"Why Are We Divided?" by Joseph J

According to UNICEF, an estimated 353,000 babies are born into this world each day. Divide that by 24, that's approximately 14,708 born per hour. Now take that and divide it by 60 and that's 245 babies born per minute. Each child born onto this Earth is then inducted into the illustrious association known as the human race. Note the keyword, race.

So what exactly is race? No, I'm not talking about NASCAR or horse racing; I'm talking the ethnic groups which define billions of people. Race is generally defined as a group of people identified distinctly from other groups because of supposed physical or genetic traits shared by the group. As humans we share the same anatomical traits; we all have the same skeletal structure, an ever expanding conscious, as well as one beating heart. Yet, the concept of a unified human race seems to be decades away from us because of the differences we have today.

When we talk about race, all we see is color. We see black, white, yellow, brown-- and what has that led to? In essence, it has led us to create racism. This in itself is a controversial topic that isn’t readily discussed. Racism is defined as the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races. In today’s society, racial discrimination is apparent in many aspects of our lives. Due to the color of our skin, people will treat us differently or act a certain way around us, especially minorities in the United States. All minorities, whether it is the Latino/Hispanic minority, the African American minority, the Asian minority, or even the Muslim minority, experience various degrees of racism; however, some might say that racism lies only in our nation’s history and doesn’t apply to us anymore. Unfortunately, that statement is false. Yes, there is no more Ku Klux Klan as well as no blatant displays of racism; however, that racism has transformed into institutionalized racism that has become ingrained into our society. Whether we like it or not, we now act a certain way towards certain groups of people because our society has conditioned us to react differently towards different groups of people.
Unfortunately, today we associate different races in a negative connotation. We associate black with thugs, hispanic with immigrants and muslim with terrorists, all because of the narrative our society has built for us to believe. Subconsciously, we act a certain way because of this institutionalized racism. Despite this, when we look back at things, we are one human race-- not the segregated groups we currently define as our “race”. However, we are yet to be unified because of the racial divide in society. The way to make a change is to recognize our own racism and fight for equality so we could begin moving towards one united human race. To build to that future, we must act and support those fighting for equal rights to end institutionalized racism so one day we will be one united race.