Is racism because of fear or trying to elevate ourselves

When you look back on the world and see how far we have come…Then you will realize how difficult it must have been for thosewho suffered at the hands of a racist.  Most importantly is to look at who stood for others and stood for what was right and then suffered for their stand.  Then there are those who made a difference.

Jackie Robertson, the Tuskegee Airman or Martin Luther King Jr.  Some fought for the right to play a national past time, some died to make this a better country and some paved the way for those in the future.

A line from the movie 42..  “Maybe tomorrow we should all wear 42 so no one can tell us apart”

The next time any of us think we have it tough we need to look back on these guys and consider what they went through..  How they felt during their darkest hours… What they thought when the whole world seemed to be against them.

Here is how I see it.. We are not born racist, it is taught, sometimes on purpose, sometimes out ignorance and sometimes by race-baiters who have an agenda.

My son is mixed race and I adopted him when he was three days old and he has friends from every race and none of the kids he grew up with saw each other any different.  I would like to think it was because of how I raised him but I know it was only a small part.  Mostly it was the environment he grew up in. One time my son and two of his friends where in the car, one was half Chinese, one was Persian and of course my son who is half black.  I hear from the back seat from the one who was part Chinese say, as he was playing a video driving game, “dang Asian drivers”… I almost crashed the car laughing.  Another time my son and his friends were at the beach and began to play tag and I hear from my son “catch the black man”.  I just shook my head..

Is my son and his friends normal in most parts of the country or even the world I would say not a chance.  The question is why not?   Look at the early immigrants, the Italians hated the Irish, the Puerto Ricans hated the Cubans and they hated the Haitians.  It’s all about trying to elevate our standing in the world by standing on the backs of those we walked on.  Look in any direction and you will find hatred.

Now the children in most of the world are taught to hate and are taught to think how they do and see themselves how they do because of those around them.  By the media, by the news, by the politicians.  You can’t blame one source or one race, you must blame all of us.  Those that are racist and those that perpetuate it and those who allow it.  Which one are you?  The more we make race an issue the bigger the problem becomes. If you treat people the same they feel the same, if you make them feel abused or different they begin to act that way.

Look at a child, when they fall down and skin their knee they look to you to see how they should react.  They mirror the behavior they see.

We all share the responsibility of how these kids feel about themselves and see themselves.

So when we attack each other over this issue and blame each other for the problem we become the problem.   So I ask you to look in the mirror, no matter if you are black, white or brown, and ask yourself…  am I part of the problem or am I part of the solution.