The Changes in Our World Based on Race

There are many things that Dr. King believed in very strongly. In the 1970’s there were many people who believed that African-Americans, Asians, and Native Americans were not as good as the whites were. There were separate schools, drinking fountains, different rights, all because the whites believed that they were all “masters” of colored people. Dr. King got us started, but in no way are we even close to completely ridding ourselves of stereotyping and prejudice.

I know for a fact that we still have stereotyping. Nowadays we think that all Latinos are illegal, Chinese make the best piano players and African-American athletes are the best athletes. We still have a lot of work to do if we want to eliminate all the problems we still have in our society today.

Some people nowadays are very prejudice to other races in our country. Have you ever met someone who just couldn’t get along with someone and said it was because he was “Mexican?” Or he has “Black man hops?”

Another one of Dr. King’s hopes was a day to come when a man is judged by the content of his heart and not the color of his skin and I think that that will happen over the next 100 years. With more and more countries studying English, I think that we will come to a time when we all understand the same language and we all understand each other a lot easier. The best way to be able to judge the content of an individual’s heart is to be able to effectively communicate with them. I have noticed in my home how effective communication can overcome a lot of frustration. My 3 year old sister cannot speak yet. She tries to tell us what she wants and how she feels, but there is always a gap of understanding, which complicates things for both of us. As she learns a new word or a new sign, the level of frustration changes, we usually know better what she wants and we can get her that effectively. Common language breaks down barriers. However, I think that the major communication problem lies not in the language used, but in communicating ideas.

I believe that there are many ways to learn to communicate effectively. One, we can try to learn several languages so we can understand them. Two, we can try to avoid frustration when we talk to others who may not understand us very well and eliminate the overall way of looking at some things for example, “Spanish is hard to understand.” The biggest communication technique, though, is listening. I think if people stopped to objectively listen to other people, without using preconceived biases, but just listened to their ideas, we would see that we are really all the same. We all want to be loved and to love. We all have unique view points and personalities, no matter what our skin or hair color is. If each person could be appreciated for the content of their hearts, then predjudism would be against tyrants and villains.

I think we can and will someday get to the point where we will be at the point where we have eliminated prejudice and stereotyping from our society. May we all work to get someday to happen today.