A young boy lives with his mother who is on her fourth husband. She barely pays attention to his academics because she is too busy with her new husband. The boy lives in a poor neighborhood surrounded by drugs and gangs and walking to school is the only way he will ever get an education. The public school he attends has old teachers who are soon retiring and teach just to teach. In another part of the city, a young girl lives with her mother and father in a upper-middle class neighborhood. Every day she wakes up to catch the bus to her private school. The teachers there are young, and her school has some of the best ratings in the state. Of these two children, who will succeed? Certainly the girl is going to have a brighter future than the boy, but no one really knows this for sure. The young boy could grow up to be a successful lawyer, and the girl could choose to do nothing with her life. Race is the same way: there is no mention of the boy or girl being any particular ethnicity. Neither their race nor their circumstances have anything to do with what they choose to do with their lives.
With Wendy Bell's most recent post in the news, the issue of racism has been brought to everyone's attention once again. Racism is an issue still prevalent in modern society. "He's black, so he must not have a stable home." "She's Asian, so she must be really smart." "Mexican? His parents' first language probably wasn't English." People have the notion to categorize people based strictly on their race. Then they become judgmental and feel no need to get to know the person for who they really are. "He'll never succeed because of his race, or he will definitely succeed because of his ethnic background," are thoughts people still have when they first see someone. Instead of making the assumption that a person will succeed because of their background, we as a society need to get to know who someone really is. We need to see their true colors. If someone who is a minority is hard-working and kind at heart, then it should not matter what his race is. He has just as much of a chance of succeeding as everyone else, regardless of his past circumstances. Or, if they do not have the same resources as other people, then they should be given these resources. Everyone should be given the chance to succeed at least once in their life, no matter what their race is. A person's character is far more important than their race.
The story also implies another important message: we should do our best to provide everyone with good education. Eradicating ignorance is an important step to getting rid of stereotypes. If we show people that stereotypes are not always true, then we can move toward a better society as a whole.
