meh

I haven't posted about FIND and I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to talking about the things that are really on my mind.

This weeks Chapter:

The treatment of the Chinese seemed to be just as harsh as the kind received by the Japanese immigrants. Marginalization caused by ignorance proliferates and we the populations are concentrated into urban communities that limit employment to a handful of menial occupations. Second generation children are spurred to action by educating themselves to a standard much higher than the average "American" of the early twentieth century, only to find that the color of their skin limits them regardless of the qualifications of their hard earned degrees and training. Can I be made more depressed? I'm tired and discouraged. Reading about how much life sucked for Chinese and Japanese doesn't make me feel any better. I don't care if I'm selfish. My "Caucasian" brothers and sisters were ignorant, naive bigots that had no manors or refinement. I am embarrassed to think that people like this still exist. We can have our racism and we can have our hatred, but we CANNOT have our belittlement and ostracism.

Ugh. We can think all we want about other people and thats how they should stay. Thoughts that become beliefs that become actions that mold our character totally fuck us up. What else can I do or say after reading about how bad things are? Should I cry and curl up into a ball and rock back and forth because my deceased family members probably issued racial slurs to undeserving human beings who looked a little different? Am I supposed to listen to others complain about how NOT good things are today when in reality things are SO much better?

I don't know...doing nothing is stupid, but doing something could also be a waste of time. I believe that educating oneself can change the world more than doing any single thing. Leading by example changes others views. One doesn't travel to foreign lands to lend a helping hand until one understands the brevity of their actions. There is no way to comprehend another's situation unless one comes to terms with their own. We cannot relate unless we understand what is it that creates any relation, which means we must ultimately learn to be ourselves.