My Personal Opinion

I'm not speaking on behalf of anyone other than myself but I find that I want to see if anyone shares my opinion. I grew up as an incredibly non-judgmental person because my parents wanted me to respect everyone as I would want to be respected. So as I've grown older I've come to realize that this had made me almost blind to racism. I don't look at a man and see how dark his skin is or see of girl of Asian decent and think that she must do well in school. I find stereotypes irritate me because I know how untrue they can be and I become angry when I hear other people's comments on a person's race. I don't understand people who can yell across a room to an Asian woman and tell her that she is wrong for being in America and that she is what is wrong with this nation now (I've had this experience happen in front of me and I was so shocked I couldn't say anything).

I first noticed that I didn't notice people's difference much when I walked by a man who had the darkest skin I'd ever seen. He was a very dark black man and the only reason I noticed was because my skin near his almost glowed because of how white and pale I am. For the first time I realized that this man was a black man where as before he was just a guy walking down the street on his way to a destination I didn't need to know. I looked around at this point and noticed how many Asian men and women were around, how many white people, how many different races where walking by. I don't say this like I had been ignoring them before and that in my mind I assumed they were all white or something crazy like that, what I mean by saying this is that these people to me where just that, people. They weren't defined in my mind by the color of their skin, they were defined by their attitude, their expressions, or maybe where they were heading. I would meet a new person and I would learn about them, ask them how they are and if they were fine then that was what they were. If they asked me how my day was going, then they were fine and nice.

I'm not sure why I feel this is important for people to know about me but after I realized how I see people compared to how others see the same people, I felt like I had something better. I felt that because I can look at a person and see them for that person then I was able to understand them better and respect them for being the person they are. I don't mind if you argue with my ideas but I'd like to think that maybe more people can look at others the way I do. Seeing people for the people they are instead of basing their thoughts on the ideas that people have added into our minds based on a person's race.