Is this our 21st Century?

I spoke today with a friend of mine—a nineteen year old girl who is half-Mexican, half “white”. With bloodshot eyes, she described to me how she had been forced to break up with her boyfriend last week—simply because, after a year of dating, her mother decided it was simply “too much” to bear to have her daughter dating a black man.

I am LIVID. I can’t believe that my generation is still dealing with such chasmal ignorance and overt hatred. I won’t apologize for this woman’s mother—I won’t say that she is a helpless victim of the sociological model that she knew as a child. I can’t justify racism, no matter how you frame it.

Honestly…how is this still happening? That’s a rhetorical question—I know about the different forms of fear, insecurity, rivalry, etc that are ‘factors’ in this. But I mean, how can such trifles be blown so out of proportion to the point that they trump our universal human-ness? How does the irrational override the rational—and the spiritual?

This hurts me. I hurt for my friends, Sunshine and Marcus, who aren’t together anymore. I hurt for the older generation that remembers life before the civil rights movement. I hurt for the children today who are inheriting the injustices that should have expired long ago.

I want to write an apology to the world…but the only thing that will make any difference is if the perpetrators realize the reality of their depravity.