“People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”
By large margins, black adults are more likely than whites to say that blacks are treated less fairly than whites across key areas of American life.” These include the workplace, dealing with police, the courts, when applying for a loan or mortgage, in stores and restaurants and voting in elections. This, of course, is what white privilege is all about. (Pew Research Center)
Yet, racism and inequality are not exclusively black and white problems. As the country’s Latino population has grown, they increasingly have become brown problems as well. As Pew also reports, about half of Hispanics in the U.S. (52 percent) say they have experienced discrimination or have been treated unfairly because of their race or ethnicity. Hispanics born in the U.S. (62 percent) are more likely than immigrants (41 percent) to say they have experienced discrimination or unfair treatment.
People with disabilities are seen as different creatures by most people, the disabled don’t choose to be the way they are, but still our society alienates them. Disabilities are seen as weakness in our society that hence contribute to the stereotype that leads to the discrimination against the disabled. (Bartleby.com Discrimination Against the Disabled Essay)
It doesn’t matter what you look like on the outside, it’s what’s on the inside that counts, but our society today lacks to understand that. In today’s time different is not accepted, people that are different are discriminated, looked down upon and usually picked on.
Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates. (Martin Luther King Jr. A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches)
Wishing you peace and wellbeing as you release, harmonize, and illuminate your life with others.
PS: Remember to hold the ones you love just a little closer and tighter this week (without expectations).
(image description: Two pieces of paper are crunched up and then cut into two faces that are facing each other. One face if mostly black with a small pie shape of white; the other face is white with a small pie shape of black.)
