Seeing the world divided in groups, serves less to the universe, our children and ourselves. We use the term “racism” to identify those who group themselves by skin color or religion. However, the word “racism” defines a group of people sharing the same beliefs to be superior to others, which result in the creation of a belief system to reject dissimilarities. It is now common to live in a community divided in groups, and each group urges to keep the “tribe” together by, rejecting, criticizing, judging and fighting others who do not share the same beliefs.

Insecurity in individuals is growing from the fear of rejection, such rejection stops them from moving in their desired paths, and therefore they are getting to be inferior and a loss of uniqueness in each person’s identity is increasing.

Disappointingly, children are picking up such behavior from their parents and the community. It could be because their parents teach them to cast-off people with unalike opinions. We can see how children are creating groups with their own rules, such as who is worthy and welcomed in the group and who is not, where the group does not have a base of love, friendship and acceptance of each child’s uniqueness and desire. Such racism behavior cuts down individual creativity and passion of giving to life. Your life is a matter of choices you make, for that reason look for the uniqueness in you and detach yourself from the thoughts of being a racism and from the groups of racists.

You see, accepting differences and setting free from a group of racists benefits you. First, you get to learn from others, which adds knowledge to your own self-awareness, and excitement in your life to explore the world. Second, understanding and accepting people gives you the ability to seek new solutions for solving problems, this is because your brain will be trained to look at things from a different point of view. Third, you get to love yourself more and have the confidence for opening your heart to explore your true self and pay attention to your uniqueness. Fourth, you find yourself more optimistic than before to do what you desire to achieve since you stop caring about criticism and judgments of others.

The point is how to move from racism and racists to accepting others and showing your uniqueness to those around you. Practice “learning from listening” to understand the differences in others, this helps you to acquiescent with different points of view and gives you the courage to clarify your point of view without heading to a win-lose situation. Get in contact with different people as much as possible to explore new attitudes, just experiencing new thoughts and behavior makes you move from being bias to being open-minded. If you have children, teach them to accept themselves as they are, and never wait for acceptance from others, neither to change themselves to gain the needed security of belonging to a group. Because here, children are always seeking ways to give and receive love from those around them, this is why they will be willing to attach to any group for sharing and feeling love. For that reason, it is very important to have a real conversation with your children that they are always loved and accepted for their uniqueness, differences and their own points of view. The more you talk with your children about that, the more your children will understand and believe in it. Of course, this type of conversation will never succeed if you do not accept your child as he or she is, love your children as they are, accept the differences in each of them and understand their desire for living. Telling your children you love them for being themselves serves them much more than criticizing them, any word you tell them as a parent is always the truth for them, so be careful while choosing your words when you are talking with them . Just learn to give them their space to invent, create and have the courage to stand up for themselves to invest in this world; they can never invest in themselves only if they believe in their uniqueness. As a parent, you are the only source of security that your children know, they believe if they do not have you then they will be lost. This is actually true because children are at the stage of learning and receiving information, love, affection and everything else since they still do not have the “know-how” of living life. Finally believe in yourself and your uniqueness, never copy others or be bias to a group just to gain the credit for acceptance and belonging. Invest in this world, because God created you for a reason, by listening to your heart you will know why you exist. Only then, you will get the courage to stand up and walk in your own shoes.

By: Shereen Magdi