No One Is Born a Racist or Bigot

In the past couple of months, I've witnessed various examples of the consequences of being unexposed to certain lifestyles, whether it be the LGBT community or any type of minority race. What I noticed first is the fear. I'll explain each one shortly. The fear is always about the "unknown" and after that, the fear develops into either a "dislike" to even "hatred" if it's a deep-seated issue brewing. Some people have encountered negative experiences with either gays, lesbians, hispanic and black people. But what they're doing is blaming an entire race or lifestyle on say their one experience with just one PERSON. There are some people who were brought into believing that anyone different from their race or lifestyle is to be seen as either "dangerous" or to be avoided altogether.

I grew up in an old fashioned Italian/Catholic household. My parents were born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. My father was like Archie Bunker's twin brother. We all grew up knowing how racist he was. Now -- I loved my dad, but he grew up in an environment that taught him that it was ok to fear hate anyone who was black or hispanic. Even as a child, it never affected me. When I was caught hanging out with anyone who was black or hispanic, I would get in trouble, as though I did something terribly wrong. But I didn't understand why. Why were these nice kids so "bad"? Why did my parents say it was bad to hang out with them? What did they know that I didn't know? They would eventually find out that I was a lesbian who would one day marry a Puerto Rican woman. Now that's mixing it up fer' ya.


I truly believe that I was the one to open their eyes. I exposed the both of my parents to the unveiling of gender, sexual orientation and race. If it weren't for my death wish bravery of coming out as a homosexual, I wonder if their views would've still remained the same. For instance, it took a long time for my mother to accept me dating women. "Don't tell ya' father," was always muttered out. But when I did tell my dad, he saw "me" -- his white daughter dating a hispanic woman. And because he got to know my girlfriend, he began to love her like his own daughter. His views on race changed a great deal. But he was really never against gays and lesbians -- he would just use the most Archie Bunker-like terms, like "fairy" or even the other "f" word, but in jest. Eh, who am I kidding, nothing's really in jest using these terms, but it is what it is. He was an old school Italian. And it wasn't even about his religion -- he was just brought up believing that Italians should be with Italians of different genders. And that was that. As times changed, so did their views. They saw the world with different eyes and their hearts became receptive to accepting the people they had once feared.

There was nothing to fear at all.


And here we are in 2016 still having our hearts crushed by the amount of racism and bigotry that's being projected with this upcoming election. See, I don't think Trump is the racist so much -- it's many of his followers justifying their own closeted racism. (Many -- not all!) Trump is just the vehicle used in order to ensure that their racism is "OK". I'm talking about your average redneck type of folk who base their knowledge of politics just by watching FOX News. Ask one of them why they think Trump is good for our country and you'll get, "We gotta make 'Murica great again!" I have never seen so much fear and hatred towards foreigners so much as I have today -- today!!! Today in 2016! Has it been hidden this whole time?

It sure has.

And what better person to dredge that fear up again than Trump.

OK I'm done with Trump for now.

Let me ask you God-fearing religious folk something important: Do you think God is that shallow and ignorant enough to think that our souls are determined by our sexual orientation, by our sexual identity or even by our own race? When God lifts us up (or some of us up), he is going to unveil our SOULS. Our souls don't have a gender, it doesn't have a sexual orientation and it certainly doesn't have a race. To me, God is a much deeper entity than what religious people make Him out to be. God is all loving. He is the alpha and the omega. He made us. He created us in His own image. The 3rd dimensional state of our physical being separates us by class, race, gender and orientation. It separates us through different religions as well. We are divided when we are all made from the same cloth. And it's sad, because when we do perish -- we'll realize how foolish all this "fear" is. Look at all of this bigotry and hatred towards one another just because of skin color, creed or sexual orientation.

Racism is taught. 
What sickens me is this: privileged white people who have never given anyone of another race a chance to be in their world, or even better yet -- to actually step inside their world. The people who are unexposed to any race other than their own are usually the ones who are quick to clench their purses tighter while in an elevator with a black man. They'll try to avoid any interaction with anyone who seems to be of another color. They think all Muslims are from ISIS. They'll rattle off tidbits about Islam and how evil their religion is based upon their mainstream media views on terrorism. The level of ignorance our society is facing is just astounding. And most of all, I'm noticing a lot of friends being de-friended (in real life and on Facebook) because of their ignorance on many political matters. I'll let you figure out which ones I think are ignorant.

Ok, maybe I'm not done with Trump just yet.

For all my Trump supporters.: please think about the type of person Donald Trump is. Does it feel warm and fuzzy to think about him as our president? See, he's provoking not only racism (in a subliminal type of way) -- but he's provoking violence both with our neighboring countries as well as at his own rallies. The violence trickles over into our own world -- creating separation and division. Seriously look inside your heart and tell me if you think Trump feels "GOOD" to you. Can you admit openly and publicly that you're voting for Trump? Even if he's a "good president" -- look at how our country divided up. Look at how many racists rose up to the surface. It doesn't feel good to me. It's bringing up a lot of fear and hatred. Haven't we progressed as a society? Maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part. But I know one thing for sure: no one was born a racist. Racism and bigotry is taught.

For more of Deb's articles, please visit: www.debrapasquella.com or join her on Facebook and Twitter. Check out her cooking blog for some of her famous recipes!