i like to go to target when i'm stoned. it's a favorite past time of mine. i've been doing it for years and the times spent there have been as adventurous as you can get inside a target and pretty awesome.
i remember once i spotted this middle eastern family shopping. for the first time in my life, they stood out. they looked different. and i was given lenses i didn't have before. i would have usually dismissed them, gone about doing my own things, but for the first time, i really noticed them.
i noticed the elaborate sari the mother wore, the turnban the father had on, the red dot in the middle of her forehead..all these efforts to preserve their culture. to be who they are.
and i thought of all the names that they must have been called for doing so. All the hurtful things that must have been said. Terrorist. Go back to your own country. Stop bombing us.
I wish I could take it all away.
Underneath the clothing, lies a heart. A heart that's just like yours and mine.
I wonder why they came here. I wonder if they wanted to better their lives and if they received the welcome they deserved.
There is a kid at Schurz who is from India. His name is Salmon (maybe you might know him?). I always wondered whether or not he was bullied for being different and one day my friend told me that he was. A lot. They made fun of the way he talked, the sounds he made when he tried to speak English, and the fact that the girls didn't want him as much. This guy was always writing love poems. He would share them with me. Anyway, my friend who told me about the bullying also added this: "He came up to me one time out of the blue and thanked me for being kind to him."
<3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs
No comments:
Post a Comment