In Which a Confused White Boy Talks About Racism

So I think today is gonna be a bit of a shorter post, which is nice for me because there's something else I want to work on today, haha.

This isn't really actually directed at anything or anyone in particular, but it's just something that has kind of always been in the back of my mind. Obviously, racism still exists in the world today, and to me, that is absolutely ridiculous. Even just for the most basic reason: why would you judge someone based on the way they look or where they came from? If someone is to be judged, it should be based on the way they act, right? How can you you judge someone you don't even know anything about? It just doesn't make sense.

I guess I can give a little background on where *I* came from. I grew up in Scarborough, a suburb on the Eastern end of Toronto (East side, yo). If you aren't familiar with Scarborough, it can definitely be described as very diverse. By that I mean, white people are pretty much the minority here, depending on what area you're in. I think the biggest population would probably be East-Asian, but there are really are populations of people from all over the world.

This meant that when I went to school, most of my classmates didn't look the same as me. There were kids of all different colours and backgrounds, and to us, it wasn't weird at all. People who looked different just...looked different. We were all still friends. In fact, in high school, pretty much all of my friends were Asian; I think you probably could have counted the number of white people in my graduating class on two hands (of at least one or two hundred).

So with that upbringing, racism doesn't really offend me, it just confuses me. I mean I suppose some kids can't help if they are brought up by racist parents, but shouldn't there come a time when they're intelligent enough to realize that it's a stupid way to think? Again, it seems to me like the only rational, logical basis on which to judge someone is how they act. I really can't imagine any sort of compelling argument to the contrary.

But yeah, I dunno. I guess the real problem is that it's not reasonable to expect everyone to be rational. I wonder why that is...