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The Racist That Cried Equality Imagine for a moment that you are in a museum, browsing through the many paintings and sculptures. As you continue to step into another section of the museum, something catches your eye. Upon a wall, right in the center of the room, hangs a painting that appears to be more unique than others. While all of the other paintings present themselves with an art style almost identical to each other, this painting bestows upon you a uniqueness that is rare within the others.
The colors are bright and happy; splashed amongst the page with such grace and elegance that would entrance anyone who saw it. The children ran across the field tossing freebies, playing with their pets, and enjoying the company of each other. The adults chatted amongst themselves; laughing and joking around as they shared humorous stories of their past experiences as growing children. The sky is clear and the sun is shinning bright. The setting is calm and relaxing, making you feel at piece as you relish in the warm comfort that the painting exerts on you. You begin to wonder, just what could have possibly been the spark that ignited such a wave of inspiration and pure beauty? What emotions could the artist have been experiencing during the creation of such a master piece? The answer: hatred, discrimination, and racism. Much like the painting, the LGBTQ community is widely portrayed as a peaceful community that seeks only equality, acceptance, and peace. But behind every picture is a story. Within this peaceful community lies a connection that still links the much peaceful LGBTQ community with it's darker counterpart of society; also referred to as racism. Nelson Moses Lassiter , a victim of such discrimination, shared his two separate experience with The Huffington Post. He explains in his first experience of a racist encounter when he was attempting to ask out a guy at a bar. After requesting to go out to drink again sometime, the man replied to Lassiter stating that he was "sweet" but he does not "date black guys". In another account, Lassiter was speaking with a friend of his when he mentioned that he was dating a white man. This caused his friend to reply "Why are you dating white people? You know that they don’t like us." After explaining to his friend the significance of his relationship with this whit man, his friend inquired “What? You think you’re too good for your own race?” Lassiter then slowly begins to come to terms with the fact that not even the community that is supposed to support equality and peace is also disturbed with racism. In order to gain true equality, it is important for people of the LGBTQ community to understand that we are all equal. Our equality does not depend on our race, gender, class, or sexual orientation. We are all humans at the end of each day, and every human being has and deserves their own equal rights. If the LGBTQ community wants to be treated as equals, they have to learn to first treat others as equals as well. That is the only path to true equality amongst all. |