Racism

This week I was very fortunate to be part of the race panel. I learned so much from each of the other presenters. The overall message that was given was to define a person by not what their skin color is or how they dress and talk but instead what their personality is and who they are. Like Roger said, we see ourselves so different from others when in reality we are all the same. If you cut open a Mexican and an American, we all have a heart and we all have lungs. It's all a social construct that society has created: stereotypes not facts.

"Racism isn't born, folks, it's taught. I have a two- year old son. You know what he hates? Naps! End of list. "- Denis Leary

The quote above proves that racism is a social construct. We are all taught by society and the people who surround us, what's good and bad, and as we grow up, we are more exposed to the world and start to see people for their race and not them. We live in a diverse world and therefore we should become more socially mindful and realize that everyone from one certain race aren't all the same. They might have similar characteristics but are certainly not restricted to only those defined by their race. Racism is not always explicit, it's implicit too. It occurs in our school faculty, Band-Aids are only a light skin color, and textbooks don't show diversity, only white people. These things aren't realized because it's not something we think of everyday, but are such a privilege that white people have.

We restrain ourselves from grabbing a tasty looking cookie from the person sitting next to us on the bus, even though our instincts tell us it would taste SO goos we don't do it. Why? Because we know that stealing is wrong. If we can do that, then surely we can also ignore someone's skin color. When will we stop holding our purses tighter when a black man walks by? When will we stop assuming that a job applicant named Jose Jimenez is less likely to be qualified than John Smith? Ending racism today means realizing that these acts and thoughts are wrong. Despite the urge we might have to let them slide from the unconscious to the conscious. Ending racism today means moving beyond instinct to truly thoughtful acts, in everything we do. It might be very challenging to do, but it will be worth it.