By the headline, you may think that I am writing about all the recent teacher strikes and how there has been so much negativity surrounding teachers wanting better for their classroom. However, I intend to take a different approach to explaining the fight against education. You see, education is not something that can be forced. It is something that people need to want if we ever want to further ourselves as a whole. Lack of education creates the ground for hatred to grow. Lack of education breeds ignorance and ignorance allows us as humans to forget that we are just that, humans.
It is 2018 and somehow racism still widely exists and in a lot of ways is excepted. Institutional racism is real and it has continued far past the point of no return. We have allowed this hatred to grow and have done nothing to stop it. This issue goes back to lack of education. People are not born with hatred in their hearts. They are not born feeling superior to another based on the color of their skin and they are not born feeling that the world owes them something. These are all taught characteristics and they are so strongly enforced for so many people that pure ignorance is what is keeping these people from ever finding the education that will help them see what they are doing.
In a way, you honestly cannot blame a person for the way that they feel. You can blatantly disagree with them and are more than welcome to call a person out, however, in doing so you need to learn how to educate. As I said before, it isn't that these people were born with this unwarranted hatred in their hearts. It was taught from a young age through generations and wouldn't you want to allow them the opportunity to learn from their mistakes? In the end, if they choose not to see past their own ignorance it's on them but you shouldn't let them continue without giving them the resources to learn.
I need to remind you that I am not saying they are okay in their hatred. I am not giving them an excuse because quite honestly, it is 2018 and there really is no excuse. But, as someone who wants everybody to have equal rights to education, that includes education for the people who make it hard to talk to.
This isn't just for racism either. This is for the LGBTQ community. This is for politics. This is for everybody who has unequal representation and feels the hatred of humans from people who were reinforced through generations of lack of education. In many articles I have written I have used the phrase "Be the change" and that applies here possibly the most. You don't have to like someone to give them the education they deserve. If it ends up changing just one person, then I think you have done a great job.
