A life that belongs to everyone

I place in front of me a blank piece of paper. It reminds me of me. But, it´s so white on its own. I grab a black sharpie, and I draw. I like my drawing. A black and white canvas. But once again, I feel like something´s missing. I grab some colours, and I paint. I add yellow, red, pink. I create a colourful landscape. It´s so beautiful, so peaceful. It reminds me of something. It´s not me this time. It reminds me of something bigger, of the whole world. A colourful canvas. I know that I can find myself somewhere inside there. I have contributed to this beautiful whole. Well, not just me. There are other colours, other people. They are not like me. Actually, they might be very different. Even then, this ensemble wouldn’t be the same without them. It would be pale, faded, dull. But now, it´s full of life. I notice so many colours in my canvas, so many designs, so many different details that make it astonishing.
 
However, I wonder from where the hesitation of people derives, while in front of a “colourful canvas”. It’s like we have forgotten about palettes. We only know one colour, ours. We only know our own life, our own point of view, our own culture, our own norms. Anything else seems alien, painful, harmful, different. We simply cannot accept it. We think that the world would be better if we all shared the same skin colour, the same religion, the same personality, the same beliefs. 
 
I don´t know if globalization grows along with xenophobia. Daily, we come across different countries, different people, different foods, languages, cultures. And while this daily abrasion should bring on the corresponding habituation towards the foreign, a spirit of total racism and individualism reigns instead. The causes of this phenomenon can be looked for mainly in the atmosphere of fear and competition that rules in modern societies. “I fear that the ‘other’ will take over my country, my job, my house, that I will “catch” something contagious from them, that I will “catch” autism, that I will become a person of colour if I speak to them, that I will be considered as weak and soft if I help the people that are sick, foreign, the refugees”. I don´t understand how people believe all of this to be true. They are nothing but constant eternal prejudices that are perpetuated over and over for as long civilization and technology moves on. It´s like a test where we have to throw our bullet somewhere. Someone needs to be disqualified, to die, to be marginalized, to leave. Acceptance is difficult, and racism is omnipresent in all aspects of human existence. 
 
We place pompous labels on people, we rapidly comment on something without knowing the whole truth. We form a rushed opinion based only on what we see and on our personal convenience, and that´s how we view everyone. We view them as strangers, heathens, disabled, fascists, refugees, criminals. We shut our eyes, and we refuse to see the truth, to hear their own version, to comprehend that these labels are burdensome, wrong and that they trap others in our own stereotypical reality. This is racism. So, maybe acceptance is hard in this new reality, and so is factual help, which is understood. How can you help someone if you haven´t solved your own vital problems, and even more when you witness every government and everyone in charge being indifferent about reassuring equality? Racism, though, is a personal matter. Even if you can´t improve someone´s life, that´s okay. It´s enough as long as you don´t make it worse.  As long as you stop perpetuating all these stereotypical labels and you want to meet the real truth, the one that rules internationally. The one where you´re not alone, just a small version, a pebble inside a vast mosaic. 
 
Away from the benefit of others, from the media´s misinformation, from the eternal stereotypes that perpetuate fear, selfishness and suspicion, I wonder: is man able to hate on others, to victimize, to reject, perhaps by nature? I don´t think so. Just like an innocent child before its thoughts are guided by its parents’ standards, if people open their eyes, if they look behind the insanity of our times, then they can really love again, they can reconsider their choices, they can learn the truth, they can accept anything different. That´s also the objective, to redevelop our thoughts in a way that includes the “other”, to train our mind so that we can see beyond our “ego” and learn how to function in a group of people, equal yet distinct at the same time.  
 
On March 21, we celebrate the international day against racism. A day that reminds us that equality isn´t self-evident, but it demands our attention so that we open our eyes and look at others as they really are: as unique as we are. It´s time, then, to point out this uniqueness even more and to alleviate all the aspects of our selfishness and of our fear against the foreign which impede us from reaching the actual acceptance of others. Then, let´s hold onto everything that unites us and let´s understand that for a perfect canvas, for an ideal life, all we have to do is fill our palette with colours and draw a life that belongs to everyone.
 

Review: Niki Saridaki

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