"Packed in the plane were white, black, brown, red, and yellow people, blue eyes and blond hair, and my kinky red hair-- all together, brothers! All honoring the same God Allah, all in turn giving equal honor to each other" (Haley 330).
I don't even know what to say. This shows how much Malcolm has changed since his "white devil" tirade times. He was just as shocked as I was. I think that he's come to learn that when people are all congregated for one cause, that looks don't matter because they're united. They have come together for the worshipping of Allah, and their mission is to fulfill their religion by taking the trip to Mecca.
I don't know if I've ever felt united with so many races before. I guess I haven't been around a lot of races growing up. I live in a predominantly white town, and I'm barely exposed to the korean community. You could call me ignorant, you could call me inexperienced, but you have your reasons. I'm sure you're ignorant in some ways too. Ignorant in different ways of course. But all the same-- ignorant. You or I aren't ignorant in the way where we scream racial slurs on the street, but we're unaware of some things around us. We are all vulnerable to something. I happen to be vulnerable in being exposed to many different races. I'm open to them-- but I haven't received the opportunity yet.
To be completely honest, I've been sort of vulnerable to my own race and community. I used to attend a korean church in Demarest. I didn't like the kids there, I couldn't relate to them. They were living to the full extent of the korean community, and i haven't even started. I felt uncomfortable so I asked my mom if I could stop attending and she agreed. She was talking to me about how she should've exposed me to my community more and made me feel comfortable about it. I don't blame my mom for this-- I don't blame anything or anyone. It's just the environment I grew up in and that's who I am.
This article shows racial ignorance in a middle school. This shows that the child has either a) not be taught by their parents to respect other races, or b) they haven't been exposed to different races. I can't believe kids as young as 13 go through these situations.
3 comments:
Jaime
I really enjoyed reading about how you view people as ignorant. I agree with that statement as well. There are many things people can be ignorant towards such as different religions, races, political views, and so on. But one thing that most people can admit to being ignorant towards is definitely other races. Like you, i haven't truly been exposed to other races as much as others have. I myself was actually ignorant towards the Muslim religion (so i learned on the trip to Harlem). However, by sitting and listening to Brother Tyreak, his words made me open my eyes to many more new thoughts and ideas. I feel that people should go out and meet and learn about other races in order to open new vistas in their lives. Great Job blogging. (i couldn't open up the link, but it seems interesting but at the same time shocking and upsetting).
jamie,
my favorite part about all of your blogs is that you are not afraid to state the truth. whatever you are feeling, you just let out, and i saw that in this blog, too. i think my favorite part was how you questioned ignorance, and how it involved your surroundings. in truth, i believe that we are all ignorant of different types of people, religions, and cultures. one of my blogs discussed how it is important to have a background of different religions, just so you know what you are talking about. i also thought it was interesting how you said that you were not comfortable around the korean kids in your church, because you couldn't relate to them. even though this area is predominately caucasian, i think that people still have a hard time fitting in. people are harsh these days, which makes it even harder to fit it, and makes more people ignorant. i really like your opinions!
<3 kle.
oh and your link was really interesting + i liked how you tied it into your topic
I like the idea that people can unite under a common cause. I recently read the book "Wathcmen" which also just went to the big screen. The setting is in New York City during the Cold War. Russia is threateningly close to nuking our entire country and causing Armageddon. In the end, Adrian Veidt, the smartest man in the world, teleports a genetically engineered alien to new York City killing millions. However, his grand scheme was to unite all of the fighting countries under a common cause or in this case a common enemy. The Cold War ended and the threat of Armageddon disintegrated because the world had to unite to fight for their survival. I know it sounds like a weird book, but it was actually really good. It's one of Time magazines 100 best books of all time.
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