People still see rainbows and judge accordingly.

When I see red it denotes anger, yellow happiness and blue sadness and they are all moods that we learnt as a child. As I have grown I have developed the ability to see past the colours and the associated moods and see them for what they are. It seems that for some the ability to look past what they were taught as child and make their own judgements as an adult has not been possible; this has been shown to me more often than not at the moment with people’s judgements on others in and around certain geographic locations.

In the 21st century as a person of obvious mixed heritage, I grew up with some stereotyping around me, I would not go so far as to say racism, but even if you were to call it that, the race that I was being classed as is not what I am, go figure. Therefore I always brushed it off, I grew up in a multi cultural area and have moved into one that is even more so. Around me at any given time you can see people of many nations with fantastic abilities to speak several languages each, putting my GCSE German to shame and showing a superb tolerance for the many cultures that exist.
To be honest I never think or even notice the specifics about the people around me, I guess I assumed that others were the same; I found it amazing how naive some people who I am around every day can be. I don’t claim to be the most knowledgeable person at all and I am well aware that people are raised differently with differing views on life and people; however, I found it quite interesting that a colleague of mine was trying to describe her Muslim neighbour as one of those men who wear the dresses (when in fact she lives in a predominately mixed race area) and the fact that any black man who has a child and is no longer with the mother must be in a gang of some form.
I may have found it easier to hear these comments had they come from my 80 year old white nan who comes out with the most inappropriate of comments at times, as she knows no better, although she should given that she married a Jamaican. Yet they came from someone who is not a native English person themselves, someone who has decided to leave their birth country to lead a different life here in the United Kingdom. Progression is the key to life in my eyes, whether you choose to live in your same house, on the same road, in the same town all your life or choose to hop around the world exploring all that you come across is for no one to judge. I couldn’t care less if you came out in a polka dot dress with bows in your hair and sparkly tights as long as you are a decent person and have good intentions. That way when I’m talking about you to someone, I can say “my neighbour Fred, came out in the most unusual of outfits this morning, not to my liking but you know what, he made it work...polka dots and all”.

Perhaps it is just me and given that I am around so many different people from all walks of life that I thought prejudice and lack of understanding wasn’t so prevalent in this day, certainly in the cosmopolitan town that I live in anyway. I was grossly incorrect though and it leads me to wonder what sort of life will my child grow up into, 4th generation in a mixed society and yet still people cannot see past their own pre conceived judgements. If in doubt ask, I teach my daughter that if there is something that she doesn’t understand she must ask, you can never learn too much and there will always be something to learn.