Heck to the no! 

And honestly, I'm sick of all of this racism crap. I'm sure everyone here has heard the quote, "don't judge a book by its cover". If not, just look in the description of this book. But that's the same as with people. You don't know peoples' backstories, you don't know how difficult their lives have been. So what's telling you that you have the right to throw others underneath the bus for no apparent reason? For all that it counts, in that situation, I hope the bus swerves to the sidewalk and knocks some sense into your head.

Respect. Respect for others, respect for their belongings, respect for yourself and your own dignity. 

I met this girl on a cruise ship a few years ago. Her name was Jasmine. She was by far one of the kindest, if not the kindest person I've ever known. She was an African-American girl, and her family only had one vacation a year. They had been saving up most of their money to go on this one trip for her birthday. I remember the look of pure joy on her face when we could finally see the Bahamas. Her family was underprivileged. They worked the same hours my parents did, but they earned less than half of what my parents make. I remember Jasmine told me about how her parents struggled to even find jobs in the first place. I didn't realize how bad the problem of racism was until then. I figured it all had just gone away after the U.S. Civil War... oh how wrong I was. 

I haven't seen Jasmine since then, but she taught me a valuable lesson. That everyone deserved the same respect. Whether they're the President of the United States or a little Nigerian boy who goes to your school, they both deserve the same respect. 

So I don't really get what peoples' motivation to segregate people from themselves is. I mean, is it because of the beliefs they grew up with? Or just because it makes them feel better about themselves when they put others down? All I know is that seperating any group of people from us is wrong. Incredibly wrong. There's a beauty to their existence, to everyone's existence. Are we just going to throw away the unity and peace that was created for us over something as simple as skin color? Or are we going to be the bigger people and learn to accept others for what makes them different?

When you go home today, from work or school, or just any freetime you may have... I want to you to ask yourself two questions:

Why are people creating seperations between ourselves over skin color?

And what can you do to help the situation at hand?