Elephant in the room

On a good note, I finally have my laptop back so posting blogs should be a whole lot easier...and hopefully less grammatical mistakes and if there are still that many mistakes then I guess my English is not as great as I thought..Ohh well. I am not one to normally dabble in politics. Yes, I do enjoy political debates and discussions, but I don't often follow politics with much dedication as others but there are a few topics I do find interest in, and that's human rights. If I ever planned to pursue my law education further, I may actually consider specializing in human rights law. I consider myself an activist, however not necessarily the activist who "actively" takes part in any demonstrations, political rallies or protest. I usually try to show my activism, through the charities I support or my vocal contributions to the injustices in the world through social media. However in most cases, I cant really relate on a personal bases on a lot of the issues out there. I can sympathize and try to understand what most of the people suffering are going though but I cant necessarily relate. One area I do relate to is the issue of race. A topic I can relate to on a personal bases because I do fall under the category of minority. Race in these parts of the world is often times considered taboo. Often times the minute you bring up the word "race" people are ready to put a garlic chain around their neck and flash a crucifix in your face because its taboo and wrong to discuss race openly and freely without any repercussions. The only reason I can think of why this topic is taboo in these parts of the world is because people don't believe racism exist. In one of my human rights honour classes in University, we did bring up the topic of race once and one guy-white guy was quick to say, racism does not exist in Canada. And although I do not blame him for thinking that because, honestly I wouldn't consider him a racist and he probably doesn't associate with anyone who is racist, he was ignorant. Of course he doesn't experience racism so why would he be in the know of whats plaguing at least 30% of the population? But really when people think of racism, they immediately think of blatant discrimination and abuse of a minority group. They do not really associate anything outside of blatant racism as racism. Of course I was quick to correct him of that notion and he did go head to head with me until I guess he clued into the fact that I indeed was black(although I find it hard for him not to notice) and that I may know what I am talking about because...well I experience it quite a bit. What I did notice that people often feel that as long as someone is no longer referring to black people as the n words, there is no longer racism, although with the wake of Paula Dean and my sister who recently was referred as the N words on the streets of Toronto, racism no longer exist People think that because of Martin Luther Kings eloquent speech over 40 years ago, racism does not exist because people are no longer judged based on the colour of their skin but the content of their character, although, everyday when a black person enters a store today, there is a sales associate who follows them around the store till they walk out, racism doesn't exist Or maybe its the fact that you see a greater representation of minorities in the work place so racism doesn't exist, but what they don't realize is, the fact that that black person was only hired because often times, there is a "quota" to fill so they had to be brought in the work place and often times have to work 10times harder than the average employee to prove that they are not the stereotypical "lazy" black man/woman or even if they are hired for their abilities, they often times are looked at 10 times more critically than their fellow employees, or are addressed with less respect because of their skin colour and not their actual character Or racism doesn't exist because the law has been set in place to prosecute anyone who breaks the law regardless of who they are yet, the rate of black people in jail today far exceeds the number of any other race because often times black people are charged a lot more for crimes that their non black counterparts walk free from. Or in the case of Trayvon Martin where a man can easily walk away free from killing an unarmed black man but if tables were turned, Trayvon would be in jail. Yes the law was applied here but who are we kidding, the outcome was only what it was because of who the defendant was and the victim was. So yes race is taboo and people do not like discussing it because sometimes ignoring the issue will help it go away, But until we actually address the issue of race, we will never reach a place where there will be true equality in the world. Granted we may never have true equality considering women are still paid less for equal work, and in the case of Aboriginals in Canada, they will continue to be discriminated against because of who they are, although they are the true owners of this land we call home. So lets not fear discussing the elephant in the room because lets be real, there is an elephant in the room which is really hard to ignore.