Think Twice Before You Judge

D.R. Congo, French/Swahili

Thierry is the name I was given by my parents when God allowed me to live. It means “no troubles,” but my own country has many troubles. I came from one of the biggest countries in Africa called the Democratic Republic of the Congo. My country has never known peace, and I don’t think it is going to be a peaceful country because some people don’t mind their own business. In 2004, I migrated with my family to the tranquil country of Kenya where we found a little peace. In that country, I lived a happy life with my family, but I didn’t feel good because other people were suffering in my own home country while we were in a peaceful country.

I soon realized that some people in Kenya were practicing racism and discrimination. I noticed this when I was going to the shop to buy something. I always found a group of people sitting together, and when they saw me, they started pointing at me. They started talking in their language, and then they laughed. I discovered that they were laughing at me. When I came back, they started laughing at me again. They were making fun of me. When looking at my traditional Congolese clothing, they said, “What kind of clothes are those?” At school, I experienced the same thing. Sometimes you can get the courage to learn something, but when others started to make fun of me, I wondered why I came to this country. I tried not to care about it. I just said to myself, “Let them talk all day, but at night they too will sleep.”

Years came, years passed. Finally, we got processed to go to America. At that time, I was happy because I knew nobody was going to discriminate against me anymore. In the movies, from what I saw, white and black people were all together, so I thought that there was no discrimination. Also, I knew that Americans were friendly people who felt sorry about other people’s problems.

However, the first day I went to school in the U.S., some of the children started judging me and asking, “What do you want in our country? Look at your clothes.” It was like their talent was to discriminate against people because when they started talking they couldn’t stop. One day, I asked myself where a person could go in this world so that he/she could have peace. It seems like everywhere is just the same. I asked myself, “Is good judgment the road to paradise?”

Here, at school, we have to change the manner of discriminating against others. I don’t know why people discriminate against others. It is not good to judge people by their color, clothes, or how they are. Some people seem as though they have been paid to discriminate against others. If somebody judges me, I can’t study hard. When I try to study something, they start teasing, and I am just thinking about it. Sometimes people get bad grades because of this.

Let’s just be one community, one family, and forget about discriminating against each other. Together we can save the world. It’s true to say that: “Wisdom in judgments is the secret of happiness.”