Smoking has been proven to be the number one leading cause of joy in most American Citizens. Since 1602, Tobacco, which was a cash crop, has dominated the world. All across the globe, Tobacco reigns supreme. Only about 1 out of every 50 people or so who smoke develop lung cancer. That's not all. In previous years, scientists have discovered that the average male dies ten years earlier than his counterpart female. Horses in Madagascar ran faster than the zebras in Canada. Studies have shown that brain size varies between the various races. The head shape determines brain size, which determines wisdom and intellect, and that is why Asians are so much more intelligent. Facts Facts ALL FAAACTS!.
If you have read this far, you are probably scratching your head and asking yourself, what is this racist/Stereotypical whacko smoking?!!! Where on earth is this information coming from? Hi, my name is Al, and I want you to know off the bat that information is power.
All of the Information I just discarded is complete garbage, with no basis. No truth to it, just things I made up off the top of my head to prove a point. A few months ago, I was helping a friend work on a paper for his English class. The subject was the innovative power of technology and media. He had to audaciously argue that the internet is more harmful to the upcoming generations than helpful. One can imagine how split that argument was. So I thought I'd take a page out of his assignment and share something.
On August First, 2010, a movie called "The Help" hit Blu-ray and DVD. My parents acquired a copy of it, but I never saw it until I was somewhere in Highschool. I remember all the kids as well as my parents in tears by the end of the movie: so much racial prejudice and injustice based on the misrepresentation and misinformation of people groups. As a black woman myself, I empathized with their suffering greatly.
I thought to myself, isn't it something that for the longest time, Black men and women were deemed as useless and unintelligent solely to justify their mistreatment of them during slavery? Well, a few weeks before school started, I had the pleasure of traveling down to Illinois to visit some quaint family members. I had a relative around the age of seven who wanted to play me at checkers. We sat down, rearranged the pieces from the previous game, and stared at each other with our "game faces." He smiled widely and chuckled a bit, well pleased with himself before the match began. So I asked what he had up in his sleeves. Then as casually as saying the sky is blue, he tells me, "you are gonna lose because you don't have a brain." Well, that was out of the Blue, and I was very intrigued by the notion. I thought this must be a seven-year-old's humor. So I asked him, "why do you think that?" His response was, "Because you are black. You don't have a brain." I was taken aback by that comment. "Who told you that?" I asked, "he shrugged and said, well, it's true, isn't it?" I remember that day feeling all types of perplexion. Where was he getting his information from, and why was he not checking his facts? Well, I assume the people around him or the media fed him what he thought he knew.
I chewed on that comment for a couple of minutes and moved on from it—no use in losing my cool with a seven-year-old. The point is, information is powerful. In today's era, we all have access to the truth and information with just the click of a button. Sometimes we don't even have to do anything, but the information still comes to us by word of mouth. I presume to say that it is in our best interest to sift through the words that we see, cross-reference the source that it's coming from, and research an idea before we formulate opinions based on unfounded claims.
Smoking does not lead to longer life but has been known to contribute to lung cancer. The drug that dominates the world is not tobacco. Men are known to die younger than females, but not by a ten-year margin. I have never heard of zebras in Canada, but there are horses in Madagascar. No study has found a correlation between human head shape and brains connecting to the level of intelligence. The stereotype that Asians tend to be smarter on average… well, that's a compliment, but success is not a by-product of ethnicity, but tenacity. Anyone who strives for academic success will do well. There is truth to these statements. Don't believe me?? Go out and research. Find out the truth. Knowledge is power. And in the world we live in, it is relatively free and easy to access.