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The One Race It is absolutely beyond my ability to comprehend why vast majorities of people discriminate between others of their own kind by "race". Race? What does that mean? As far as I know, there is only one race: the human race. No one can deny the fact that there are people with different colors of skin. Some are darker than others, some more yellow, some with redder hues to their skin. As a society, we call the colors black, yellow, red, and white. Do any of the people categorized by those groups truly have skin that exact shade? No. "Black people" come in a variety of shades of brown, "yellow people" and "red people" are merely tinted with those pigments, and "white people" aren't white at all! They're more of a peach color, and even that shade varies in a multitude of ways. Does it matter? Skin color is merely defined by the different pigments in one's skin; intelligence, emotions, behavior and athletic ability have nothing to do with it. Every race has their own miscreants and their own heroes; their own geniuses and their own, shall we say, mentally challenged. In every ethnic group, there are people who murder, steal, hate and lie. There are also people who care, give, love and are honest. Every person on Earth has something to donate, something to share with the rest of the world, regardless of race. Perhaps I realized this at a young age. Growing up in Los Angeles when I was younger, I interacted with a myriad of people of various races. My best friend was born in Pakistan, and held true to her family's traditions. Indeed, where I went to school, "white people" were in the minority. Instead, Hispanics, Asians and African-Americans dominated the scene. I didn't mind at all. Everybody brought to school their own way of life, and through their differences, shaped the lives of the other students by opening their minds. If not for the personal contact that each child had with a member of another race, the individual would have only stereotypes and parental views to base their opinions on. When I moved to Fairview, Pennsylvania when I was eleven, I was shocked. Everywhere I looked, there was a "white" person. In fact, I think that there were only three minority families that I saw on a regular basis. Culture shock, indeed. Then, I moved to Centre County, and received an even greater surprise; here, I could listen to and view prejudiced behavior almost daily. Before moving, I had the naive understanding that prejudice was quite nearly a thing of the past, something only experienced in the Southern States, if that. Surely modern people would realize that all races are equal, even if they were not treated that way. Unfortunately, I was wrong. In the first month of my life here in Central Pennsylvania, countless racial slurs assaulted my ears. Surprised would be a tremendous understatement. I was horribly shocked by the ignorance of these people, and when I stated so, I was made fun of as well. When they found out my stepfamily was Mexican, a slew of insults were torpedoed in that direction, as well. I could not care less. I have been brought up in a mixture of cultures, and can state that there is no difference to the people in any of them. I can see both good and bad in the cultures that I have been lucky to observe. There is no vast distinction of "good people" and "bad people" between races that I can see. And in my eyes, there is only one true race: the human race. |
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