I grew up with racist parents. My dad is particularly expressive of his prejudice, though only at home, and readily acknowledges it to his family. I owe to him the prejudice and racist remarks that sometimes float into my head. I try hard not to think such thoughts, and I know how wrong they are. I scold my father every time he utters an angry, racist remark, trying to save him and perhaps, unconsciously, myself, from the black hole of hate.
From my experiences and my friends’ similar ones, I believe that hate is taught to children and discrimination is kept alive through families. Children are not born hating anyone, but when they hear their parents - their idols and source of truth - insulting and criticizing a certain group of people, they burn it into their minds that that group of people must be as bad as their parents say they are. Thus discrimination infects children’s innocent minds.
Discrimination is the mountain of which the much-talked-about problem of racism is just a part. It is the ultimate obstacle. There are several –isms to overcome: sexism, ageism, and many others. Even some seemingly harmless comments can be discriminating and wholly untrue (“All Jews are rich”). Discrimination is the problem, and we are the solution.
Our generation is much more open-minded than any other. We know how horrible discrimination is, and I know that I myself try not to be racist and stereotypical, as do my friends. We are open to people of different origins and try not to judge someone before meeting them. Maybe this is because we have learned from history the consequences of discriminating and how horrible it is. Remember the Civil War? Holocaust? Slavery? Segregation? Apartheid? Discrimination’s presence has reduced greatly since Susan B. Anthony’s protests for women’s rights and Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights marches, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. We can attempt to persuade others already under discrimination’s evil hand to change and subdue the hate and the prejudice that has already taken shop in their minds. We can aim to improve ourselves. Most importantly, we can teach young kids now and our future kids later to not hate and discriminate. By doing so, we can help pave the way to a generation greater than ours and usher in a better world where discrimination no longer holds a high position.
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