thoughts

ever since moving to chicago in april, i find myself constantly confronted with racism. my friends and people around me constantly make judgments, jokes and comments based on other peoples' races and frequently consciously label themselves as different/the object of discrimination if their skin happens to be a colour other than white.

keep reading...

having grown up in downtown toronto, attending public schools in the most multicultural city in the world, encountering this type of behaviour is not only shocking to me but upsetting. how can such a diverse country with such a rich history and inspiring a president be so incredibly behind canada in this regards?

despite the fact that my worries may "stress me out" from time to time and make me live my life with more difficulty than some of my more complacent friends, i believe objecting to and speaking out against these things is fundamental to my humanity and to being the type of person i wish to be.

as i sit here at the chicago college of performing arts at roosevelt university, a university founded by eleanor roosevelt based on the principles of social justice, i am reminded of my role as an artist in society. art has the power to affect change and bridge a gap between political and everyday rhetoric in a way that is memorable and beautiful. martin luther king jr.'s speech is memorable because of the beauty of its imagery, which frames the ideals expressed in a way that surpasses the limits of everyday speech.

i am not a religious person, although i come from a jewish background. when i listen to the religious music of mozart, haydn, beethoven, poulenc, mendelssohn, bach and handel, i imagine my own heaven - a place without racism, weapons, and that values acceptance and love for fellow people above all else.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." - martin luther king jr.

"It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again." - anne frank, age 13