I had the good fortune of attending schools for the gifted, first in grade school and then again in high school. Aside from the standard teasing of students outside the program towards our geekiness at being the smart kids, I did not witness any racism or hatred during my school years. I had, however, been introduced to the concept of racism, and knowing the respect, love, and admiration I had for several of my black schoolmates I couldn’t imagine someone hating them, especially someone hating them for the simple fact of the color of their skin. This made no sense to me, I found it to be ignorant and stupid, but I was starting to realize that the world was not entirely made up of the smart people I went to school with, that there were lots of people who couldn’t see past the color line and the differences between people. I understood that these differences, in fact, scared some people, and often scared them into hatred. I started to see the same scene I saw in Jesus of Nazareth playing out in reality – towards black people, Jewish people. I was devastated. The world I had assumed existed was falling apart.

Yet I, in my innocent naïveté, could not understand the way it felt. I was a white, middle class protestant teenager. How could I even pretend to know what racism was like? I could sympathize, based on how I thought it would feel to be hated, or be judged, for what I was, but I didn’t know. And then I went to college.

You can read the rest of the post here

yes i trust you cause i trust me
yes i trust me cause i trust you
i love what you show me cause it’s different cause it’s you cause it’s me too
i love what you show me cause it shows me we can see and hear in sharing

Ralph Ellison from Invisible Man (1952)

(Baha’i Writings)

If you tolerate this, then your children will be next. –The Manic Street Preachers

1478-1834. Spanish Inquisition
1453-1821.Turkish atrocities in Greece.
1915.Armenian Genocide.
1700-1965.Slavery in the USA.
1948-1994.Apartheid in South Africa.
1940-1945. The Holocaust.
1994. Rwandan genocide.
1995. Srebernica.
2004.Darfur, Sudan.

Racism kills. It is not limited to one country, one civilisation, one time period. I’ve listed only 9 examples of the atrocities mankind has inflicted upon itself in the last 500 years. There are many more and there will be many more to follow because we seem incapable of change. We refuse to learn.

We’ve had the memorials to the victims. Speeches vowing never to let it happen again. We know about it. We have more power than ever before to implement change and prevent it and yet the best we seem to do is acknowledge its existence.

How many more Holocausts, genocides, mass murders do we need before we get it through our thick skulls that racism affects everyone, everywhere? Our apathy towards it has become the means to ensure its continuity. The continuity of racism will ensure the annihilation of the human race. Over the years, we’ve proven that we have become more adept at extermination rather than self-preservation. By tolerating racism in our lives, we haven’t proven we deserve a better outcome.

You declare you see me dimly
through a glass which will not shine,
though I stand before you boldly,
trim in rank and making time.
You do own to hear me faintly
as a whisper out of range,
while my drums beat out the message
and the rhythms never change.
Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.

.. maya angelou

Thanks for promoting the Blog Against Racism Day and your continued efforts towards human rights, tolerance and anti-racism in your blog.

“UNITY COMMUNITY RACES FACES TASTES PLACES …

We live in a world of differences
Let’s start with different faces
We got all kinds of differnt People in many different places
We got culture, ability, looks and style
Why can’t we all we all flow like the Nile?
Variety, religion, people and money
Why can’t we all live sweet like honey?”

“United by love, but individually unique,
Coz with my voice I speak up, united by peace
My birthmarks and tatoos and my own DNA
I wear like a barcode in my own way
The fear’s universal, united through war
Through the paradox of peace we work together at least
Individual leaders in spotlights are lonely,
It’s the basic protection of unity you owe me.
Negative energy can’t destroy us, because this…

A group of individuals united through differences”

Neneh Cherry
From the song “7 seconds”

We love you, Neneh. Thank you

Maya Angelou.
From On the Pulse of Morning

Hey Yianni, you know what I heard? The Albanian Government will not even send an Olympic team to Greece this year. Their reasoning?

Well, every Albanian who can run, jump, or swim is already in Greece, and they have no one to send.