Don't play with it

You know, I realize in order to reach that peak of compassion I'll have to let go of some things.

I thank my parents for being who they are and for being my parents. This I believe was not coincidence... For had I not been their child, I would not have grown up and lived through the experiences that have shaped me into the person that I am today.

Because of my heritage, it's difficult for me to truly understand several concepts or theories that many people still cling to (absurdly) in this day of modern living. For example, racism. Now, I'm not going to go all out and state that I have never made of laughed a racist joke or encouraged a stereotype, but for the most part I try to stay clear of it. Why should we cling so dearly to the colour of skin as a monumental issue when there's so many more important severe issues at hand.

I was talking to my God brother Boni earlier and I was asking him if he was going to vote. He said no. I asked him why not. He said because he, as one person, would not make a difference and we need to be changing the world not America. We need to heal global perceptions.

Now I beg to differ. Right now, America is still the current super power. The crash of their economy is creating Earthquakes across the globe. One reasonable step would taking a chance and vote for the lesser evil in the elections. America cannot endure another 4 years under a regime that follows Bush. The world cannot endure such either...

Now the issue here is not my God brother Boni and his willing to vote or not. It's not whether America has a great influence of the world...

The point of my rambling today comes down to racism.

People have been walking around in self-delusional perception that racism doesn't exist. The main issue I'm hearing... what it all comes down to is white man vs. black man in this elections....

Sure we're tuned in every night watching the debates... but many people are closet racists. Hundreds of years after the abolition of slavery the racist philosophies still persist in the hearts and minds of people . I'm not saying all Americans are racist, mind you, I'm saying many more are racist than those that are openly admitting that they are.



Those people, be it in reality, a majority or a minority (we'll see in November), are not judging Obama and McCain on the basis of their policies and beliefs fairly... the deciding factor is skin colour. They are spending time looking for faults... God forbid a black man rule over a white mans country. *rolls my eyes*

As an artist, the shades I see are merely to enhance my perceptions and colour my soul to convey my message to the viewer. I don't discriminate against my purple pencil crayon anymore than my green pencil crayon. I may not use them all as much, but I love all my colours.

Each race has gone through their fair share of racial prejudice... so I'm in no way advocating that Black prejudice is the only one that should be recognized.

However, what I am saying is... get over it already.



You are not indian, black, white, whatever... purely. No race is pure today... and if you so want to debate semantics, races aren't real. We don't discriminate against dogs... we pick them based on functions and purposes. But we don't hate on puppies for being white and black dalmations, or brown labradors, or one blue eyed huskies. We see them as dogs. Likewise, lizards... we see an iguana - we say a big lizard. We see a bearded dragon - big lizard. We see a gecko - small lizard. They are all collectively lizards. We don't criticize them for being inherently something thats coded in their dna.

Likewise, people are people.

And since we're supposedly such religious based people... because on some level, at some point we want to be spiritual...

So ask yourself... what would Jesus do? What would Mohammed do? What would Vishnu do? Who ever you believe in... would they condone your prejudices? Your destructive beliefs? Your attempts to take away from harmony and unity in God's society... Your attempts to fuel the destruction of His/Her ideal plans...?

Does this bring you closer to God? Does it make you sleep better at night?

People... let it it go already.


***

Had many people had their way... I wouldn't be here today. I'm sure I am not the only person with such a testimony.

The knowledge of my heritage and the pride of being fused with so many cultures has helped me to see the world through colourful lenses with a smile, as opposed to artificially colour stained lenses... I've met so many wonderful people throughout my life thus far, black, white, mixed, indian, etc... All special in their own way... And I assure you what made them special had nothing to do with race. And if we had problems, it had to do with issues of being human, not issues of skin pigment.



I'm not sure how well I typed this all out...
It's just something that entered my mind based on something that just happened at home here. Nothing to do with race... But let's just call it flashbacks, to a flashback, of a flashback to a time when racism did exist.


Shelli out.
Leave any comments have you any.