To those who discriminate,

I can’t believe I still have to tell people racism is wrong. I can’t believe we still have to tell someone that they are being racist. I can’t believe people still don’t realize when they are being racist.

Why does this have to be a continuous problem?

We live in a society where race gets pushed to the back of everyone’s minds even though it is at the forefront of our lives. Racism still exists – whether we choose to open our eyes to it is the real problem. Although we try to fix this, there is something in people’s brains that still commit this behavior, some more frequently than others.

There is no reason as to why americans should fear Muslims. People in our world, nation, and neighborhood believe that an entire religion or race is equivalent to terrorists based off of something they have no control over. We are people. They are people.

There is no reason for any of this. The problem here is that many Americans don’t even realize when they are being racist. That’s the scary part, that it just happens on impulse, without any thought. It should not be something that just slips out because we shouldn’t be thinking like that at all.

Our country is built on immigrants. Our country is known for its diversity. We are called the melting pot of the world, so why do we treat immigrants like they are less than us when we ourselves are descended from immigrants? Every one of our ancestors came from somewhere. You ended up here somehow, didn’t you?

What our society needs to see is that there is no reason to be fearful of other races. The chances of being killed by a terrorist are one in 3.6 billion. With that low of a risk, there is no reason as to why a Muslim woman should’ve been tackled on stairs in Chicago because she looked suspicious. Why did she look suspicious to these five cops? She wore a hijab. This woman was only “guilty” of wearing a religious garment. There should be no reason that African-American parents have to tell their children how to act in front of police so they don’t look suspicious. Everyone, no matter their race, should feel safe in police presence, not fearful of the ones who are supposed to protect us.

As a country, we need to see that we are still being racist. Don’t try to tell yourself that it is okay now because slavery is illegal. We have to make bigger changes, and we need to make these changes ourselves.

So this is to you, to all those people who fear or think lower of other ethnicities. You need to realize what your country was built on. We need to realize we are all one race: the human race. We need to see that the diversity in this country is beautiful, and there is nothing that a ban can do to stop you from thinking that.