Gray Matter, The Stuff That Really Matters, By Ben Carson

There is no such a thing like race. From years ago, race is just man made due to the physical look, but biologically we all are the same. In fact, All human being shares 99.9 percent of the same DNA. Also, our body systems function similarly. Race is just a skin color and nothing else. Many years ago, people had negative views of other race folks. There were many racial discrimination and hatred between one race to another, but the majority of those ideas changed. A person should not be judged by physical look, but should be judged by his/her internal appearances. Unfortunately, in this twenty first century, people are still divided by their physical appearance. Additionally, race is not the only force that separated us from one another,
but our social class and culture separated us from one another as well. To me, my racial identity does not matter because my skin color does not define who I am. Our physical look does not make us different from one another, but our personality does.
In the book America Now, Ben Carson, a former neurosurgeon has written an essay “Gray Matter, the Stuff That Really Matters”, according to Carson, “in an episode of “The Twilight Zone” many years ago, a very beautiful and smart young woman was regarded as unsuitable for society. It was revealed at the end of the episode that everyone else was quite ugly, which, for that society, was the norm” (159). Similarly, when I was in high school some of my class-mates thought I was different from them just because I was born in a different country and my mother tongue was different from them. Some of my classmates said to me to go back to my own country. As a time went, I started learning that all people from the same racial group are not the same because some students thought I was different from them and some didn’t. For me, It does not matter about the way anyone look, but respecting each other and what matter is his or her
personality. Additionally, It is harrowing that we tend to make assumptions about others by their physical display and believe those assumptions we made are true.
For example, most of the people believe that Asian students are smart in math which is not true. Some of the Asian students could be smart in math and some could not. Being Asian or any other ethnic group does not make us smart, but our hard work does. We often assume that everyone has to see the world as we do. We want everyone to think same, but the fact is that we all are different and that is what makes us unique. As Carson says, “I am very grateful that God gave us racial variety. Who would want to go to the National Zoo if every animal was a Thompson’s gazelle? Who would visit if every fish was a goldfish? Who would want to get up in the morning if everybody looked exactly like them?” (159). We should never come to the conclusion about anyone just by peeking his/her physical appearance. We need to know her/him personally to know his or her characters. Being different in color is just a part of being human. Personally, I am from a different culture and when I came to the United States of America, everything was new to me. I had to learn about new culture which was interesting. Reality, in every culture there are something in common. The most important, we all are human being and we all have feelings. We all are living our life in the same way. For example, we all have to work in order to survive and we all need to
face some struggles in our lives. Furthermore, in the same race, we can find separation between human beings. For example, there are many people with the same skin color, but different social class. Money is a large element that separated us from one another. For example, we can find separation between one person to another in the mall. Most of the time working class people tend to shop in less expensive stores. We can find discrimination between same color people. Jana King, a student from Louisiana State University has written an essay “In living color”, according to the king, “Bill clinton was elected in 1993, some called him the first black president, not because of his skin color but because his birth into a single parent working class household, ability to play the saxophone and love of fast-food” (153). King statement proves that our social status divide us from one another. In conclusion, race does not makes us different from one another, but our hard work, personality and respect of each other does. First, We all are different from one another by physical look, but that does not make us different. However, Our personality define our identity. Respecting other cultures and background let us help to understand people racial identity. Second, we can not judge people by their skin color because to know someone, we need to his/her personally. lastly, money is a larger element that separate us from one another.