Race: The Oprah Effect

I have never considered myself a racist. My parents raised me with the ideal that everyone was equal. I can distinctly remember asking my mom if my friend, Michael Patterson, could come over to play. I told her that he was black. I'll never forget it when she said, "it doesn't matter if he's is black, white or purple." That has stuck with me throughout my life.

I will admit that my year in East Harlem did make me a little jaded. I would see people through their trash out of windows in the projects, rather than use the trash cans. I would see women use their EBT cards while talking on their iPhones and holding their Gucci purses. I could hear people screaming and fighting while children played on the sidewalks. I think that I used those experiences to develop what I'd like to call an environmental prejudice. I wouldn't say that I was racist, but I think I over generalized the experiences of my neighborhood.

Ironically, it was also during this time that I fell in love with Nicki Minaj and began exploring hip-hop. As I explored the culture, I began to realize that if a musician was going to use the word "faggot," it was most likely going to be a rapper. Singers of pop, country, jazz or rock would never say it. I began to become angry. I would think, "Well if they want to call me this, then I'll call them that." As I have come to learn, that is the worst possible way of thinking.

That all changed because of one woman...Oprah. She did a special look back at all her episodes on race from the past twenty five years. She showed men and women in the 1980s who were so unbelievably racist. I also noticed that they were against homosexuals and communists. I began to think that my way of thinking seemed to resemble these fat, rednecks. It disgusted me.

It wasn't until Oprah recited a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr that I really got it. She recited this line, "Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." That line really changed my life. It was an "aha moment" as Oprah would call it. Yes, some people may use derogatory, gay slurs. Yes, they may be black. But I'm only proving that I'm just like them by sinking to that same nasty level.

I feel like I learned so much from that one episode of Oprah. I hope that I can take that lesson and practice it in my daily life. I think that would be a small change that could make a big impact. They say that God created one race – the human race. One race is how we should see ourselves. Black, white, gay, straight – we’re all people. Let’s treat each other that way.