My fellow Americans, I join you in a time of turmoil and strife in our nation. We are bleeding in the streets like dogs ripped apart in a fight. It’s not to say we haven’t been there before, but now we do it to ourselves. We fabricate lines between ourselves as an outlet for our hatred. It’s a common theory that the bullies we all experienced in grade school behaved the way they did because of the way they were treated at home. They lashed out because they lived in fear, pain, rejection, or loneliness. They were made to believe they were another and so they preyed on those who they perceived to be an even more other. That kid is small and has glasses, must be a nerd. That kid smells, must be poor. It’s such a basic concept to most of us. Everyone knows of the stereotypes that begin in grade school. We think we leave them behind when we graduate high school, but in reality, all they do is change. Hey look a black guy, must be a criminal. There’s a Hispanic person, probably an illegal. You’re a Muslim; why do you hate America? You’re white; man, you sure have it good. When we assume these things, we all become the bullies.
As much as we don’t like to admit it, we all think these things at one point or another about someone. These thoughts aren’t the problem, however; it’s human nature to make automatic responses about other people. It’s a survival tactic passed on from our days in the wild. Our problem is we take these stereotypes to heart and build upon them. I think the best example of this is the artificially created conflict between cops and black men. The American stereotype of all black people being criminals dates back to the end of the Civil War and, if I had to guess, before it as a justification for slavery. This, in turn, spawned the fear which led to the stereotype that all cops are out to get black people. As I mentioned before, these stereotypes were taken to heart despite the fact that neither are true. It’s like how they say if you think you’re sick, you’re going to get sick. So when you have the idea presented to you that someone is a threat, you can begin to actually see them as one despite the evidence.
So how do we settle these issues? How do we move past our old grudges and begin to actually solve the problems we’re faced with? Well, our first step is to lay down our arms and sober up to the fact that we aren’t black or white, gay or straight, religious or atheist; we’re people and we’re Americans. We need to realize that we’re in this together, that what one of us does affect the rest, and that these divisions we’ve created between us only exist if we let them. Then if we can muster up the sense and the decency to see that although we may differ in opinion that we are still the same we can begin change. We can talk issues through and come up with solutions peacefully and democratically. We can find ways to celebrate the fact that we’re diverse rather than fight because of it. Most importantly, we can look to our left and to our right and see those who sought to divide us. We can see the home life that turned us into a nation of bullies and, rather than follows the course it set, defies it, and finally is free.
