Combating Hate

Fact: Hate will never go away.

Fact: Hate is found in every corner of the world, in every home.

Question: Is enough being done to combat the hate in any society? If hate will never go away, should we even try?

There is a never-ending amount of forms of hate in this world, and never-ending examples of each. In 2019, a 16-year-old member of a high school cross country team in Ohio, Noor Abukaram, was disqualified at a district cross-country meet simply for wearing a hijab. Even more recently was the Black Lives Matter movement, its highest point in 2020 after George Floyd was unreasonably murdered by the police. Even MORE recently was the mass shooting in Texas where 19 children and two adults were murdered. These events seem unreal, for how can anyone do such a thing in reality?

To prevent events as horrific as these, we must do more to block paths that allow this hate to occur. For example, we need to become stricter with gun regulations. We should also learn to be more accepting of other people as a whole. Differences are what make a person, so we must learn to love and respect people for their differences. This is only the beginning, and the majority of hate isn't found in these newspaper events, but every day at home, at school, or at work. Bullying, arguing, and even hateful thoughts that aren't said aloud are all forms of hate. I believe the greatest form of correction for this hate is proper education from the beginning of life. People cannot be born with an innate hatred for a specific people group, which is why cutting off the environment that supports hate will greatly reduce personal bias that leads to it.

In conclusion, there's not enough being done to combat hate in this world. Weapons need to be regulated, and people need to change their mindsets. We will never reach a perfect world, however, it doesn't mean we shouldn't try to improve it. Perfection was never the goal. The goal is safety and improvement, for if we stop trying to combat hate, it will only consume us.

Interested in more? Sally Kohn gave an excellent TED Talk on "What we can do about the culture of hate."

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