Introduction

Race is one of the primary factors that causes division in any community. It is very sad though that we are in 2020 and we are still have not bridge the racial divide. However, I do believe that there has been an improvement in bridging the racial divide but a lot more has to be done. All of us need to come to a point of realization that we are from one race which is the Human Race and because we are one from race, we are technically one despite the differences in the shades of our colour.

It is very unfortunate the stigma that is associated with people of different backgrounds and colour. While we may not be able to completely eradicate the racial divide, I do believe that we can significantly bridge the racial divide.

Get to know people

One way to bridge the racial divide is to get to know people of different backgrounds. If you truly want to see a change in the way we live, develop friendship and relationship with others. You can do this on the job, church and even in your community groups. I encourage people to join groups and churches to get to know the people in the community in which they live. After you have become friends with people of different background, you will discover that you have so much in common.

In college, I became friends with so many people of different nationalities and it reached a point where I only saw them as my friends and not nationalities. We had so much in common and thirty five years later, we remain friends and because of my friendship, I have appreciation for people of all nationalities.

Treat people the same

We must learn to treat people the same no matter who they are. Sometimes we tend to treat people differently based on their status. For example, in the Turks and Caicos Islands, Delano Williams, our first athlete to compete in the Olympics game is mixed. His father is from the Turks and Caicos but his mother is from Haiti. We recognized Delano as a Turks and Caicos Islander and we honour him because he is a great athlete If Delano was not an athlete, how would we treat him? Would we still refer to him as a Turks and Caicos Islander or would we refer to him as a Haitian?

Continuous dialogues

I think we need to bring people together of different groups and have continuous conversations about race and how we can bridge the racial divide. During these conversations I am quite sure we will discover some of the very words we use create racial divide. Therefore we have to be conscious of what we say to and about others.

In addition to having conversations about race, we need to come together to discuss other national issues rather than us vs them or them vs us.

Conclusion

Being divided over race is so ignorant. I recalled reading a story of an Indian man who hired a hitman to kill daughter in law because she was black. That was so cruel. In fact the murder of anyone is cruel. I cannot comprehend racism and we must make efforts to bridge the racial divide.