Essay, Research Paper: Thinking On Racism

 







Thinking on RacismAs usual, on my lonely drive to school, I was listening to the radio. I had just turned the dial to my favorite station (Lazer 103), and was tuned into the middle of a conversation on racism. Actually it was just ending. Anyhow the conversation sparked a thought in my head that perturbed me until I arrived at school. This thought was on how little human mentality has changed over the years. Sure, we conquered the atom, discovered electricity, and nearly killed every animal in site. However, we still have no conquered the simplest problem....racism. Now days racism is a "taboo" topic, too many people are afraid to talk about it thinking that they might offend someone. Well, I think I have finally found a way that approaches it from both sides of the gun. I was thinking about racism, and in the middle of my thought a picture of a previous nights happening "popped" into my head. I had gone to the pet store and bought a new chameleon (I collect exotics...my brother was allergic to animal dander, so I had to stick to reptiles). Anyhow, I purchased a white amoresk, in lae-man's terms "a white chameleon". Now I figured since this chameleon looked the same, and came from the same species that there would be no problem. I happened to be wrong, apparently chameleons don't like color variances in natural color! Almost as soon as I dropped him in the cage the others became aggressive, normally they accept newcomers, but I can only hypothesize that the color difference in this one was the cause for their actions. Later they began to attack to newcomer, so I separated them into different cages and they immediately settled down. I guess my point in this story is, even though we as humans call ourselves "great thinkers" and the "great species", why do we continue to exhibit such primordial actions that are found in "lesser species"? In a way we are like ants. Almost everyone knows that if you put red ants and black ants near each other they will fight. Are we as humans no greater than ants? To this I say "no", we exhibit the SAME exact behavior. Generally some people choose not to accept others based on looks or color. These have to be the two stupidest reasons that I have ever heard of for not accepting someone. If we choose to follow these examples, we don't only cause harm to others, we also degrade ourselves by acting like simple minded little ants. Personally I don't yet believe humans are ready to meet the classification as "the most evolved species". If we were the most evolved species, don't you think we would have figured out how to solve such basic inadequacies? Some say "it is natures way", I say "bah!" it isn't natures way, it is the Cro-Magnon ways of thinking that the lesser evolved humans use! In essence my point is as follows, don't be the ant who bases their life on color!, don't be the bird who pecks at a discolored spot on her young until it dies! Instead be the cognitive, reasonable, and rationalizing human that you are able to be. We have a gift, a gift that if we use it can allow us to see past the color of someone's skin, or their difference in size and statute; so use it.