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| My family and I (I'm in the red flowered dress) |
As a forward, let me say that I believe racist crimes should be punished, as well as all other crimes...true crimes are not what this post is about. So let me begin:
Lately it seems like every time I turn around there is an issue where someone being "racist" pops up in the news, when there was nothing I considered racist about the incidents let alone the people. I will be the first to say that as a "lil bit of everything" type of chick, I find this somewhat annoying. To me, people are people. Yes, anyone can tell a white person looks different from a black person, an Asian person looks different from an Indian person, and so on...but when it comes down to it, it's really not worth all the drama. For those who don't get it, let me put it in perspective for you.
My mom was from the country-here in Georgia (things move a lot slower there--especially in the South) and when she was a kid, she walked to a one-room schoolhouse, while the white children rode the bus down the dirt road to their school. My dad was born in the U.S. to a Canadian mother (who is biracial) and a Jamaican father (also biracial, a descendant of Scottish and Irish natives), and though I really have never heard my dad talk about being treated differently as a light-skinned, green-eyed guy in Jamaica, my grandmother does talk about segregation and things of that nature. My mom said that her dad had green or grey eyes and it was rumored that one of his parents was white, but that couldn't be talked about back then because people could be hurt for that.
I said all this to say that I have it good. While I have heard a lot of "What race are you?" and "Is your dad white?" as well as a few snubs by people black and white, I don't really care. Most of it happened when I was too little to understand or care actually. I've been told that I shouldn't "think I'm all that" because I'm light-skinned by my own race, so far be it from me to tell a curious white person who asks what black people eat--out of true ignorance on the topic-that they are racist because they asked it.
Even though I find it highly annoying, there will always be people who don't talk to someone because they're too ugly, too handicapped, too tall, too skinny, too pretty, or some other just-as-confusing reason. I can't help this, and sometimes I think that perhaps people throw out the race card because it's the easiest and most obvious excuse for not being nice.
What is my point? I guess my point is that people are people; you can be what you want to be if you don't let anyone hold you back. No matter what race you are, people will insult you for something because even the nicest person is gonna have a bad day and lash out-not to mention those people who are just rude all day every day. So let's just all try a little harder to forgive and forget :-) and enjoy out lives. When God made us, he said that his creation was very good, and I truly believe he was right.
Elisabeth Arona
