Interesting…..

I saw this over at Tracy’s blog, and I just had to re-share it. I agree with her, though, in that this doesn’t necessarily make the world “mad,” but it does put a whole new perspective on some things. And if anyone knows the origin of this quote, Tracy and I both need to know. 🙂
/*Edit*/ Once in a while I will actually read other people’s comments on their site when they have asked a question, as it has probably been answered. There were many speculations in Tracy’s comment box, one being that Charles Barkeley uttered the following quote, but the general consensus seems to be that it was originally coined by Chris Rock, with an additional part of the quote saying “and the three most powerful men in America are named Bush, Dick, and Colon.” /*End Edit*/
“You know the world’s gone mad when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America’s Cup, France is accusing the USA of arrogance and the Germans don’t want to go to war.”

Talk about the destruction of stereotypes, huh? The only thing that I would wish would be that someone would read that paragraph and NOT find anything strange or different about it. Or read any other paragraph about any other person’s or nation’s behaviors or attitudes…and not think anything was weird about it at all.
I know that every single person on this planet has some type or preconceived notion about someone or something else. It’s a part of being human, I suppose. I am sure I have many of them myself, obviously for the most part ones that I am not fully aware of unless they happen to hit me. But I feel like every day I make some kind of conscious effort to move beyond stereotypes, to relish the inside instead of glossing over the outside.
Does anyone else think that many people KNOW they have prejudices, but just don’t care? That they like being that way, and wouldn’t even bother trying to change it if they had the chance? It boggles my mind sometimes trying to figure out WHY someone would genuinely be happy living with themselves that way. How could you live inside your own skin if every time you saw a black man you crossed the street of clutched your purse, or every time you saw or read about a homosexual, you made some snide comment about pedophilia. Or any number of other daily offenses people so blithely commit against people of different races, religions, sexual preferences, country of origin, color of skin.
Get a grip people! There is a REASON we are ALL here on this same planet. TOGETHER. If I only had ONE wish that could be granted, I would wish that everyone could just appreciate one another for WHO THEY ARE, and not worry about the rest. Yeah, I know “Can’t we all just get along?” and pray for world peace and all those tired cliches…but those cliches would never even exist if there wasn’t a genuine issue involved.
If everyone could just be brave enough to look within themselves, at their own prejudices, and try to change just ONE of them….what a difference that could make….