I don’t like brown-eyed people. My mom told me to stay away from them. They’re dangerous. They’ll get me in trouble. They’re scary. I was conditioned to walk on the other side of the road when I saw them. And when I see them in groups, I am told to not make eye contact and walk in the other direction. You see, I kind of get what Hitler was trying to get at. He wanted the people with blue eyes to be superior. It makes sense, and I wish that was still implemented. God knows they make a mess out of the gene pool already.
…
Today’s the day I tell my parents I’m dating a brown-eyed boy. I’m so nervous, so scared what they’ll say. It never mattered to me what he looked like. I always imagined myself with a caring, loving boy who made me laugh. And I love the way his eyes sparkle when I tell him I love him. I try to ignore the stares and whispers because the people who talk about us don’t know us. They don’t know how we couldn't care less about the color of our eyes. They don’t know the way his rough hands fit into mine or the smile he brings to my face everyday. I wonder if it’s always going to be this way. I wonder if people will ever stop commenting on what our future babies will look like. I wonder when it will all stop. I wonder if the next person who treats me as their equal, but not him, will realize there is no difference between his heart and mine. And I can hear what my parents will say now. “Is this just a phase?” No. This is just who I love.
…
They won’t tell you this, but racism with brown eyes is still there. They’ll tell you it’s better now, and you’ll feel this is true, especially if you are in a socially conscious part of the country. You will feel like you are in a bubble of safety, in a world where it seems impossible that there could still be racism. But there is. And it’s the quietest of racism. It’s models not being hired because of the color of their eyes. It’s that the proportion of brown-eyed people in jail is outweighed from any other colored eyes. Managers won’t tell you that they didn’t hire the person with brown-eyes, they’ll just leave that out of the hiring process. They’ll comment on something else within the person’s resumé. They’ll find another excuse. There’s always an excuse.
…
Close your eyes. Listen to the person nearest to you speak. Hear the way their voice hitches in some places but dies down in others. Hear the way they talk fast or deliberate about their passions. If you touched hands, you'd feel the difference between the two. If you touched hands, you'd feel the similiarities. Listen to their voice and hear the same vocal chords that sing in the shower, cry for the dead, and laugh because of love. Now open them. And see the absurd way of thinking that an eye color could separate the two of you.
And see the outrageousness of hate associated with ethnicity, race, religion, or gender. See how unbelievable it is that anything could separate two humans. Ridiculous, right?
