Since Trump was elected I have seen a lot of documentaries about racism around the world and one theme that seems most common is people being afraid that in the future their race will not exist anymore and they claim that to be the main reason they fight for whatever cause it may be.
For me it's an extremely hard concept to wrap my head around because I don't see why it makes people so scared thinking that their exact ethnicity may not be the exact same in the future. To me race is something that just isn't that important, I am proud of my heritage and the countries my family are from but I don't hold allegiance to them ahead of people. I see it as people are people, race and heritage doesn't really matter in the bigger picture.
When you talk to people who are racist or even watch documentaries about them they tend to be people from poor backgrounds who had troubled upbringings and they join the racists organizations because it makes them feel strong, wanted and loved, it gives people without a purpose a purpose. I can understand why people join these groups however it doesn't make it easier to accept that people act in these ways. Though there are also people in these movements who are from relatively wealthy backgrounds and they have seemingly nice upbringings from the outside however they still join racist movements and often seem to hold their racists views more strongly which just baffles me even more that people with all the resources to uplift themselves and educate themselves still fall into these groups but I guess it's an easy way out in many ways.
One thing that at first that did surprise me is how the majority of the people in these movements have never even spoken to a person from the group they hate and it seems often times when they do their views are changed and they realise the error of their ways, however some people will never change their minds on these matters for reasons I don't think they would even know themselves. A lack of real thought and blocking out emotions seems to be one of the main factors in peoples hatred. It is almost amazing how interacting with one person with a different perspective can entirely change the way people live and have lived their lives for years.
What is it that makes people fear not having people of their exact heritage on earth in the future? This is a question that I struggle to find and answer too because it is never something that I would ever think about from a fearful perspective. When I sit here thinking about it to an extent I can understand where this thought process could come from but I can't stop myself from just thinking how ignorant it is and that is what baffles me. If someone is living a life of fear and anger due to their ongoing hatred for a race I would assume they would want their children and grandchildren to live a life with less fear and anger and somehow they see the best way of providing that to be riding where they live of all other ethnicity even though they likely live in a place that their ethnicity is the vast majority. If someone lives so strongly by a belief it means they must have to think about a lot and talk about it a lot and after time I don't understand how anyone could come to the conclusion that a particular race is to blame for their suffering.
I don't understand how people can convince themselves that such an obviously flawed idea is true and it is scary because it shows how different some parts of the world can be even in countries that seem to have many similarities on the outside. To me it seems that people actively refuse to let themselves actually think about the ideals they believe in because there are so many occasions where someone is made to really think about their beliefs and they quickly realise the error of their ways, however there are some people that just refuse to be open minded in any way.
I think racism goes to show that people naturally struggle to hate others when they actually allow themselves to listen and it shows that there is hope that in the future things like race won't be an issue and if people actually make efforts to talk just talking can make a huge difference. Personally the main thing I take from seeing racist people is to not live a life of fear and to not let fear rule your mind because when fear does rule peoples minds they won't ever be as happy as they could be if they let go of that fear.