Your character comes into question when you choose to be racist. Yes, racism is a choice or default position when you are too ignorant to understand your own dislikes. Blaming the color of one's skin for failings whether real or imagined is illogical and anti-intelligent. Fear of some culture you have little information about isn't bad, but in the next step the fear must be replaced with knowledge. Otherwise the breeding grounds for a lack of understanding in most cases turns into a hatred that reflects racism. I know I had my own experiences with different cultures but I found a way to assimilate because I looked for similarities instead of differences. I embraced the idea that we all are of one race, the human race, and anything less than that gold standard was a waste of an opportunity to grow as an individual.
My fear was replaced by being respectful and open to listening to whatever it took to build a bond. I didn't project my own values on others but I held to my values like an anchor. What came of my assimilation with other cultures is a broader intellectual perspective that has only increased my wisdom and ability to comprehend. So what was at first a fear became a necessity for my own evolutionary path. Many were not like me. They chose instead to segregate and build walls around their lives and activities so that they didn't have to face their initial fear. I understand what fear can do but I also know that life never stops presenting us with challenges like fear to overcome. They quit on themselves in order to escape their fear instead of challenging their fear and finding a way past it.
So those who hold to racism as a condition of their lives are still stuck way back when they first felt their fear. That is a long time ago to live with a character defect that defines who they are now instead of whom they could have been. A wasted life in a sense that a challenge was shirked and a disorder replaced it. I know what racism can do to some people whom I know and it is not a welcoming or pleasant experience. They act like they are deserving of their racist attitude but all they do is show me that they were a coward when they could have been courageous. Blaming the race of someone for the moral failings all we humans exhibit is certainly not seeing the bigger picture. I know the struggles I lived to overcome and that others are not trying to overcome theirs is what this scourge of racism is all about.
My fear was replaced by being respectful and open to listening to whatever it took to build a bond. I didn't project my own values on others but I held to my values like an anchor. What came of my assimilation with other cultures is a broader intellectual perspective that has only increased my wisdom and ability to comprehend. So what was at first a fear became a necessity for my own evolutionary path. Many were not like me. They chose instead to segregate and build walls around their lives and activities so that they didn't have to face their initial fear. I understand what fear can do but I also know that life never stops presenting us with challenges like fear to overcome. They quit on themselves in order to escape their fear instead of challenging their fear and finding a way past it.
So those who hold to racism as a condition of their lives are still stuck way back when they first felt their fear. That is a long time ago to live with a character defect that defines who they are now instead of whom they could have been. A wasted life in a sense that a challenge was shirked and a disorder replaced it. I know what racism can do to some people whom I know and it is not a welcoming or pleasant experience. They act like they are deserving of their racist attitude but all they do is show me that they were a coward when they could have been courageous. Blaming the race of someone for the moral failings all we humans exhibit is certainly not seeing the bigger picture. I know the struggles I lived to overcome and that others are not trying to overcome theirs is what this scourge of racism is all about.
No comments:
Post a Comment