Happiness is relative to how you compare yourself with people around you.
Racism feeds off of this by portraying biases for people who are not mindful about their sources of information. Growing up in a primarily black neighborhood exposed me to the idea of white people being on a pedestal and the ones to impress in order to become seen as important in the world.
As an adult who is more traveled, my perspective has evolved. I think it’s solely because my environment changed. Relationships I’ve developed with white and black people started to be more geared towards shared values and interests; less on if we can relate based on our family’s history.
Looking at the demographics of the recent protests it feels like the world has evolved with me. We are all fighting against determining the value of a person based on their skin color or family history. Now – demands all over the world are forcing personal values and ethics to take a higher priority.
We all have a lot of work to do in order to support this movement. Our first step should be to question what’s the difference between what we think should be happening and what actually is reality for people of color in any situation encountered in society. Then, work to close that gap to increase happiness in our world for everyone.