I was raised in Buford, Georgia by a family of Catholic Italians. Their views were narrow-minded and they were devout to all written religious beliefs and practices. They followed the typical rules of going to church on Sunday, not having sexual intercourse before marriage, and only marrying a Christian, whom they strongly compelled to be Italian as well. I grew up fairly happy, never even thinking twice about the forceful views that were being imposed on me.
As a child, I was friendly and open to everyone. I never wanted to limit myself to hanging out with only a particular group of people, but my father disapproved of most races. I didn't really have the right mind set to fight back with him, so I usually associated with only whites as he requested. I had the occasional African American or Hispanic friend, but I later realized my dad had only accepted them because they were females. He would never have allowed me to get close to a male of any other race, because that would risk emotional feelings.
Eventually, I opened my eyes and took a look around. My family was shunning other races for reasons that seemed horribly silly to me. I could understand why they wanted me to marry an Italian man, that's just tradition. I could understand a few of their rules of no sex before marriage and all those such things, that's just religion. But I could not comprehend the racism. It's one thing to hope for a particular type of person for marriage, but it's another thing to completely hate other races. The thought of it couldn't even cross my mind. In my opinion, people who discriminate or segregate others just because of culture or skin color are ignorant and foolish. But, this was my family. How could I say such things about them?
I arrived at the conclusion that some people need to drop all of these pointless grudges they continue to grasp. I'm not one hundred percent sure, but I believe the main reason my family teaches such horrific things is due to the immigration time period. My family once lived in Italy, sometime in the fifties. When they finally migrated across the Atlantic, they were treated very poorly. My grandfather tends to hold grudges on the races that mistreated him during his arrival and stay, and he is too close-minded to believe that not all people of a certain race are the same just because one or two may have done something wrong.
Not only was he mistreated, but he was raised a strict Catholic, and one of their beliefs is having non-interracial relationships. Honestly, that's just ridiculous. Why on earth is it so immoral to be involved with a different race? What exactly is the difference, other than skin color? Aside from cultural differences, every race is just the same.
Through my experiences as a child, and even every day life, I've learned to value and appreciate divergence. Every human is beautiful and deserves equality. Is that not what America is all about now? Equality? Forget the past, and start with the future. I know we may not all look the same, but when our diversity kicks in, we are unstoppably successful.
