This is a really important and yet a really sad reality. I think that we all come into the world with very little awareness that there is any difference between each of us (except those qualities that make us unique) that in any way will affect how we are treated by others.

It is not until we (and I here I mean members of any minority, not just based on skin colour) experience prejudice that we become aware that the differences that are supposed to make us unique are actually used against us by society, and especially the institutions that are supposed to serve us. It is then that our diversity becomes an instrument of hate and oppression.

So if you think - especially if you are part of a minority - that what Mr. Poitier has said is from a time come and gone, you are mistaken. In order to truly be equal citizens under the societies we live in, we much challenge and reform the institutions that continue to perpetuate the oppression that was so blatant in Mr. Poitier’s heyday.

/seriousthoughts

(via disco-and-zeppelin)