How shall we?

"Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, None but ourselves can free our minds" - Bob Marley

I occasionally ponder upon this simple, yet extremely powerful phrase. We all want to be open minded, free spirited, and embracive to everything which presents its place in our lives. Yet, ever so often when opportunity presents its chance, we decidedly focus on aspects of a situation which reinforce our already standing beliefs of that particular person or object. How then, can we ever learn the truth? How are we to break free of these mistaken and untrue stereotypes that we so easily grasp, yet outrightly fail to let go?

I recently had the opportunity to express my knowledge and opinions of certain plaguing stereotypes which are ever so present here in the U.S. Having been born and raised Trinidad and Tobago (multicultural, and multiracial islands located in the Caribbean), my knowledge about diversity throughout the world is reinforced. I know that race doesn't characterize who you are, what country you are from, or what religion you hold. It was of my belief that when I came to the U.S, it would be easy to state that I am from Trinidad and Tobago, without the objections, or confusion of the people here. I was wrong. It is now continuously my burden to explain to most people here in the U.S, that I am not of eastern origin, and that I was never born or raised in an eastern country such as India, Singapore, Thailand, or the Middle East. These are some of the countries which people here in the U.S place me into. I was never looking for a placement, nor was I of the belief that each country should consist of one single race of people. Afterall, history reveals that our ancestors all migrated from somewhere. It just so happened that after the British had concluded their bout of importation of slaves to the island of Trinidad, they decided to offer wages to people in India, if they agreed to work on the sugar cane plantations in Trinidad. Soon thereafter, wages were also being offered to people in other countries. Eventually Trinidad became rich in the diversity of East Indian, Chinese, African, Caucasian, and Spanish race and culture.

Why then, must I have to explain these in depth details to U.S born and raised citizens, in order to prove that I do indeed belong to Trinidad and Tobago? Shouldn't we all already instinctively know that race doesn't belong to one set country? And that people of East Indian racial heritage can be born and raised on other landmasses, besides that of India? OR people of Chinese racial heritage can be a proud member and citizen of England, Jamaica, or Trinidad? And what about religion? Does race determine our stance in that domain?

I do believe that the U.S media has contributed a lot to the mistaken concepts which many Americans hold about racial diversity in other countries. But I also think that as members of this world, we are entitled to look beyond our barriers, STRIVING to find contradictions to whatever is presented to us. Wouldn't the world be more unified and refined if only we sought to perform these simple investigations?

Let's all seek to find out the TRUTH..........