My recognition has increased significantly since I have moved to another country. Living in Vietnam, I am completely surrounded by people from another culture. They may not be black, but they are people who are completely different than me. I hear the conversations in the restaurants and bars of how uncivilized the country we live in is. However, it doesn’t take much effort to stop and look and see why they do things the way they do. It may be different from us, but they had centuries of history and culture behind them that define who they are. Everything they do is the correct thing here. It fits within their framework of reality. Even if we do not understand it. They are a culture in their own right that has a reason for the way they think, act, and live.

It translates the same way to the black community. And often, there aren’t even differences other than the color of their skin. Prejudice is so ingrained, it is difficult to get past it and sometimes even recognize.