Americans and humans must end our prejudice

Janine Fagan

Janine Fagan

Have you ever wondered what would have happened if John F. Kennedy had lived? I do.

The possibilities of having an interracial society could have been endless.

I often wonder what it would be like to live in a society that does not hold prejudice in their hearts about other people’s differences, appearances or color of their skin.

I wonder if JFK could have forced the changes in society that still exist in present day America.

I wonder if he actually held the key to the possibility of people changing how they view each person within their community.

I really do wonder what life would be like without prejudice.

Why does change scare society or culture, and why do we still, in this present state of the technologically advanced world, have prejudice against people that are of a different skin color, religion, sexuality or origin.

Who ever decided what was normal anyway?

And when did it become carved in stone?

Just because the skin of a person is darker or lighter than your own doesn’t mean they are any different.

My journey through life has brought me to South Dakota, a state that has a large population of Native American people, reservations and so much history.

However, I am flabbergasted to still find hatred and prejudice in the hearts of white South Dakotans.

It amazes me that my own race of people can still hold this standpoint.

I do not know how white America can dare to look Native Americans in the face continuously telling them lies, promising them justice and giving them nothing.

We have written and photographic proof of what we did to a whole nation of people and their families and still we do nothing.

We stood there watching as we completely demolished everything the native people believed in.

Each day we still continuously judge native people.

We look down at reservations.

We blame the Native Americans for the problems and poverty that are occurring within current day reservations.

The types of issues that are occurring on reservations right now are the effects from years of abuse and discrimination of white people on the Native American culture.

Think about Japan invading America for a minute, and think about them, stealing our culture and changing everything about mainstream America with nothing we could do about it.

We fought wars and did everything possible to restrain this attack. Fortunately, we did. But what if we hadn’t?

Let’s think about how many Americans would turn to drink and drugs as a way to escape this life-changing ordeal and think about how this could relate to the Native American culture.

American society is not alone in racism and prejudice behavior by any means. England was the first to enslave people, I do not excuse my native people’s behavior.

I guess this leads me to the question “When I think about America what do I really see?”

Do I really see a thriving, striving and patriotic country that stands as one and a country that wants to be at the top of the economic and political mountain?

I don’t really know what I see because when I think about what America is built from, I find myself with many new questions.

I think about the people who left their own society and country to come to the new world looking for a life that was different from what they knew. They did find a new and beautiful country but turned it, over time, into the same society they left.

Maybe if we all look close enough we might see the reason why mainstream America continues to walk around with hatred in their eyes.

What we see today in society is the effects and outcome of years of prejudice in the hearts of so many people and the problem will remain.

That is, until someone like JFK rolls around again and leads us all to a united place.

Janine Fagan is from Great Britain. Write to her at [email protected].