me.

At a young age I acquired great knowledge about life, the good and the bad. I was taught to treat all people with respect regardless of race, sex, religion and cultural background. Along with that lesson came the harsh reality that there are people in the world who discriminate against certain groups of people.

My family members have all played a big part in my constantly expanding awareness of humanity. Many stories from my mother's generation have been passed on to my generation and for some unknown reason I was always interested.

A story that will always stand out in my mind is about my Uncle Mike. My mother constantly tells me how he got caught up in a lot of civil rights movements while he was abroad in school. She tells me that he was in newspapers, he was making speeches, and he was leading protests on a regular basis.

It got so bad that my grandmother, Mommy Weeks, had to take him out of school for a while because she was scared he would get in a lot of trouble. When I think about that story it makes me proud, but the most impressive part of the story is the fact that my uncle sacrificed his education for something he believed in (he eventually went back to college and he recently graduated).

I've been given tons and tons of advice and I've heard millions of stories, but I learn best when I see my relatives leading by example. My mother is by no means a hypocrite, she practices every word she preaches and that means a lot to me. She knows that life is unfair and that people are unfair, but she lives the life that she knows God wants each and everyone of us to live.

Another big part of my upbringing was the music that I heard when I was growing up. I never heard any violent songs, full of cursing and disrespect.

My mother and her brothers and sisters never listened to that. Instead I was exposed to a lot of conscious reggae, mostly Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. That music was more than just entertainment, it was full of knowledge for anyone that was, and is, willing to listen and learn.

The messages from that music influenced my outlook on life as far as oppression, equal rights and most importantly love. Love, as it is said in the Bible as well as in conscious reggae, is a universal appeal. The Bible says to love your neighbour... well in return your neighbour should show you that same love.

I sympathise with those who know no better and hate people based on race and culture instead of personality and character. God says to love your enemy and to teach those who are blind to the truth. Eventhough I often get infuriated with racists and I say I hate them, it's really out of anger and sometimes, admittedly, ignorance.

If I really treated them with the same hatred that they portray I would become part of the problem. Actually, when I think of those that are living in hatred and sin, I pray that God would bless them and that they would open their eyes to reality.

By Ronald Smith No caption