Subway Story

If you read this blog, then you probably know my outlook on life can be rather cynical sometimes. I believe that there are certain things that inately come with society - such as discrimnation and stereotypes. Heck, maybe they are even consequences of us simply being human beings - our natural tendency to distrust and alienate those who are different than us for our own safety.

However, even though it happened a few weeks ago, today I was reminded of a very interesting scene on the subway that helped me remember that, as humans, we aren't all that bad. It was late at night and I was coming home from a friend's house on the subway. I was tired and like most people on the subway, was avoiding contact with everyone. I was standing by the door and overheard a conversation between a father and his son about black history month. The son was inquiring about why there was slavery and why black people were treated that way. The father seemed ashamed, when he explained to his son (only about 9 or 10) that "back then" people didn't see people as different colors as equals. Then the son said something that I won't forget, he simply said "well even if they look different, they could be the same as us inside". Now, I"m not one to really get sentimental over phony things but my heart did warm up for a moment there. It's one thing to hear a child say that on t.v. or the internet...but to hear a child say that in real life did give me hope about how people really thought.

It helped to remind me that human nature is also one of curiosity and that, as humans, we are all the same on some fundamental level. It helped to remind me that progress has been made and I think in society most people are treated more equally than before. While there will always be stereotypes and progress towards how society views different people in general is slow, it is progress nonetheless. And it helped remind me that maybe the norm is naturally being cynical or dis-trusting. Maybe people were just too scared to change anything or stand up for equality. Anyway, I just believe that as humans we should embrace our commonality to move our society forward.