Racial Intolerance: An Epidemic
I was inspired to write this article after a series of closely related events reminded me that racial intolerance is still a serious concern. My discovery of this in people who claim to have faith in a God who promotes acceptance and love for all humanity disturbs me. This is in deep conflict with the value system they claim to support. There still exists the outer layer of a bubble that must be popped. It seems that there are those who have not experienced enough to know the truth quite yet.
You do what you know until you know better. I’ve been told this for years. It is a matter of experience and values with which a person has been brought up that shape how they view the world. But, it remains an immature state of being to generically accept the value system with which parents or guardians molded you and never question it. Skepticism in any part of life is healthy. It may just be that people may not know better yet. However, it confuses me that still racism exists when people are in contact very frequently with individuals (of different backgrounds) that challenge these ideas they have established in their minds about certain categories of people. How could these individuals not realize that a real problem is this ignorance and intolerance that they have developed over the years? Living in such a multicultural city, province, country, world, it astounds me that still people use hurtful and negative language about categories of people they’ve never met and are (how many times must they hear it before it truly sinks in?) from the exact same species.
It isn’t all true what you’ve heard. We all judge people; categorize individuals. I’m not going to say that I am the only person who doesn’t label a person as something when I first meet them. Our brains like to create patterns, discover trends in data and sort like objects. But, with tolerance, and not writing someone off, there is the possibility for this person to change my opinion about them. Judgments should not be written in stone or placed on a global scale of recognition. Even gossip not related to race is something that creates labels on people that one has not met. This is a case where this healthy level of skepticism does come into play well. It is better to make your own opinions about people. Taking people’s warnings is a good idea but proceeding with caution before writing them completely off remains a very viable choice.
They aren’t just jokes. Sometimes, you can't just say "Only kidding" to make everything better. Whether it pokes at negative or positive stereotypes, racial jokes transfer the idea that this is behaviour that should be continued. People laugh and reinforce the joke-teller, and through this promotion of ideas stereotypes can be bred. Even if one doesn’t speak up but just laughs along, the teller of these jokes will engage in this behaviour again and tell this joke again because they’re still getting a positive response; thus spreading these ideas to others. It seems these joke tellers are people who are unaware and inexperienced with the truth but also relatively not open to the discovery of it. The label’s glue has dried and there is so much effort in removing it and making another. These people only know what they know. They can’t be fully blamed. There is a fear of the unknown predisposed in everyone. The reason for the comments or remarks must be fear based, as they point to what is unknown. Let’s be honest: there are scary people in the world. But, they are not all of the same race/s. Racial intolerance is something that is reinforced by these jokes, slurs, and discriminatory actions in all labels we place on people.
Differences are some of the most beautiful things in life. The social sciences and humanities would be hard-pressed to breathe without this variety. The variability we experience in our world is a blessing and amazing thing. However, not getting to know someone before you place judgments is one of the most hateful and ugly acts you can do to who they are as a person. Nobody likes to be summed up with one word, because no one can be. We are all so many words big, so many words tall. That should be remembered. I don’t in any way want everyone to be the same, but I think we, as a society, should be long since past looking at these differences as negative things.
