Representation is one of the most important foundations of our growth as individuals. Purely ignorant children or children that have been raised with love and kindness towards all human kind don't have the burden of seeing color in the same way other citizens of the world do.
Most children don't let the color of their role models affect their perception until they're told to. The transition from being an ignorant child to a conscious growing young adult crucially shows where some people continue to believe in themselves, and where some see other people as better. Words are carefully chosen because of racism/color-ism and stereotypes built by men who are scared of other men. Some people stay in that mindset of seeing others as better, themselves as less than, or, not respecting separate cultures because of what differences they hold. Not everyone grows the same, but it's important to understand your own road. At the root of that understanding and respect is representation, and honoring people that have done what others call impossible, such as the first generation of a family member to graduate from high school or university. Representation shows shooting for the stars is a shot you can make if you try.
The three women above are a part of a Hip-Hop Dance group
As the children of the 21st century grow up, they get to see every color in the human rainbow succeed and use the world wide web as their binoculars. From social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr, the users are able to freely write and post their thoughts. People of all races and backgrounds can now look for their culture and find it online. Before if you didn't have a person to talk to, library, or a group, maybe some kind of center with information, you couldn't know much. Now, you can just use Youtube.
For most people who could afford it back in the 20th century, the television was a main source of seeing other cultures, how other people lived, and what their norm is compared to your own. However, JUST BECAUSE IT'S ON TV DOESN'T MAKE IT REAL OR RIGHT. Propaganda has disrespected almost every race. Depending on where it's coming from, you'll have a negative view of an entire ethnicity, race, group of people, because "they" told you so. Black people have continued to contribute inventions and gifts to the world, especially with roots in the creation of math, science, and engineering. Now, you'll see a cartoon that was aired in 1935 as truth, when it is the poor representation television gave Black people. From the early 17th century, propaganda created the mindset that anything Black is bad, or in fact, anything that's not White is bad.
Below is negative propaganda towards the Japanese was expressed to the world from America during WWII.
Cinema has played a huge part in curving the truth to represent its people of choice, from it's creation up to now. Whitewashing has become first nature for Hollywood when telling a compelling story involving anyone of color.
This article shows 25 examples of Whitewashing.
Representation is used on every level. A well known slogan in America is "for the people, and by the people", but the people that statement stood for at the time were White Anglo-Saxon protestants. Today, all of the people are taking back their right to be called people, to have all human rights, regardless of skin color, background, age, and religion.
If you're going somewhere away from home, in the hood we say "You gotta represent". All it means is that you do yourself and the people you come from, justice. For example, even though the media has shown him in a bad a light, most of the time, President Obama stayed in Presidential office for 2 terms while being a great representative of Black people. For a long time, the representation of so-called "minorities" have been negative. For instance, Mexicans being "illegal immigrants", when in fact, they are indigenous to this land and the only barriers between the United States and Mexico are manmade. There have always been great people of all races, but the opportunity wasn't always there to show others that they can be great too.
