In our world, we are surrounded by people who are different than us. Whether it is by their cutlure, nature, hair color, or ethnicity. Our world is full of unique people and cultures, yet most of the time we do not truly understand those who are different than us.
The United States claims to be a nation that welcomes all cultures and is a melting pot for culture and diversity, yet when most people encounter a religion or culture they do not understand, they fear it or reject it. Part of this is from the media, which feeds us false information and single stories of other cultures. And part of it, is the ignorance of the Western world.
But that is changing. Now companies, like Coca-cola, and social media platforms are using their power to help educate people, that in a world full of differences, we are all human.
In this campaign Coca-Cola challenges us to remove the label. Take a look and think about the last time you judged someone simply by how they look.
To summarize, Coca-Cola puts six strangers in a room together in complete darkness and has them talk about themselves and to each other. They cannot see each other, but only hear what the others have to say. Then at the end the lights come on, and the strangers are shocked. They had a vision in their mind of what someone was supposed to look like based on their accomplishments and lifestyle -- so when they are revealed as something different they cannot believe it.
The biggest take away from this is that many of the strangers say how they would have probably shied away from that person if they saw them on the street or come to conclusions about their lifestyle simply by how they appeared. They would have labelled them.
It is the culture that we live in to label people and come to conclusions about people before we even get to know them. It is so sad and terrible that our world is this way because everyone is unique and different and cannot be labeled and should not be labeled. No one person is exactly the same, so why do we have labels to associate people with? Instead of trying to fit people into neat boxes, we should be celebrating all of our differences and be thankful that our world is full of uniqueness and diversity. How boring would the world be if we were all the same?
This is why I think it is exciting that companies like Coca-Cola are doing campaigns to help breach this gap between people's prejudices. People make assumptions about other people; and in a world with terrorism and fear, these assumptions are starting to alienate a whole culture of people.
So, to demonstrate another amazing experiment, this video shows the power of simply looking at another person. Truly looking at them. It is called “Look Beyond Borders” and deals directly with the refugee crisis happening.
This video shows that if you take a few minutes and sit down to truly get to know someone, it can change your whole perspective. I think it is a beautiful example of how humans can change and how truly looking at someone makes all the difference.
I also think it is so important that these videos are reaching people in the United States because we need this coverage and new perspectives of the Middle East so we get rid of that single story that people continue to receive from the main stream media. That is why I decided to share them with you.
Enjoy and in the words of Ellen DeGeneres, "Be kind to one another."
