E-race-ing the Lines

I believe people focus far too much on race.

One day at work I noticed that a good friend of mine seemed angry. Upon asking what was bothering him, I found out that another co-worker had assumed that he was Puerto Rican. My friend is Mexican American and I guess being called Puerto Rican, to him was some sort of insult. I could not wrap my mind around why this bothered him so much. Why did this matter so much to him. We are all just people in the end. My friend tried to make his point, Different cultures, Different accents, Different, Different, Different. My only comment back to him was “We are all just people.”

I was taught at an early age that everyone regardless of size, shape, color, gender or social status were all just people. The first time I really reflected on this thought came when I was around seven years old. An Arabic family had moved into my all white, middle class neighborhood. They had a son who was very eager to make friends with the neighborhood kids. Problem was a lot of these kids wouldn’t even give him a chance.

Growing up with the lessons I was taught, I befriended the kid. One day while we were hanging out we decided to go to his house. I was a bit nervous wondering what kind of weird stuff would be going on there. I imagined all kinds of things that I was not accustomed to. When we got to his door, my thoughts started racing around in my head. Wondering what was going on inside. As we stepped into his house we were greeted by his mother. She was attending to his baby sister. His father was at work as he was every evening. We carried on into his room where we sat on the computer and watched videos online. Just about an hour passed when his mother came into the room and told us it was time to eat. Again my mind raced with the thought of what kind of weird food I might have to eat. When we got to the table there was pizza. Not any different from something I would have at home. We ate and it was time for me to go home.

Walking home from his house I thought to myself about how much hanging out around his house was not any different than hanging out at my own. It was then that I realized that we all are just people. We eat, raise families, work everyone is just trying to live their lives. We are all after the same thing, and that is a fulfilling happy life.

However, the question is how can we live a happy fulfilled life if all we concern ourselves with is race? If we look passed the color of someone’s skin a whole world opens up to us. I believe if we looked at others the same way we look at ourselves in a mirror, the world would be a happier place. I say this because we do not look into a mirror and say Oh I’m black or oh I’m white but we do say Oh that’s me. I say take some time to get to know someone from another background. I am not saying you have to learn their language or religion, but get to know the PERSON. Learn about their likes and dislikes, ask questions, and be open. You may find out that they are not so different from you after all.