" Were I the Moor…." OTHELLO

“WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, New Jersey - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. officials are reviewing security tapes to try to determine who used a southern New Jersey store's public-address system to tell "all black people" to leave.”

[click on post title to read the initial article]

I just happened to come across this on MSN.com today. I was appalled. It is so sad that there are still people in this world who dislike someone solely on the basis of their skin color—or sexual orientation for that matter. That bigotry continues to exist a decade into the 21st century. This still surprises me—although it probably shouldn’t.

[the lyrics to a song from South Pacific popped into my head, as they have on other occasions:
You have to be taught before it’s too late,

before you are six or seven or eight,

to hate all the people you’re relatives hate.

You’ve got to be carefully taught]

I thought we’d have evolved enough to be beyond all of that. The essence of who we are comes from within, from our “soul,” for lack of a better word. I’ve gained a boatload of weight over the past few years, but what makes me “me” is still the same. I can’t get around as agilely as I used to, but I’m still the same person. I look in the mirror and wonder what the hell happened, but I know the smart, funny, creative individual is still there….. Your body—and its inherent skin color, eye color, etc.—is just “window dressing” or “packaging,” if you will. And we all come in an infinite variety of packages—that’s what makes us interesting. But it shouldn’t define how we are treated in this world.

Disliking someone for their skin color or the like is akin to disliking them for being left-handed or blue-eyed. Get over it people—no one group is any better than any other group.