In a perfect world, we wouldn't have to worry about discrimination, because of our race, gender, sexuality, religion, disabilities or ethnicity. But we don't live in a perfect world, and we are still discriminating today and we a teaching and showing our kids that it's fine.
I am a mother of 3 boys, 2 are school age, and today when I took my 4-year-old to school he showed me all his friends, and they were all different and I was so proud of him to socialize with boys and girls of all shapes and colors. He talks about his 2 best friends who are African American and they play at school, say bye and gives high fives at the end of the day.
My kids have asked me why everyone looks different, they even asked me why my skin is darker than daddies, and I told them because my dad was from India. I show them photos that help explain to them that everyone looks different because that's how they were made and that it's a beautiful thing. If everyone looked the same that would make a pretty boring world. They just laughed.
We should be like that. We as adults and parents need to teach our children that it doesn't matter on your gender or the color of your skin, you can be friends and be in relationships with anyone. If we keep showing our kids that it's ok to bully and discriminate against others, then we are not moving forward and learning from our mistakes, but moving backward and making the world filled with more hate.
Seeing my kids and their friends just being kids and not care about what each other looks like makes me feel like I'm doing something right.
Jessica Podraza
They are innocent, and I think we forget that and instead of instilling great values and confidence and love in them. We are still telling them that you can't trust this person because of their skin, or this person is wrong because their religion is different than ours. We could learn from our kids on how they interact with others and see that they don't care that others are different. We having bullying problem because we are not teaching them, and maybe because we are bullies ourselves.
Even if it's not over race, maybe it's the little things you are judging someone by the clothes they wear, or maybe they don't make as much money as you and can't afford something that you have. But that is still a form of bullying and if our kids see it then they learn from us and think it's ok.
Every time I see kids being bullied on the news, or people vandalizing others houses because they don't want them in their neighborhood. It makes me sad that this is the world we live in. It is 2018 and we should be moving forward to be making this a better place for the next generation, but the way we are going we will destroy it before they even get a chance to see it.
Matt Collamer