I finally finished a book

Not as in I've never done that in my life...but as in I haven't been able to finish a book for the last like, 6 months. Partially because I've been so busy, but also because I go through phases - I'll spend a couple months reading everything I can get my hands on and writing lists of books I want to read, but then I'll get so overwhelmed by everything that I want to read that I just stop reading. Make sense? Anyway, with the hope that school doesn't get in the way, I think I'm on one of those "I want to read everything I can get my hands on" phases right now. I'm supposed to go out to Sky High tonight, but between not feeling that great and knowing I have to get up early tomorrow...curling up with a good book is starting to sound more and more appealing.

The book I just finished was actually for class - Clotelle by William Wells Brown. It's a narrative of the struggles of a slave family and their separation and growth and struggles from the early 1800s until the onset of the Civil War. It includes families, friends, history, separation, reunions, love, hate, desire to change...pretty much any major topic of writing is included in this novel. I read it in two days. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Slavery and racism and discrimination and prejudice has always been something I've been interested in, as far as a historical context goes. It blows my mind that people are capable of those sort of actions and beliefs. It's something I never get tired of reading about or learning about, people that stand up against racists and fight for the equality of humans regardless of their skin color or external appearance...those people are heroes to me. I could write on and on about my opinions on this matter for ages.

We've been talking about matters along the lines of this in 3 out of my 5 classes.  Slavery and the history of Africans in US History, stereotyping and judging in Spanish, and discrimination and racism in Social Psychology of Sport. And it's made me realize how adamant I am to raise my children (when I have them) to not judge a person based on their external appearances, or better yet, not to judge at all. I know I can't protect them forever from people's opinions on different races or on people with disabilities, but I can teach them to see all people as the same and beautiful in their own right, and hope that they hold-fast to that ideal and resist the peer pressure to change.  I want them to not expect that they should have to differentiate their friends based on what color their skin is or what they look like. I don't want them to realize that skin colors are different, because they shouldn't have to be; whether someone's skin is black or white or tan or purple or green, they are still a human and that's the way everyone should be treated. As human.