I am a fifteen-year-old boy who firmly believes that all people should be treated with respect, regardless of their ethnicity and background. When I was interviewing my grandmother a few weeks ago, I realized that people were treated a lot differently when she was younger because racism in that time and in the place she came from was more conscious and open. Racism is still incredibly prevalent, but I think my grandmother's experience with racism was part of her cultural unconscious, which seemed to make it okay to just accept it or not even notice it. Once when my sisters were little, my grandmother sang them a nursery rhyme that was very racist. When she was asked not to share it, she argued that it was harmless and something her mother had sung to her. Her argument was that because her mother had sung it to her, it was okay to sing it to her granddaughters. I think her beliefs were passed along to her by everyone around her. For my grandmother, her focus was more on how women were treated. She felt women were treated differently just because of their gender, and she didn't really think much about Brown and Black Americans being treated differently just because of their skin color.
I believe in consistently treating people with respect. I think that everyone should be treated fairly no matter his or her age, race, or gender. I was raised by my parents to treat everyone fairly no matter what. I think it's wrong to treat people differently just because of these factors.
This personal belief was confirmed two years ago when I visited the library looking for books to read. There were two people just casually looking for books to read. One of them was black, and one of them was white. They went and got the same book then went in line. Shortly after, I went and got in line to get my book checked out. I was bored that day and decided to listen to people's conversations. When the white man got to the counter, the lady checking out books scanned his and told him that it was a good read. When the black man got to the counter, the lady said nothing while checking out his book and when he was about to walk away, she snidely said, "Be careful. That book is going to be hard for your types to understand." I was appalled that someone could treat someone with such blatant disrespect. I went up and got my book checked out and went home to complain about the lady at the counter. The next time I went to the library, there was a different woman checking out books. I asked about the woman at the counter last time, and she said, "OH her. She got fired after a bunch of complaints were filed against her."
This experience strengthened my belief to respect others by reminding me that disrespect is everywhere, even in places that are supposed to be free and accessible for everyone, like a library. In addition to being an example of racism and disrespect, it also shows how words can have an impact. The words I heard, made me very conscious and uncomfortable with the disrespect and racism of the librarian. I can connect this experience to Heraclitus' views about the Unity of Opposites. He believed that even though people may have differences (visible or not), they have the capacity to come together. In this scenario, the woman at the counter should have recognized that she had the power to treat the person kindly rather than be so divisive. Even though I think that she had the power, I also think that she is one of the people who are in the cave-like in Socrates's Allegory, she only sees the wall in front of her, and she doesn't see how she can change how she views others.
I can also relate this experience to Carl Jung's theory of the conscious and subconscious state. I don't ever want to make someone feel like they are inferior just because of their skin color or gender. I think my experience at the library is the type of conscious experience that eventually becomes part of my subconscious. At first, my experience tells me that how the man was treated was wrong. I think if I am conscious of these experiences enough then eventually, unlike my grandmother, my subconscious mind will just kind of implant the belief that racism is wrong. It becomes part of my personal DNA rather than something I have to be mindful of and think about. I want that to be true for everybody.
I always believed this way, thanks to my parents who raised me to remember the value of a person. I constantly observed them treating people with respect no matter what they looked like. It was ingrained in me as a kid growing up. In addition to observing my parents' good actions, I was also surrounded by strong role models throughout my life. The value of or belief in respect for others is part of my conscious and unconscious vocabulary. I feel like this has always been my belief, but after I went to a Black Lives Matter protest after George Floyd was killed, I realized then that racism was a big issue. I wondered why the police officers did what they did? What did they gain by doing it? Now I wonder if racism is part of the unconscious culture; it is more normal to mistreat people because of their color than it is to treat them with respect? Before George Floyd, I thought of racism as an individual lack of respect for other people. After he was killed, I started to think of racism as more a part of our culture more in our cultural subconscious, that is, it is always kind of there for everyone.
I think this belief shows that I am a compassionate person who will treat everyone with respect no matter what they may look like. I am nonjudgmental and wholeheartedly accept and respect people. This belief is also seen through my family's value system. I think my personal experiences and memories have helped me to define who I am. For example, I have developed an understanding of my parents' view of treating people with respect through my observations. I have observed their constant kindness to all people. My constant observations of my parents have influenced my own development of this belief. I have also seen also observed my teachers, and people in my church act on this belief. My memory of the librarian's treatment of the black man helped me recognize how others do not share my belief. I also think my belief is impacted by me and my family's privileged identity of being white and middle class. We haven't experienced what it is like to be a target of racism, so we have to be more conscious of when it is happening, and maybe it is easier to feel like we are kind people because we are not challenged very much.
Even though I hold this belief and I observe it in my family, I am struggling more with what I observe in the news and world around me. Carl Jung believed that there are some things that are deep in human unconsciousness, they are always there regardless of culture. I hope racism is more like Heraclitus's idea of Flux that because the world never stays the same for long and things are always changing, our culture will change its racism.
The philosopher Empedocles believed that all life was made up of a combination of four elements air, water, earth, and fire. He believed that love was the unseen force holding things together and that strife was the force that pulled things apart. I think that love has helped me form my belief in respecting others no matter their age, race, or gender, and that strife like we experienced when George Floyd was murdered has helped me to realize that others do not share my beliefs. My memory about what happened to George Floyd and my experience with the librarian has helped me realize that racism and a lack of respect for differences are part of our unconscious culture. One lesson I have learned is that racism is not a small personal problem but is something we have to be vigilant and respond to both in our own selves and when we see it in others.
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