Fingers on a hand. Toes on a foot. Cells in a body. Humans on the Earth. These things belong where they are. For some reason, fingers belong on hands just as toes belong on feet, and so forth. Humans belong on Earth; there is a reason that humans need special equipment to travel off this planet just as there is a reason why humans are here. I proudly say that I do not have this answer, and that I would like to meet the one that does. I’m not going to focus on the reason for why five fingers – or fingers nonetheless – make up a hand, or why humans exist on Earth; rather, I am going to ask and potentially try to answer why coexistence is an ideal rather than a reality.
During the Atlanta Exposition Address, Booker T. Washington exclaimed to the American people, “we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” People can believe in God and in the fact that God created humans to be on Earth, while others can believe that humans evolved from creatures. However humans came to be, what matters most is that there were and are humans regardless of whatever one may say. Humans are not unlike rocks: of all shapes, sizes, colours, vulnerability, origin and belonging to one earth. Indeed, humans are living unlike rocks, but the fact of the matter is, although different, humans and rocks share what they are born into: existence on earth.
After reading the Atlanta Exposition Address from Washington’s Up From Slavery, my perhaps naïve mind burst with the Seth Meyers-popularized, “REALLY?!” Are we, as 21st century humans, so behind the curve that we face the chance of not evolving any further? I’m not going to try and answer why is it that racism still exists, because I truly do not know. Sure, I can attribute it to the lack of faith that some people have, but that would be coming from a Catholic-biased, not-so-true-Catholic upbringing because I am being judgmental, which is not my duty. But, for argument’s sake, I will drop that veil and speak as one of billions of humans that share my species. Is it that hard to be a good person? It may be difficult to suppress frustration from he or she that may cut you off in traffic, or be irritated by someone who may not understand you or vice versa, but we must control that selfish anger and allow patience to intervene. If I were to take a Darwinist approach in the sense that we, humans, are animals, alike every other animal on the planet, does it sound logical for me to go to the Toronto Zoo and look at a panda and say, “I hate him.” What say I go to Ripley’s Aquarium and say, “I don’t like that shark because she’s different from me.” Of course she’s different! She’s a shark! Now, turn that around and substitute the panda and the shark with humans. Why? What did they do to you? Nothing. All right, then. Aside from nothing, what did they do to you to garner such distaste. Nothing, once again. Do you see where I am going here?
Washington believed that whites and blacks were like different fingers belonging to the one hand of America, separated by distance, but joined by roots. As one collective body of the world, we see that, at the end of the day, we all work together, although some may be in the ear listening to the exclamations of those who want to be heard, you can find those who are ignorant working in the colon.
Booker T. Washington’s speech arose a frustration in me. This multileveled frustration came from the fact that a) someone had to fight for equality in the first place and b) what he was fighting for is a topic still fought for today. We can quote John Lennon and say, “give peace a chance” or Michael Jackson and say that “if you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make that change,” but it’s exhausted. My post today was meant for you to really think on the fact that, yes, someone who died 100 years ago was trying to fight for what I’m trying to encourage here right now. I hope this can be the first domino in knocking sense into the illogical nature of racism, so that other, stronger, bigger dominos will uphold the ideas of peace, equality, and the celebration of uniqueness rather than the negative acknowledgement of it.
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