Reflection 13

I have learned quite a lot on race and racism through these articles and the class alone. I have always known that there are issues regarding race and racism, but I cannot say that I have studied it in depth the way I have done recently. It is astonishing to see the way people react to other human beings. One would never think that such a person could be so cruel to someone else because of their ethnicity. The sad part about racism is that the victims of it cannot change even if they wanted to. Those who are racist hate individuals for something that they have no control over. They seem to dislike people for who they are rather than what they have become. These articles have opened my eyes because there are several events that have occurred in the past that I was unaware of. The Holocaust has always been the most influential occurrence to me, but the story of Emmett Till has also affected me significantly. Emmitt Till was a young boy who deserved nothing but the best in life. His story touched me because it showed that even the innocent young ones dramatically suffered. There was such an enormous amount of hate built for blacks at the time that the whites acted in ways that were absurd. Emmitt Till was tortured, practically beaten to death, and then shot by two white men. Regardless of what Emmitt Till did, I do not believe anyone deserves the type of punishment he received. He may have acted in a way that was inappropriate for its time, but at the end of the day, he is a human being just like everyone else. We all know that those white men did not beat him because of what he did. Emmitt Till was killed because he was black and his actions were merely used as an excuse.
All this goes to show me that patience really is a virtue. Racism may have nothing to do with patience, but in my opinion I believe that patience has to do with everything. You need to be able to accept people for who they are and have patience for those who perhaps don’t know any better. Someone who is impatient might flip out on someone over something so minute. As you begin to analyze all the aspects in life that bother you, you will realize that the feeling of hatred will only build on itself. Once you have become so impatient and once you have built so much hate, it is hard to control your actions the next time an event occurs. These are the types of qualities that we need to become more familiar with because they will serve us well for the rest of our lives. As always we must learn about others before we learn to accept them. It can never hurt someone to take the time and learn about those who are different from them.