I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. So many events I witnessed lately have stirred up my thinking to a different level. Hmmm....I've really come to learn a lot about what it means to be tolerant.
Watz tolerance all about? Is it about accepting things that you feel comfortable with, or things that you do not feel comfortable with? Now, let's first see what the dictionary has to say about this.
TOLERANCE - a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry.
I'll love to get more practical about this. How about walking into a public store, looking out to get a drink, you get a stare from everyone in there, because of the color of your skin, you're black, they are all white, brown skinned, or even red skinned. Then, one of them walks up to you, and spits a word to your face "Hey Negro, what the fuck d'u think u are doing here? U shouldn't be in here...or can't u see?" Then, the first impression you get is this: "Oh My God! Here comes a racist...." U feel like you should just thrust out ur right hand and plunge your fist into his face... :) :D, but all u do is stare right into his face and say "I'm sorry man, I never really thought that I shouldn't be in here....All I came here for is a can of Coke. Then he gives you a disgusting look and strolls straight away.
Does that sound bad enough? No, I don't think it does....Then here comes another.....U get to the bus stop, waiting to get a cab. U feel so tired, after a long day. There's a queue, then u stand right in the queue. The cabs come in their numbers, in a queue too, U wait until it gets to ur turn to get into one of the cabs. Here comes the cab you are to get into, u walk right to him, but before you even think of opening the door, he puts up his right hand in a gesture "NO!", then he picks up the next person on the queue(behind you) and drives on,leaving u speechless.... Luckily, u get a chance to get away with the next cab on the queue, and the thought of what happened never gets out of your mind.
Now does this sound bad enough? Hmmmmm.....U wake up on a very beautiful Sunday morning, get dressed to go to Church. As u are about to walk into the Church auditorium, a car speeds past u, and a man who seems to be as old as ur own grandfather sticks his head full of gray hairs out of the window and screams out his lungs "Fuck u Nigger!!!". Now u feel like u've had enough of it...U feel depressed even during Church service. Nothing really seems to matter anymore, except that u feel so much hate for the people around u who obviously have a different skin color from yours.
Now this is where tolerance comes in. These people have just acted in a very unfair manner to you. U feel like your world hates u because of the color of your skin, u feel they really do not know what u are worth....u wonder why u have to bear the shame and humiliation that resulted from the world wars and slavery that existed decades upon decades before u were even born....Hmmmm, U just feel like u should never really have anything to do with the likes of them. Here's where tolerance is needed most.
When U've been hurt because of other people's beliefs, religion, reaction to u e.t.c, u need tolerance to pull through. Without tolerance, it becomes so..so easy to hate a person...or even a group of people. You could just black-list them as a group u never want to associate with. It takes tolerance to look beyond a person's weakness, judgemental attitude or even humiliation u get from the person. Tolerance opens the way for love and friendliness. It even causes the one who has hurt you to begin to realize his/her faults. For those who are Christians, i guess the bible verse that says "Hatred stirs up strifes, but love covers a multitude of sins (Prov 10:12)" might ring a bell. If you show the person that no matter how they view you, u can still love them, then they'll see their wrongs, and begin to love you in return.
So, the next time you find yourself being humiliated because of the color of your skin, or because of who u are, or the social class you belong to, be still, don't get furious, don't react, just be still and love them in return. Show them that there's a lot to be done in the world than just being a racist or full of hate for a person.
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