positivity

My funny and wonderful brother said something the other day ( a day I spent with 6th graders that enjoy bad-mouthing each other) that made me think.  

I sent him that video- the one with the totally adorable asian boy singing "I'm Yours"- and told him that I wanted the kid for myself.  My brother replied "Well, he isn't singing English, and he has a freakishly amazing ability to play music at age 4, so he must be Korean- I can probably find him for you" (my bro lives in Korea).

Why'd that make me think?  Look at it again.  It's a compliment, right?  It's also a prejudicial and racial statement.  My brother rocks, he has managed to make statements like that positive.  Why don't we do that as a society?

Lemme give you some examples- and they might make some people angry- but just know that what I am about to say I might not believe and what I do believe is said with love and respect:

Instead of "Mexicans coming to the US don't bother to learn English"  why don't we say "I applaud those from Mexico that are able to learn the difficult English language and maintain their birth language as well" ?

or "Black people are all gangsters and thugs"  why not say "Black people are so good at sports"

or "White people are woosies"  becomes "White people are non-accostive"

Obviously some of the prejudice are still lies- as all people from one race are never exactly the same- but at least it's more positively prejudicial.

We could keep this positivity up whilst walking through our daily life too- huh?  That lady that just cut you off, wow, she managed to fit her big car into such a small space!  The woman doesn't need driving school- she needs an award for tetris or something.    The kid that just lied to you didn't lie, he is honing his creative storytelling skills.

No- just teasing- not like that.  Some people need to be called out for their negative actions in a constructive way.  They need to see reprecussions.

What I am saying is that we need to harp on the good traits our people (friends, family, class, society, etc) have rather than focusing on the negative.  My mom's cat Lily should be appreciated for her spunk and entertainment qualities.  I might not have mopped today- but you can appreciate that I cooked dinner and looked pretty while doing it.  The dinner might not have been fatty and greasy like you like, but it was healthy and your stomach will thank me later.

You get the picture?  good.  My brain just stopped working.  I couldn't give any more examples.
There are a lot of these nice "programs" out there- operation nice, post it notes, etc....all trying to get people to be kind and complimentary.  it's good for everybody's souls.