Growing up, my mother would tell me homosexuality, that included anything to do with LGBT, was wrong and that I had to be a Christian. I never really believed in god and I felt like I couldn't tell my mom, she would always talk down on other religions. I grew up feeling closed off from my family.
When my mother married my stepdad it got worse. We would go to church, in the church I would constantly hear about how homosexuality and not believing in god was wrong. …show more content…
I don't remember the context, just that I had interrupted and said: “Can we not talk about those evil goat f***ers?” After that, my friends glared at me and walked off. I brushed it off and assumed they were being ignorant, even though I was because I felt like I knew what I was talking about. I thought anyone who had a different opinion on the subject was wrong and that I was the only one right. Most of my ideas came from my family and the media. I could have thought for myself but I decided to be a sheep and blindly follow others. I did this all the time, everytime someone brought up Arabs, I would say the same thing, or close to the same thing. I would ignore other racist …show more content…
It was usually at school, especially my friend groups. They would constantly joke and belittle people because of their race. I remember a time when it was probably the worst I've ever seen it. A new kid had joined our school, he was Asian and didn't speak English all that good. I was hanging out with my usual friend group. The kid had asked to sit with us. My friend responded with something like: “Get out of here, we don't hang out with squinty-eyed cotton pickers.” I will never forget how hurt the kid looked. He looked at us for a second and walked away.
At the time, I didn't really say or do anything at all. I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of my friends. I should have spoken up, or went and apologized to the kid. I look back on this now and realize what a problem racism is. The kid was really hurt, and I could have stopped it. Now I try my best to speak out against racism. I still get nervous and scared when speaking out, but I’ve been working on it. I believe everyone deserves an equal chance regardless of