Religion

Religion is "a system of beliefs in a god or gods that has its own ceremonies and traditions" (Macmillan Dictionary). These beliefs are usually accompanied by symbols, traditions and sacred stories that explain the universe, the origin of life and similar occurrences that are hard to understand. They tend to derive morality, ethics, religious laws and lifestyle from basic ideas about human nature and cosmos. (Wikipedia)

Religion plays a different role in people's lives. It is one's personal decision how important role it plays as well as which religion it is. A lot of people believe that living by the religious laws, like for example, going to church every Sunday, makes you a true Christian and a better person. I on the other hand believe that what makes you a good person are your deed, not believing in a Christian God or Allah or any other head god.

We often forget that it does not matter what religion we choose as our own, what matters is that no matter in what we choose to believe, we believe in something that gives our life a sense and helps our overcome rough times.

It Is Well Known that Race Affects our Identity...

Race is a classification system used to categorize humans into large groups based on physical appearance, ethnicity and geographic ancestry. It is know that it affects our identity but how big part in becoming who we are does race actually play?

To begin with, as sociological factor it may in part reflect subjective attributions, self-identities and social construction. Furthermore it is often used to achieve social categorizations. Throughout history Caucasians have been the leading race. This sense of superiority has caused racism which has led to many tragedies like slavery and genocide. More than ten millions of black people have been shipped to America as slaves. This has greatly affected their culture and although now they are supposed to be equal with others, youngsters are still thought to commemorate all these people who have been used as slaves. This is a big part of their bringing up and it therefore affects their identity. Of course Afro-Americans are not the only ones whose identity has been compromised because of their race. It is similar with native people of both Americas and Australia and many others. What are we, Europeans, thought to be encounter of two different worlds and beginning of a new, better era for Indians, it is seen by Indians as the end of a world they knew.

Although by the law we all have the same rights no matter the race, religious and political view, these rights are not often respected when it comes to people who are not white. In this sense it affects our environment and therefore our identity.

Imagine all the people living life in peace 

When a white world becomes a mixed world

Today in English classes we watched part of a documentary video called Mixed Britannia . Documentary talks about racial problems in the United Kingdom and it focuses on interracial marriages. Nowadays 1/10 children in the UK live in a mixed family but not long ago, being in a mixed marriage meant dealing with serious consequences. 

By Smile_once_more

A story of narrator's grandmother is mentioned in Mixed Britannia. In 1919 thousands of white men were involved in racial outbursts.  While Neil Sinclair's grandfather escape, his grandmother and mother hid in the house. When white men broke into the house some of them destroyed valuable objects and some of the questioned Neil's grandmother. Because she refused to tell them where her husband is they slapped her. When police came next day, they said it was her own fault for marrying a black man.  When white women married foreigners, they lost their British nationality and all the rights that came with it. 

I believe it is important that rate of mixed marriages is increasing. It shows that people are becoming more tolerant and are realizing that different skin colour is not a barrier between two people who are in love.

Race is by dictionary definition "each of the major divisions of humankind, having distinct physical characteristics." It clearly states that all differences are just physical and although I believe being Caucasian has some affect on your, I do not believe it affects you enough to be better or worse than someone else. An American poet Langston Hughes calls himself "the darker brother" which indicates that everything about him, except for his skin colours, is the same as of a white brother.