One word to describe America right now? How about repulsive? Chickenhearted? Or, simply, scary? We are all, collectively, afraid of something. Fear in America is not good. Fear led to Japanese internment camps; fear led to the red scare, where we couldn't trust our neighbor because he might have been a communist. Fear, along with other factors, led to racism. This cycle of fear is repeating, and either we will succumb to the fear and never face the dark, or we can combat the fear within America, our neighbors and ourselves. Here are seven things you can do too as we wait for America to get its act together. This list isn't for targeting the wrongs of others but to recognize wrongs that we all have as people.
1. Attend a march, rally, protest, etc.
The fear we face exists in what we don't know and don't understand. Attend an event of the particular group you hate or fear, not with thoughts or actions of anger, but try to learn and understand why this march or protest is happening and what about it has made individuals join together.
2. Make new friends.
I'm not saying forget the old friends, but you may need some new friends. New people are the best way to experience new things. As we experience people outside of our typical friend group, we grow mentally and socially. We try new foods, listen to new music, and most importantly, we have new ideas. Ideas that can lead to the true unification we in America (and all over the world) have been waiting for.
3. Realize that it isn't about you.
...because it's not. The "it" i'm referring to is life. Sure, you're reading this and you are like "yeah, I know life isn't about me," but if you haven't advocated for someone else's life, put yourself in an uncomfortable position in order to help someone else, or willingly sacrificed something to bring change, then maybe you don't quite believe that life isn't about you.
4. Recognize and control your own prejudice.
It feels as though it is human to create prejudice against others. Maybe it's our instinct to do so as a way of making ourselves feel better by comparison. I have no idea, but I do know that we all have the ability to control our prejudices. No one is exactly how we imagine. We ourselves aren't how we imagine. I imagined that I could dance until the fateful day when I realized I should never do it in public (I still dance nevertheless). The point is, no one is how we imagine them, and this has never been more true than when media is involved. If you believe a particular group acts a way because of something you've seen on the internet, in a movie or on television, then realize that the media doesn't always do things in your best interest or in the best interest of others. The teenager made to look innocent could actually be a rapist, but may not be portrayed as such.
5. Vote.
Voting is important. Voting for the obviously bad candidate, like a man who wants to build a wall to keep out immigrants in a nation built by immigrants, is a terrible thing, but not voting for anyone is worse. You become part of the problem, no matter if your choices are Hillary and Trump or the Evil Queen and Jafar. If you hate Trump, but dislike Hillary, vote for the lesser of two evils. Just vote.
6. Imagine yourself in someone else's position.
Imagine what someone else is going through. Yes, they are different from you, but you know who else is also different from you? Your friend, your neighbor, your wife -- everyone. They may have the same skin color or sexual orientation as you, but they are not you.
If you can hate on something as globally insignificant as skin color, then imagine if you were hated because you chew with your mouth open. Eventually you'll start being called demeaning names like "a chewer." Then, there will be false statements made about chewers like, "All chewers kick puppies." Two completely unrelated topics have now been made into a completely untrue statement, but like-minded people who hate chewers will believe that. Some chewers may not take pride in being who they are and try to stop being a chewer, only to find themselves not really accepted anywhere. Then, one day a chewer gets pulled over, completely complies with the officer and ends up shot and killed just for being a chewer. The chewers collectively mourn together as they chant "chewer lives matter," letting the world know that they are not below anyone nor above, that their lives are equal to all lives. But, as recent events would show, not everyone realizes this and therefore must remind the world that chewer lives matter along with everyone else. But then again, how dare these chewers? Right? They chew with their mouths open, and now they want their lives to be equal to everyone else. How dare they! So some of the chewers get violent and tragedy happens. Violence begets violence.
This may be a silly example, but it's accurate. The color of someone's skin, their sexual orientation, their gender, whether or not they breast feed, the neighborhood they live in, the number of tattoos and piercings they have, the color of their hair, their body shape, the weird curvature of their head -- all of that shouldn't matter in the sense that you hate or fear them.
So much time and energy is taken up combating this hate. Imagine what we could do if everyone just respected each other and didn't pop a neck vein every time a woman wanted to feed her staving baby or wanted equal wages, or a black man drives down the street, or a same sex couple is affectionate, or a Hispanic comes here for a better life. We would have probably already had flying cars and hover boards, a cure to cancer, and the Browns winning a Superbowl.
