Racism needs to go.

I am not talking about this because I am black. I am talking about this because this has been going on for too long and things need to change. I understand how the world works. I understand that these things are hard to alter, but nothing will change if people just sit back and wait for the change to happen on its own.

Everyone needs to take it upon themselves to do something. If every person in the world decided to judge people, not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character, then racism cannot continue.

I am tired of stereotypes and their continued prevalence in our culture, despite the fact that everybody knows them to be inaccurate. Every black guy wants to be a rapper or a basketball player you say? Look at who our president is.

Think that you are going to pass college algebra by paying the first Asian person in your class to do it for you? Sorry, they are actually art majors who are struggling just as much as you are.

Do you think that all Mexican people are here to steal our jobs? Unemployment rates have more to do with the economy than Mexicans.

When John Amos came to speak on CSU campus, not only did he have words of empowerment but achievement as well. He also stressed the importance of not becoming a victim of a stereotype. If you act like a stereotype, chances are you are going to be treated like a stereotype.

Since when is going to school and getting a high paying job a “white thing”? I always thought it was just pursuing something you are passionate about, because you and only you can make a difference in your life.

The one thing that breaks my heart the most is when I hear people of color doubt themselves because they have been told to do so. I am shocked to hear minorities planning their unborn child’s name, and purposely choosing to name them a “white” name in order for them to have better opportunities in the job force and in school.

It becomes even worse when parents are telling their children that the world will not like them, that the world will make them work ten times harder just because they are different.

How can a black person say to another black person, I am better than you because I have a lighter skin tone? How can a Spanish person tell a Latin American person that they are better because their language is not “dirty”? How can minorities judge each other so harshly and then turn around and get mad when it is done to them by another race?

Who is anyone to tell a white person that they cannot enjoy hip hop or rap music just because they are not black? Why is it wrong for someone who is white to become Muslim or Buddhist? Just because something is culturally defined as belonging to a certain race does not mean that race called fives. The world belongs to everyone and everything equally.

I am not white, I am not black and I am not a one-eyed-one-horned-flying-purple-people-eater. I am a person. And so is everyone else. I am a person who is tired of people not treating each other like people. So please, take it upon yourself today.

We all have the power to change.