Are You a Racist?

This is the most bizar question of modern times. Racism is now such a delicate issue that it crates racism just by that particular question, allow me to elaborate.

When I was growing up I was told that there were people who lived all over the world, some had brown skin, some had white, some had curly hair some had straight. I was also told not to go near the black women down our road because they would take me away. I remember being scarred to death by this thought. Then I started school, there was one Pakistani boy and two Nigerian children at the school only the Pakistani was in my class however. I learned so many wonderful things about the boy's heritage that the skin colour didn't matter. That was when I realized what a racist was.

I grew up in an area where there it was predominantly white. We had a family living down the road from us who were from Bangladesh, I used to say hello to them every morning on the way to school and every night on the way home, even though I was not allowed by my parents to go near them. Why not? What did my parent's think they were going to do to me, that couldn't be done by anyone wishing to cause harm to a small boy? In this day and age I find that the worst racists are the people that have cried racism all their lives. I don't see why we have to have “black music” or “Asian network”. I am a gay man and get really cross when I see a banner at a pride march saying “Black lesbian and Gays” if that is not a way of bringing attention to their skin colour I don't know what is.

Would it not be better to include the cultures of race into a school curriculum? Race is such a small issue now that I think it should be ignored. Let us be content to draw attention to the celebration of life, in all its forms, all cultures, all religions, all ways of life.

Does it really make a difference what colour a skin is, or the accent that you speak?

Yes, it does. But only to those who are small minded and ignorant of the possibilities to learn from these cultures.

Racism starts in school, continues with the media and then into adult hood when you are looked down at by someone of another race, or culture. I don't mean just white looking at black but frequently black looking at white as well. I know that hundreds of years ago white men travelled to Africa and stole hundreds of men away from their lives and families. But get over it for crying out loud. My ancestors where butchered by the Romans when they invaded England, but I don't considers Italians to be hostile or racist. We are all here and we all need to share this little planet of ours, let us just be content with living and trying to help one another through all the problems that life throws at us without adding another barrier or burden in the word “Racism”.