Recently, I came across a video on my Facebook news feed and clicked it out of pure interest. It was titled “The DNA Journey.” I have seen a couple of videos in the past where people voluntarily give their DNA to scientists, where it is tested to see the true ancestry of each person and the nationalities that they belong to.
Something that stood out to me after watching this video was the fact that the people in this video were asked which countries they didn’t like or hate the most. One man in the video specifically said, “I’m more important than you… I am more important than a lot of people.”
While watching this video I was shocked that someone would ever say something like that directly to another person. Then I took a step back and realized even though I may not hear people say that to each other on a daily basis, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. Not everyone may feel that way about others, but unfortunately some people do. More regrettably, we have seen examples of this type of mindset over and over again in the recent months throughout politics and the media. Ironically, all the people that openly said that they hated one country have a percentage of ancestry that is directly from that country. It is eye opening, because how can you judge a whole country and culture based on the assumptions that you personally have, when in reality you could be just like them?
After reading her results, one of the women in the video said, “This should be compulsory, there would be no such thing as extremism in the world if people knew their heritage like that.” I completely agree. People’s eyes need to be opened to see that even though borders and oceans may separate us, it doesn’t mean that we don’t go through the same ups and downs in life. In reality, WE are ALL people.
We are people of the world; we are not all the same and that is something that should be celebrated. Even though there are so many things in our world that try and separate us, putting our cultures and countries against each other. I think it is important to understand our diversity and use that as something that unites us instead of using it to divide us. We need to be open to experiencing and understanding new things, as that is the only way to truly lose the ignorance we hold onto and transform into people whose hearts and minds are full of love and real acceptance for each other.
So, would you do this? Cause you know… “you have more in common with the world than you think.”