To a lot of people, it seems perfectly fine to refer to someone’s ethnicity in a derogatory way, or want to keep people out of our country because of where they’re from. Now, I get that we need to keep our country safe and want folks to carry their weight when they arrive in America, but a lot of what’s going on is way deeper than mere ignorance; it stems from racism. Let’s not pretend that it doesn’t. Also, racism is not just a left or a right political issue. It’s an issue that should concern everyone. Nowadays, it’s more important for people to align themselves with a political party rather than stand up for what they know is right. Both sides of the political aisle should share in the blame. It’s mind blowing to see how we treat each other and how we view people that are different from us. And trust me, our children are watching and listening.
Mahzarin Banaji, a psychologist, brain researcher, and racism and physical prejudice expert from Harvard University, says “racism is learned at an early age.” His studies have found that discriminatory and racial behavior may be learned in children as young as three years old. What’s encouraging is that kids’ racial biases can be unlearned. There’s no doubt that these negative biases stem from what they see and hear from adults. When I take my kids to a playground, they play with kids from all different races and ethnicities, including black, white, Asian, Latino, Indian, etc. I’ve never seen one kid at a playground that did not want to play with another kid because of the color of their skin. They don’t care if someone is wearing a turban, yamaka, or dreadlocks on their head. Kids just want to have fun and are mostly accepting of each other, unless you take their ball or toy away. So why are we teaching our kids how to be racist?