Extremes But We Relate

So I had a thought today... Well actually I have lots of thoughts everyday, most of the time way too many. Anyway, a good friend of mine just wrote a blog about her experience with discrimination and it just got me thinking... Aren't we all minorities in our own way? There are a rare few who could fit in anywhere in this world. I thought my friend was one of them. She's a beautiful half black, half white girl who gets mistaken for being everything from  Jamaican to Swedish. She's currently studying in India where she is a minority. I'm a blond haired, blue eyed, 75% German, some random percentage Jewish girl who lives in California. Yeah, based on my looks I fit in here. During the summer I can get an awesome tan and the more the sun shines on me, the lighter my hair gets. I am in no way exotic to California. BUT I've been all over the world and people know that I'm not from there. In South Africa that was an obvious one, in Italy they knew I was from California, in Germany they thought I was from there, and in the Philippines they just assumed I was American (rightfully so). Each place in this world has their ideas of what the "majority" should look like and what the "standard" appearance should be. But if looks were eliminated there wouldn't be a need for the words "minority" and "majority" in reference to society. I've learned that each person has hurts, each person knows how to laugh, each person has weird things about them. If I was alive during WWII think about how controversial I would be, I look like I fit into the Arian race, but I am Jewish, so which side would have won? Most likely my appearance, right? At least that's what I'd like to think... They'd take one look at me and ASSUME I was acceptable based on my appearance. 

One of the things that bugs me most about people is our ability to generalize and assume and categorize. I know that in America we're considered, by law, to be "free", but socially we are far from being free. Even a blond haired, blue eyed, 75% German, and some random percentage Jewish girl living in Southern California has assumptions made about her. They might not be as direct as a half black, half white girl living in India, but they're there. 

My Utopia: I wish that every person we saw was immediately stripped of their outward appearance. All we got was words and feelings from others. Once we got to know us then we got to see us. That way we'd see us for what we really are.

Let's make it happen.

And that's my rant today, in response to yours.

Love you!