Sunday, May 8, 2011

Charum Zob

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)


A fair point brought up by Missy Juliet.  Every time a noun is spoken, we automatically put our brains into cruise and we come up with all sorts of assumptions about that thing or person.  For example, you say "Nancy" and I think some middle-aged, middle to upper class, working American woman with 2 kids.  You say "diamond" and I think "rich guy."  I think the bigger problem here is that we make assumptions so quickly.  I feel like this is a shortcoming of mine and a shortcoming that I find around the world.  Making assumptions leads to prejudices and even more particularly to racial bias. 
Today as I was waiting for cash to pay for tickets to an event, I watched as one lady charged 12 bucks per person for one family and 11 bucks per person for the next family (two families of different ethnicity  I leave it up to you to decide what they were).  Excuse me?  After inquiring, apparently it was just a mistake.  I don't know if I buy that.  
Leave the story aside, I felt saddened that such racial bias still exist today.  Hello???  The Civil War ended in 1865!  Not yesterday!  Do me a favor and please accept everyone for who they are and not by their name or any other characteristic.  Actually, I take that back, do it for yourself.  I honestly believe that tolerance can be a person's single most endearing personality trait.  
And so today, I leave you with a question: What do you think when I say Charum Zob?

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