Racism doesn't exist without one thing.
Now on this channel, I didn't want to get
into politics because politics is always two
sides to the same coin.
I wanted to stick to the individual level
of self-improvement.
Improving the mind because you can't improve
anything else if he can't even improve yourself
first.
But with everything that's going on, it's
hard to just ignore it and go on like nothing
is happening.
So I figured I should talk about it.
So racism doesn't exist without one thing.
Now, imagine this.
Imagine you lived in a community, your entire
life, you work hard and your fellow people
around you all work hard.
But they also look like you, they talk like
you and they act like you.
It's a peaceful community.
Now imagine if someone comes in, who doesn't
look like you, who doesn't talk like you and
who doesn't act like you?
What are you supposed to think?
It's a natural reaction to have your curiosity
peaked.
Something that's different than the ordinary,
that's not usually there, so your attention
is drawn to it.
It's not always a bad type of attention.
As a matter of fact, I kind of experienced
this myself in a positive way.
When I went to school, there was this one
time where I transferred school districts.
I went into a new high school with people
I've never seen before.
And the school was predominantly white people.
And I come in a Hispanic who doesn't look
like everyone else.
But when I got there, everyone was like, "Hey,
who's this new guy.
Come on, talk with us.
Let's get to know this person."
It was a positive experience.
It wasn't a negative one.
So where does that racism stem from?
Now, imagine if you're in that community and
you had a group of these people come in.
And all of a suddenly, the company you've
been working for your entire life decides
we're going to fire all of you and take in
all of these immigrant workers for half the
cost.
You will be rightfully mad.
"Why are you giving my job away?
I've worked my entire life.
I don't know anything else."
They'll start thinking things like, "What
am I supposed to do now to provide for myself,
provide for my family, take care of my community?
What am I supposed to do?
When the one job that I've always known is
gone.
I can get a new job, but I was happy with
the job that I had before.
I just wanted to go back to that same livelihood
that was taking from me."
Now they are rightfully angry, but that anger
can be focused into the wrong direction.
They might start thinking it's their fault.
It's the immigrant's fault.
They did nothing wrong, but they took our
jobs.
We want those jobs back and it becomes an
us-versus-them mentality.
They don't see the people.
They see the community who came in and started
taking things away from them, taking away
their livelihoods, the peace of life.
So the immigrants that came in, they did nothing
wrong.
But now they're starting to get harassed by
people, the community, who have been there
their entire lives.
They don't want people just to come in and
uproot them from their own homes.
Rightfully so, but at the same time, those
immigrants are starting to get harassed for
doing nothing wrong.
They have the right to be angry at those people.
They just came in.
"We want to get jobs.
We want to have the opportunities.
We want to work alongside of you."
But in this situation, they didn't really
have a choice, any one of them.
The people who had the work before got pushed
out of their jobs.
The people who are coming in are trying to
find anything that they could take.
So they take the first thing that approaches
them.
And eventually the two start clashing together.
It becomes us-versus-them.
Tensions rise.
It's like an argument.
Imagine any argument that you've had, where
it just ends in yelling at each other.
It's not constructive at a certain point in
time.
The argument that started the conversation
in the first place disappears, and it just
ends up in name calling.
So now you have two sides who did nothing
wrong and are pinned against each other.
How are you supposed to come to a right conclusion
when neither side did anything wrong, but
they're angry at each other anyway?
It's the same thing that you do in an argument.
How do you end an argument when you're both
yelling at each other?
It's that first person who stops, who looks
and analyze at what's going on and truly hears
the other person's message and then says,
"I understand why you're angry and here's
what we can do to fix it."
The first person that does that cuts the tension
from continuing to rise.
A perfect example of this is by a man named
Daryl Davis.
He did one of the best Ted talks that I've
ever seen, and it only has 7 million views.
So I would definitely recommend watching it.
And I say only 7 million because with over
300 million people in the United States, only
7 million, seeing it is not enough.
But I would definitely go recommend going
to watch this.
I'll link it down below.
But this man's story is incredible.
He grew up in this environment where racism
happened around him.
And when he was about 10 years old, his parents
had sat him down, telling him that people
will hate you because of the color of your
skin.
He didn't understand it.
Why would someone hate me because of the color
of my skin?
It didn't make sense to him in the innocence
of a child.
But it was true, nonetheless.
And he grew up with this continuing thought
in his mind.
Why would people hate me if they don't even
know me?
Eventually, he came to talk with one of the
leaders of a klan and something interesting
happens because of this.
They become friends.
But wait, how does a black man become friends
with a KKK member?
It doesn't make any sense unless you hear
the story.
What had happened is that Daryl Davis' approach
this man and this leader of the klan to talk.
Obviously, tensions were high.
They were on edge, but eventually things were
able to break down.
They were able to communicate with each other
and see that there are more similarities than
there are differences.
Eventually, this one, man, this leader of
the klan, gave up his ropes and quit the Klan
because of this one man's actions to simply
talk and understand.
That was his only purpose was to understand
where they're coming from.
He wanted to understand the question.
Why would someone hate me if they don't even
know me?
That was his only purpose.
And with those discussions, the truth was
able to come out.
He learned that many of these men who were
in the klan didn't even know or meet any black
people in their entire lives.
So where does racism stem from?
Racism stems from only one thing, ignorance.
