I think the first time that I got the thought of discrimination was when I was in junior high school. One day, on a history class, our teacher talked about the 911 in America, and at that time, I wasn’t quite sure about what was happening in this incident. The only thing I knew was that some terrifying Muslims attacked Americans on purpose. And after a little period of time, I saw the news about some wars striking in the Mid-Eastern Asia, and this time the Muslim also got involved with them.
Suddenly, a strange feeling occurred to me, deep in my heart; a kind of fear and dislike poured out of my mind, and from then on, I started to have a bias against Muslims. Every time when I saw Muslim I connected them with troublemakers naturally. I thought that they were just a group of violent people who disregarded laws and always dealt with problems in a fierce and horrible way. So, when I heard or saw something about Muslims, I tried to get them far away from my sight. And if someone asked for my comments about Muslims, it always ended up scolding. At that period of time, I didn’t know why I started to discriminate against these people, maybe it resulted from my misunderstanding and fear.
One day, after a history and geography class, my thoughts changed. I heard about their history and culture, and I suddenly felt that they were not that bad. Instead, I found their culture interesting. Also, I learned about their geographical position, and the teacher taught us that this is the main reason why there had long been lots of wars striking there. After those classes, I started to understand more about Muslims, and my dislike for them decreased gradually. I thought about my thoughts for a long time, and I finally realized that the reason why I didn’t like them was because I don’t understand them, and this misunderstanding turned into dislike because of fear.
Now, I understand them more; I no longer have discrimination against them. I feel very happy about that. This made me learn that we shouldn’t judge others before we fully understand them. I hope that in the future, I can keep this lesson in mind, and that the discrimination in the world can decrease step by step making the world a better place!
