Topic # 3: If We Aren't Careful

T.A.P. is for people who want to see a stop to intolerance. the purpose is to let people know that racism is still a problem we have to deal with. 


The strides that we have made as a people have made things like racism a second thought in today’s society. This isn’t a good thing because not only is making people unaware of what has happened, but it is making people unaware of the things that are happening now.

The fact that racism is still happening is unacceptable. You would think by now that people wouldn’t be as ignorant as they once were when racism was at its high point in the 1950’s. We have gotten past things like segregation and when looking back that seems like a ridiculous other world and not something that was around 60 years ago. We have made huge strides and now things like separate schooling and even water fountains are things that seem to be ancient history.

The upsetting fact is that not everyone is as tolerant and some even commit acts of racism now. One example of this is not to long ago a royal Canadian legion gave the first place in a costume contest to a person wearing a K.K.K. costume. The people who gave the first place prize and the people who wore the costume were both punished. This is something that we shouldn’t be seeing; people should be at a level of tolerance where things like this are not only unacceptable but a cause for severe punishment.

People are quick to forget the past because of how good things are now but this shouldn’t be the case. The things that have happened in the past shouldn’t be forgotten because if so then they might be repeated because of people ignorance. We need to not only remember the past but talk about it and remember why what had happened was so bad. If people are informed about the acts of intolerance that happened and the effects they had on the people they were committed against people will be quicker to stand up when they see an act of racism rather then laugh at it or turn a blind eye and pretend like its nothing.

The past isn’t there just to tell us what has happened. It is there to remind us of what has happened and to do better not repeat it. Without learning the mistakes of the past we are doomed to repeat it and if we let things like racism slip to the back of our minds we might just end up repeating a time period that shouldn’t have happened.  

http://www.nextstepu.com/articlePage1.aspx?artId=2432

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2010/03/01/todays-question-how-prevalent-racism-society/