Tonight I was very privileged to sit in a room with very educated people. People who grew up in low income families who heard the world tell them they should not aim too high in life, but should merely try to keep their heads above water and try not to get arrested.
I used to think that these were stories of the past that we would share with future generations as we celebrated the fact that all those stereotypes were behind us now. But it is not so.
We are not near where we should be at this day and age. There are people who think that minorities are taking the spaces in colleges and jobs that should be held by whites. That we are being handed these opportunities because of laws and ordinances. This is a belief based in bigotry of the worst kind. It is bigotry because it makes the base assumption that no one of color in education or an occupation is qualified to be there. It is also bigoted because it makes the assumption that the white students are qualified to be there.
The fact of the matter is programs like Affirmative Action came to be because not just qualified, but over-qualified people of color were being turned down for jobs, looked over for promotions and denied entry into schools because those in positions of power chose to believe a stereotype, rather than the truth.
Tonight I listened to men and women who are independent and educated talk about the things they had been told by ignorant people. As high school students, these people had excellent grades, amazing test scores, strong communication and social skills, yet because of the color of their skin or the sound of their last name, these students were ignored by administrators in their educational pursuits.
How many people have we passed over who could have contributed something valuable to society? Did we encourage the woman who wanted to be a doctor to be an english teacher instead? Did we ignore the Hispanic child with a knack for politics, or push the Asian kid with a head full of poetry toward the mathematics department? What do we miss out on when we ignore the individual and based our world on narrowmindedness?
I have the belief that whenever we do something evil to someone else, we destroy that person’s destiny to do good in our lives. On the grand scale, when a person kills another, perhaps they kill the one who will pull the killer’s child from in front of a speeding car. On a day-to-day basis, I think if we inflict a wound on another person’s spirit, we damage our own spirits in response. We can only live in as much joy as we’re willing to give. That which we hold close to our chests denies us the pleasure of sharing.
Always choose to lift someone up, rather than bring them down. It is not our job to impose limits on how high others can soar, but to make sure they are prepared for the journey in the best possible way.