It is easy to comprehend life when it's one way or another. Up or down, dark and light, good and bad, and black or white. You are either for it or against it and there is no middle ground. This would be fine and dandy, except we are more complicated than that. There is a huge gray area that we always seem to conveniently ignore. Forgetting the gray area is tearing us apart. We begin to generalize and we lose sight of what the real problems are. We focus too deeply on the big picture and the details get swept under the rug.
There are good and bad people in this world. Good Muslims, good Hispanics, good African Americans, good Caucasians, good Asians, dogs and cats, and politicians, etc. However, there are also bad people in this world. Gang members, rapists, terrorists, thieves and murderers. Unfortunately, there are stereotypes in this world, but we didn't pull them out of thin air. We are to blame for our stereotypes, not society. When we murder cops, blow up schools, murder innocent people and steal, we promote our stereotypes. Those people are the problem; not your neighbors, not the couple down the street or the bag boy at the HEB. The people who perpetrate the bullshit are to blame.
It's time we stand up and say something.
If you are a good cop who knows a bad cop is doing wrong, speak up.
If you are a good Muslim who knows a bad Muslim, stand up.
If you are a good Black man who knows a bad one, tell somebody.
If you are a good white person who knows a bad one, let somebody know.
Why is it so hard for us to see this? It shouldn't be race against race; it should be good against bad. Only we can tear down the stigma that surrounds our class or ethnicity and religion.
It's easy to sit back and say we live in a corrupt world and it's easy to say there needs to be a change. But actions speak louder than words. What can we start doing to be the change? We can become the system. Be a judge, a cop, a politician or do something that actually makes a difference. We are the new generation; it is time for us to step up, look up from our phones, and turn off our tweets.
We need to stop looking to blame everyone else, and start taking responsibility for ourselves. It's definitely weird to think of my generation as the future, especially when the future is becoming the present so quickly, but we need to be able to rise to the challenge. The millennials' catch phrase "I can't adult" needs to go out the window.
We are the adults now. It's our turn to step up to the plate and really be the change we want to see in the world.
