TRAIN OF THOUGHT - EMILY HELLWIG
Sitting on the subway, I notice two babies
One black, one white
One male, one female
Reaching to one another over their mothers’ shoulders
Smiling.
The subway stops.
A woman wearing a hijab boards
Passengers tense in their seats uneasily
The woman smiles tentatively
Only the babies smile back.
A young black man climbs aboard
He’s holding a textbook, probably a
student
He chooses a seat next to an elderly
woman
She clutches her purse and inches away.
One of the babies starts to cry, evoking
sympathetic smiles.
A couple exchanges a kiss
They’re both female, and their eyes shine with joy
A man looks away in disgust.
The babies have both fallen asleep
Lulled by the movement of the subway.
I begin to wonder
How many years until they, too, form biases?
Will they one day, stop smiling at one another
And instead frown,
Looking critically at their differences?
How many years until they realize
All men are created equal, but are not always treated as such?
Will the black boy grow up afraid of the police
Viewed as a criminal for the melanin in his skin?
Will the girl grow up working her hardest
Only to make less than her male co-workers?
Or will they be wiser than those before them
And retain their youthful love and acceptance?
What a world we live in
Where babies understand what PhD-wielding men cannot-
That peace will never exist in a world without tolerance.
We can only hope they will bring the peace our world so desperately craves And the love our current generations lack.
That is why we must start acting out of love, not fear.
We must change now.
If not for us,
For them.
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