As the world crossed over into the new year, there was a notable amount of talk over certain things that need to change in the world throughout the new year. Various people began listing social issues they believe need to be addressed and accepted such as the LGBTQ+ community and defying gender roles by allowing men to be feminine and woman to be masculine. Throughout the many issues that are a part of the world, one of the main issues that still continues on today is racism.
Racism was always such a strange concept to understand when I was growing up. When you are young, you do not see the same differences that adults see. People are people and growing up, the idea that someone did not like someone else because of the color of their skin was so silly to me and still is. It never made sense. It always seemed that the basic problems that would always come up for young ones are if someone stole their spot in line or if someone stole the blue crayon they wanted to use. When my younger brother was in preschool, one of his classmates had cerebral palsy but no one in the class treated him any differently. They knew he needed help sometimes so they would help him. They treated him equally because they did not see any differences. They were equal in each other’s eyes.
As we grow up the world begins to throw ideas of differences and judgement into our brains. Throughout high school there were never any issues of racism that I noticed. I went to a private Catholic school and everyone seemed to get along pretty well. If there were any issues, none of them that I know of dealt with race. I remember in my sociology class of my junior year we discussed world issues such as bullying and the whole class agreed that there really was not anything that went on in the school that we knew about. The only kind of talk about racism I experienced was in the classrooms especially in history classes when we learned about the Civil Rights Movement. It is definitely important to learn about different racial issues so we can learn from them and prevent them from reoccurring. It is never okay to judge someone based on the color of their skin and teaching that in schools and at home is a great way to start up conversations to grasp a better understanding of these issues.
Because racism has unfortunately been around for centuries, I think that it’s something that at this point, is next to impossible to get rid of. There are people out there who might never accept a different race because they might have been brought up in an environment where they were taught not to accept, respect and love everyone. In life you are not going to like everyone you meet but it is important to understand the reasons as to why you might not like someone. Racism might start at home but no matter what you are taught, it is important to respect everyone and treat everyone equally. No matter what the color of your skin is, we are all human and share this world together.
