Getting to The Heart of Racism

I have found it fascinating to learn not many people know who their ancestors were just three or four generations back. We don't know much about them, and most of them came from someplace other than where we are living now.

For thousands of years people have been moving around this planet for a variety of reasons. Climate change, volcanoes and earthquakes leveling cities sending the survivors elsewhere. War, political unrest and religious persecution put people on journeys they might not have otherwise taken. Kidnapping and slavery snatched people from lives they were living and put them into circumstances no human being should suffer - especially at the hands of another human being.

Do we really know who we are and where we come from? And do we know why we are here - how we got here?

People continue to migrate around the planet for the same reasons as before, and new ones now too - but in the end the reason remains the same: In search of a better life.

We all seek the same thing: The opportunity to live a happy, productive life. To fall in love. To be a part of a family, a part of something bigger than just ourselves. To laugh. To breath in and breath out.

When you have family, you want their lives to be good. You want them to be happy.

We tell our family stories, of our lives, our experiences. We share them so they might learn to seek new things and stay away from the things that might harm them. 

Sometimes we teach our children to fear the unknown. And sometimes we teach them to hate.

We must remember that our beliefs are taught to us. And if something bad is taught to us, we must recognize it, unlearn it and replace it.