"This I Believe" Andrea, Oakland CA, 'A'

Andrea is a prime example of childhood innocence. Growing up in an African American community, she presumptiously regarded herself as part of African American society; as Black. The problem was, she was White. In the young Andrea’s mind, the only difference between her and her fellow black classmates, was nothing. She was aware of the whiteness of her skin but thought nothing of it. She just thought that she was a bit lighter than everyone else; the same way white people can be tanner than others and how black people can have lighter skin than others. There was no racial boundary that Andrea noticed based upon skin color. She sincerely and undoubtably viewed everyone as equal with no assessments on race.
Ever since the dawn of man, until even today, all people carry prejudices. When any two people meet, the first thing that one notices about the other, is his or her race or ethnicity. Subconsciously, the mind classifies people’s appearances and categorizes them into races and nationalities. Think about this. If you were to be introduced to someone the first thing you would notice about them, before speaking with them, would be whether he or she was White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Middle Eastern, yellow, purple, or green. You would not necessarily place any stereotypes or assumptions of that person based on their race, but you do in fact notice it. Mankind is accustomed to this instant classification of people, and it is in no fact racist or wrong. People first notice significant features that portray a particular individual; whether they are short or tall, blonde or brunette, short hair or long hair, black or white, etc. The issue arises, however, when social stigma’s are placed upon individuals that classify an entire race of people into one category. If from this moment forward, every person viewed skin color as young Andrea had, there would be no existing social stereotypes placed on any race. We would view everybody as equally and culturally the same to ourselves and only notice differences, not of appearance, but of character and attitudes. Like I said, it is not wrong that we first notice race, as we do other physical features, but without it, racism and discrimination would never have persisted.