Jedd Birkner,
Torrance, CA.

Race is a social construct. Prejudice is a way of expressing ignorance and fear. Senseless hatred is passed from generation to generation. I pray that the people in my country with hatred in their hearts for those they perceive as “the other” become a smaller and smaller minority with each generation. I grew up in a lily white suburb in the 1960’s. Race was something we saw on TV. I neighbor told me a racist joke once when I was around 5 years old. I repeated it to my father, a WWII vet. He told me in no uncertain terms that the language and sentiment I was repeating was not tolerated in our house. I am grateful to my father for that lesson. In my village there were two groups of blacks: the Jones family and the sons of the Nigerian ambassadors. I considered them blacks but I was on a first name basis with five of the six (the oldest Jones brother was an upper classman and, accordingly, I didn’t rate to be in his social group). I am grateful to live in California now in a diverse community. The differences make life interesting, learning about a bigger world. It pisses me off that so many people can be to ignorant and hateful still. Move on, idiots.