My First Experience of Black people and why i am such a believer of equality!

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Where i lived growing up in the seventies in our little part of the UK i had not personally met a black person. Then about 1985 i went to study in Sheffield a city with a big Afro Caribbean population and i had to question my own views. Where i lived i had to walk past a bar and the first time i walked past there were several black men outside and one asked me if i wanted to buy some pot. Everyday i walked past that bar and it always made me feel uneasy. But then i had to stop and ask myself why do i feel scared? Is it due to the big muscular men trying to sell me weed or is it because they were black? Thankfully it was due to the former but still from that day on i vowed never to judge a person by the colour of their skin!! I started studying the history of the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X are such heros! I try my hardest to live by the promise i made and to champion equality of all kinds, which became even more important to me later with me being bisexual and disabled! There are several women here in the suicide girls community who have inspired me including @sperohh , @melei, @natany , @midnight ❤❤

VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
waitformetoturnblue:
I was fortunate to both be raised in an area of the US that has a robust black population, and that my parents taught me that, while I should never, ever be colorblind—my stepfather felt that being colorblind would blind me to the inequality that black, brown, Asian, etc. people struggle with—that I was no better than anyone else, even and especially that I looked different. I know that as a white person that I have an immediate leg up on everything from getting a job, to getting approved for loans, to even something as simple as being served in a restaurant. My stepfather was way ahead of his time when he raised me from the age of two, onward. He shaped my world view to be vast, equal, and empathetic to others far less fortunate. I am enriched by these lessons I’ve learned from a young age. And I’m a better person for it. Many of my friends are great people, who are smart, talented, beautiful, and kind—and they also happen to have a different skin color than mine, and have and still teach me lessons that they unfortunately have had to and, most regrettably, will experience in the future. But I love them whole, full stop.
midnight:
I really appreciate the tag love!! My favorite part is when you said, "I had to question my own views." Powerful stuff. If only more people took a minute for some inner reflection the impact would be innumerable. Cheers mate!

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