Middle Brick Road

We are after all just human beings, aren’t we? People.

If you know me, then you know that I do not believe in the concept of race aside from its cultural use as a means of discrimination. You may think so, but race, ethnicity and culture are not the same things.

Before the Americas were “discovered“ and people began exclusively using those from African descent as slaves, things were different. The color of one’s skin was not used to decide how valuable or invaluable someone was. Even during Egyptian times race was not the killer it is today.

That’s right. I said race is a killer. A murderer, an evil that destroys lives, families and communities.

As long as the people in power to make every day decisions that sculpt our lives are racists, we will never be free.

And I don’t care if you agree or not. I don’t care if you don’t ever want to read anything else I have to say. Race only exists through racism. It is used solely to discriminate against other human beings. Normally those of color and non-European or Anglo-Saxon descent.

Children Playing

The concept of race was created. It was made up, and used to divide us. It does a good job, doesn’t it?

How many of you see the cute little girls playing? Or is it the little black girls playing? Ask yourself, if you told someone how these children made you laugh when you saw them playing . . . which phrase would you use? Why?

My assumption is that most would say the little black children, without even thinking that they specified that the children were black. For if the children were white, would they specify at all?

Why does it matter that they’re black? It matters because we were told that it did. And in some ways it still matters.

It matters when innocent teenagers are shot in cold blood because the color of their skin makes them look “suspicious”

It matters when without knowing a person you make automatic assumptions about them based on their skin tone.

It matters when we keep using it to feel superior or to purposefully keep others down.

It matters when people make it matter.

I believe in evolution and that if anything, these people, these human beings whose ancestors were treated like savage animals are more evolved than anyone. They made excellent slaves because they could fight off diseases, had stronger and more able bodies and could easily be identified by their genetic markers. Due to their inferior technology, they became the captives not the captors.

Look back at history, it is always a fight of technological advancement. Whoever has the better weapon wins. My weapon is truth.

Lucy

And the truth is that we humans are part of the animal kingdom. That’s right. I said animal. We are human animals. And as we began to evolve from a lower humanoid species, to survive we adopted qualities appropriate for the region our ancestors migrated to.

Think about your own ancestry and the features that you have.
I have fair skin, and light eyes. There is very little melanin in my skin to protect my body from the sun, and my eyes are very sensitive to light. I have thick heavy hair that sticks to my head when I sweat. My face becomes flushed when I get too hot. My ancestors came from many European countries:

• Anglo-Saxon
• Welsh
• Irish
• French
• Dutch

No wonder my body doesn’t like the excruciating heat and I have an extreme sensitivity to spring pollen. I wasn’t made for the sun, but those features, don’t tell you who I am as a person. Whether or not I will steal from you, what I have been through, how much money I have, whether I do drugs or what my child-hood was like.

My skin color doesn’t tell you anything! All my skin tells you is that culturally I have not had to endure the same injustice that black Americans confronted, but that my ancestors are responsible for their pain. Otherwise, you don’t know anything about me.

The same goes for someone in any other “race” . . . you know NOTHING about an individual based solely on the complexion of their skin and whether it is light or dark.

Minority groups, or those with skin that is not clearly of European descent are overly represented in our prison systems, true. However that representation is a direct result of racial prejudice and poverty. Not because people of color have a tendency to commit more crimes.But because people of color are more likely poor and more likely to be targeted as presumed criminals.

Don’t believe me? Just watch . . .

Why the difference? Ask yourself . . . What would you do?

What would you have done if you heard Trayvon Martin screaming for help outside your door?

Had just one neighbor poked their head out the door when he screamed. Just one . . . maybe, just maybe he would have been saved and Zimmerman would have cooled off.

It’s called the bystander effect and with so many people around, everyone assumes that someone else will do it. That someone else will offer their help . . . Where’s Mrs. Kravitz when you need her? Please, next time just be the one person. You’re more likely to scare the assailant away than to start a bloodbath.

Mrs. Kravitz of Bewitched
The infamous nosy neighbor

His death shall not be in vain, we will learn and grow from this tragic event. So far we have already learned how deep the racism in the south goes.

With so much hate in the world, does it seem logical that if the concept of race is eliminated that racism will eventually be as well?

Part of my mission is to become a part of that change. Instead of asking the required demographic race question for my thesis surveys. I am trying to prove how irrelevant the question is. Instead I am using an open-ended question which asks the respondent:

What culture do you identify with most?______________

Oh boy, some of the answers I have gotten. A few have identified themselves as white, Hispanic, African-American or Black, but I have also gotten answers like: Geek, American, All, Muslim, Caribbean, Any, Redneck, and one or two racial slurs. It is a perplexing question so a few have left it blank, but I cannot wait to get all of my surveys filled out to quantify the results.

Since I do not believe in race, I also do not believe that it is a reasonable way of assuming things about people. In fact it is this very practice which I believe fuels the racism itself.

It is for that reason that any time I have the opportunity, “human” is my answer. I say that I am part of the human race, which includes people of all color and all ethnicities. Until genetic mutations start happening and some of us become X-Men; there is only one human race. And even then . . . we are still similar enough, that we should find a common ground. Unify and come together.

It is the other differences that truly divide us. Arguably income level tells more about a person than the color of their skin. In fact income level is the biggest difference between people. Now, I am not here for an economics lesson or a history lesson. But as long as we focus on the little differences, like pigmentation . . . we will never see how much we all have in common, so we can solve the bigger problems.

In the Trayvon Martin case and to the lawmakers in Florida . . . know that the whole world is watching.  We are all watching this unfold. It is sad to see that as a people, we have not come very far at all.

Trayvon Martin, 17
Murdered February 26, 2012
Sanford, FL

April 10th there is a grand jury hearing scheduled, but we all know . . . if this was a white kid from the suburbs . . . Zimmerman would have already been charged.

What are your thoughts on this? How has this tragedy touched you? Does it make you think about how long it has been and what little distance we seem to have covered? Do you cling to your color? To your “race”? Or can you see the bigger picture, that we are all just human? Do you think that Trayvon’s death was racially motivated? When you hear the screams of the boy crying for help, what does it make you think? feel?

If you haven’t already please Sign the Petition to charge Zimmerman with the shooting.