Racism is a concept that unfortunately will never go away; it is an evil based on human nature's aspect to observe and judge. Everyone creates their own beliefs based on theirs and others' experiences and expectations from past and present that ultimately decides their future; some for the better, some for the worst. People act on their free will. People will argue about what is right, what is wrong, and what is left; sometimes people choose to ignore everything entirely and live in their own chaos. The eradication of racism is a perfect dream we wish could come true, but that dream is an illusion; there is no such thing as perfection, because if it did, millions of Americans and immigrants would never have to suffer severe strife in the first place. Not every sky is filled with rainbows and sunshine; eventually, it fades to black and it rains, and not everyone has their own umbrella. In order to promote racial equality to the fullest, we need change. In order to have change, we need time.

Change takes time to nurture. And if we want crucial change for society, for the sake of Americans, immigrants, and foreigners to coexist with the least amount of doubt for strangers next to them, we must act now in the present. We are in the twenty-first century, the year, 2020, twenty years since the dawn of a new millennium. We have made monumental progress since the Civil Rights Movement, one of the first crusades for racial equality that led to massive victories, such as racial desegregation of schools and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That was fifty-six years ago; that was history, our history, and we need to carry on the legacy of people striving for what was right for society and in their hearts in this critical period of today.

Because if we do not act now, when will we? Next week, next month, or maybe next year? How long do we have to wait to seal these infected wounds in our country? We could say that everything will eventually get better. But "eventually" has the same definition as "never" if we wait forever. But why wait forever when we can start now? Some say that "sticks and stones may break your bones, but the names will never hurt you"; I say that is the biggest lie in history, acting as false hope for the insulted, for those suffering from injustices and prejudices. To expect them to deal with the chaos in front of them and to suck it up as if nothing was there, is a fallacy incarnate. A combination of racism, diction, and syntax can easily mutate and mutilate doves into ravens, petals into thorns, and halos into bullets. Words are capable of rotting a mind the same way a parasite and poison would. In contrast, words of peace and unity offer hope for a sunrise, a mirage of colors cascading the horizon. But actions speak louder than words; and in order to fight racist injustices, we must seek justice for those transgressions.

So how long will we continue to denounce racism and continue to live our own lives, pretending as if nothing horrible happened at all, as if it never happened in the first place? What will we do when our children begin realize that there are more things to fear, due to their own and other's pigmentation? Will we say that everything is and will be alright or will we expose them to this Pandora's Box of what we call "society"? How many people will bask in schadenfreude while at the expense of others, humiliating them by using their own color as shaming fodder? Integrity and discord are two spectrums for the infinite amount of answers in response towards these questions. For the sake of our generation and the generations after us, for our country's future, for the search of improvement, we must choose the right answers for the pursuit of fairness, fortitude, and freedom.