It is the fear of the unknown.
When something comes in from the outside,
something that you've never seen before, you
are rightfully cautious about it.
This dates back to our hunter and gatherer
days when at any random moment, something
to come out and kill you.
We are rightful to be cautious of differences
because those differences could mean life
or death.
But when we don't take the time to learn about
those instances, to understand what is going
on at its core level, that is when we could
do some potentially evil things.
We see this with racism, it's fear of the
unknown.
Ignorance to the other side.
You can not argue or fight against the other
side if you do not truly understand why they
believe what they believe.
Because in everyone's mind, they are righteous.
They are 100% correct.
You are the opposition.
You are the one that's wrong.
So if you don't understand what they're thinking,
you can never change their mind.
And if you are hard set on your own beliefs,
you might never change your mind to a better
viewpoint.
Because no one is exempt from this rule.
We all have our own biases.
I have my own biases, but I go out there to
try to understand the other side, because
we can not break down our own biases until
we look and truly appreciate what the other
person is thinking about, their own beliefs.
Because everyone is right in their own mind.
So how do we break that down?
How do we break down our own biases?
Do we have our own biases?
How do you find your own biases?
That one is all on.
You only, you could break down your own biases,
but let me tell you a story, a fictional story.
It's more of a concept.
It's called the allegory of the cave.
Maybe you've heard of this before, but if
you haven't, it goes like this.
Imagine being captive from birth.
The only thing that you've ever known is looking
at this one wall.
There's a light in the background, but you
don't know what the light is.
You don't know anything about it.
All you know is that wall and every now and
then there's something put in front of that
light, the cast, a shadow on that wall.
But since you've only ever experienced looking
at that wall with the shadow, you don't know
it as a shadow.
You view it as reality.
That is everything that you've ever known.
So what happens if someone goes to you and
tells you that there's a world beyond there's
more to it than meets the eye.
This image that you saw, this shadow, is actually
a vase, a three dimensional object.
What do you believe them?
If everything you've ever known is that one
shadow.
Why would you?
You have no reason to.
Now what happens if you're pulled from that
cave, your drag outside.
It hurts.
It's painful.
And when you exit the cave, you're blinded
by light and you can't see anything.
Who would want to go through that?
It's an uncomfortable feeling.
You would want to run down, back down to where
you were before, but you're forced to enter
a different reality.
Eventually, your eyes adjust to, and you're
able to see this truth.
This person was telling the truth.
You could pick up the vase, touch it in your
hands, a three dimensional object and not
just a shadow on the wall.
How would he feel?
This is amazing.
There's so many, so much beauty around me,
trees, animals, different objects, things
that I've never seen before.
I can now see the truth.
Now, when you think back to the people remaining
in that cave, how would you feel?
You would feel sorry for them.
Wouldn't you?
You would want them to see the truth.
The beautiful reality that is outside of the
cave.
So you would want to go back and tell them.
You tried to navigate the cave, but your eyes
have adjusted to the light, not the dark.
So you trip and stumble all over the place.
And when you get down there in front of them,
you try to tell them of this beautiful reality
that lies beyond the cave.
They look at you with contempt.
"Why would we listen to you when you went
up there and you ruined your eyes."
That's all they see.
You come down stumbling all over the place.
You've ruined your eyes.
So what do you do then?
Do you pull them along on the same journey
that you've gone on?
But if you do that, it will be painful.
And now they have this vision that there's
nothing but devastation up there.
You're only going to ruin your eyes.
If you go up there and it's a painful journey
to the top, why would I go along with you?
They would fight back with force if they have
to, to prevent themselves from ruining themselves.
When in reality, you're just trying to bring
them on into a more beautiful reality.
Now, in this perspective, we are the ones
who saw the beautiful reality, but we are
equally as likely to be the ones who are trapped
in the cave who sees this man spouting nonsense,
who claims that there's a reality beyond the
cave who comes down stumbling and he ruined
his vision.
Which one do you want to be?
The one who isn't able to see the true reality
or the one who wants to understand the perspective
of the other person and try it out.
Understand it that there might be something
beyond what is going on in our own mind.
Beyond what we have ever experienced.
It goes back to that community that I talked
about in the beginning of this video, a community
that has lived peacefully by themselves.
They have an external force that shows them
that there's differences in the world.
Do you fight against that?
Or do you try to understand them and bring
them in and support them and work together
to build an even greater community than there
was before?
When it all comes down to it, ignorance is
the most devastating thing out there.
Ignorance feeds racism, sexism, any other
ism or phobia out there.
If you are ignorant to the other side, if
you don't understand them, how are you ever
going to reach a proper conclusion?
You will end up being stuck in that cave,
fighting the very person who's telling you
that there's better way that there's a more
beautiful reality.
Where do you want to be in the beautiful reality
or stuck in that cave, fighting anything that
comes in from the outside, telling you that
there's something different.
So I definitely recommend going to watch Daryl
Davis's Ted Talks video.
I'll link that down below.
And if you want to watch my previous video
that I did on the protests of Martin Luther
King, how he fought, not with violence, but
with action, with words, with peaceful protest,
rather than going out there and attacking
people the same way we might attack people
who fight against our beliefs.
If you want to go watch that, I'll link that
right here.
And with all of that said here is to our future
selves.
