Getting Along

Following us around, it is always there. From walking down the street to sitting in class, it is always lurking. White privilege blinds our perspective in a twisted sort of way. For many of us, discrimination is just there. It is us against “them”. Since they look different from us we just throw a label on them. To most of us, we just see them as a minority.

To often I hear someone slap a stereotype on others they do not know. They take a single glance at someone and write them off completely. We all judge. Sadly, it is who we are. Of course our eyes may not look the same and our skin color may in fact be different. But at the end of each and every day we are all human beings. We all walk through life taking many of the same paths, we live side by side, breathe the same air and we all feel pain and bleed the same. Unfortunately, there is still a major gap between the majorities and the minorities.

Stereotyping is the fuel and power behind the discrimination that creates the gap. You have the choice not to discriminate and to make that gap smaller. You have the choice to look at someone different from you and not slap a stereotype all over them. Instead, you can look at that person and give them a chance. Resist the urge to brush them off and there is the possibility of making a true friend.