Sticks and stones may hurt my bones, but words will never break me

America has had a long history of fighting racism and discrimination throughout many groups within its history. People who have experienced a racist interaction are more likely to have an increase of hate and judgment of the race as a whole because of their interaction. Many people argue different things when it comes to this issue. One thing everyone can agree on is that to feel hate towards a race is a horrible trait to have. A lot of younger age people argue that the blame falls on people within the older age group. Since they played a hand in creating a hostile negative environment, that young people witnessed and followed. This leads to the question: who do we blame? 

Throughout Americans history, there have been many races that have experienced discrimination against. Chinese people have recently been under the spotlight because of the virus called corona. Chinese people feel like they are getting blamed for a virus they have nothing to do with since they are Americans also. From the article a lot of Chinese people feel like this discrimination and hatred have created a strong divide from Chinese people and other Americans. A lot of Chinese people stated “they are afraid for their safety and their children's safety because of Donald Trump and his republican allies” (Tavernise & Oppel, 2020). From the racist interactions from a certain group of people, Chinese people have been afraid and increased the way they judge a certain group. This is a problem because from this we as a nation need to make sure that we are not using our biases and passing them on from generation to generation. This type of problem can only be stopped with people understanding what they say matters and can lead to further hardships from the connection as a nation should have. 

Italians are another example of a race that faced discrimination within the US and chanced their belief of they look and judge a race as whole. During the beginning of Italians migrating over to the US, all over the US, people were telling Italians  they were not yet white. From an article written by Isabel Robertson (New York Times), she reported on multiple Italians people telling their story of how discrimination influenced them. From their experiences, a lot of Italians gained an increase for the discrimination they experienced. Judging whites for the argument that Italians are in fact white, but their whiteness was not earned, this led to multiple instances where Italians were arrested and put in the same category as blacks. These are just a few examples. 

This was and is still till this day a huge problem. Racism and discrimination have divided this country more than anything else. It's too easy to judge someone and not understand their background. It's harder to own your mistakes and learn where you are wrong. People would rather judge and be wrong then know they messed up and fixed it. Since this has been a problem for so long, people just came to terms that this exists but chooses to do nothing about it. This is not acceptable. Your judgments and biases are other people weakness. The way a person interacts with a race should not be based on their race but that interaction good or bad has the influence to change a person's view and thought. 

 

Will we ever see a time where we are together? This is a question people across the US have been asking for a very long time. American Psychological Association wrote did related on stress related to discrimination. They reported “from a racist interaction or encounter it actually raised a person's stress levels” (Physiological and psychological impact of racism and discrimination for African-Americans). Based on their research we can conclude that stress and race are directly correlated. Knowing this problem, how do I fix it? More riots, protests, sit-ins? Understanding why you might judge someone or interact differently with a person is the start. Races because of this discrimination have found peace within their own race. Blacks with blacks, Italians with Italians, Chinese with Chinese, etc. Because  of their bad interactions throughout history, you can see how races stuck with their own and in most cases did not interact with other races. Some may say this is good, races are together and with each other. But this does not fix the problem. 

In conclusion, words do hurt and in deeper mean they stick. We as a nation have the power to change how the world looks for our children. Are we divided in your future imagination? From what we do now, our children will grow up and follow. Having a prejudgment is something everyone should recognize and change. It's hard being the bigger guy and swallowing your bias. But think about the other people and how it makes them feel. Are you making them feel welcomed. If not you should think about if that was you or someone you loved. Those interactions don't just last in those moments. They last a lifetime