Entry #107: Not Gnarls But...
so i was reading today, and this passage really jumped out at me as something that i understood and could relate to...
"You'd be naive if you think people don't react differently to you because in their eyes you're a celebrity. But I'll say this: even when people haven't known me overseas, there's a lack of what I perceive as the racial tension you feel when you're at home in a lot of different parts of America. I don't have a definitive answer as to why this seems to be the case, and there are probably a thousand reasons for it. Mostly, I think it's just ignorance, and that causes the tension. It's ignorance tension. But I don't dwell on it, I just try to enjoy people wherever I am because what travel should teach anyone is that people can socialize and relate and rise above the tension. I really feel bad for the people who never get the opportunity to broaden their horizons, take themselves out of a place that's limited. So many people just have no chance to do that.
Obviously, there are differences whenever you go to a new country, or even a new city, and that's what makes it so appealing in the first place, being able to experience something that's not like what you have at home or eat at home or do culturally at home. But ultimately, we're more the same than not. I don't see that as a contradiction. Anything that's going to hold your attention is probably going to be complex and include contradictions. Travel reminds you of that, too, that the similarities between us, the ways we're all kind of the same, are as fascinating as the differences."
- Charles Barkley
"You'd be naive if you think people don't react differently to you because in their eyes you're a celebrity. But I'll say this: even when people haven't known me overseas, there's a lack of what I perceive as the racial tension you feel when you're at home in a lot of different parts of America. I don't have a definitive answer as to why this seems to be the case, and there are probably a thousand reasons for it. Mostly, I think it's just ignorance, and that causes the tension. It's ignorance tension. But I don't dwell on it, I just try to enjoy people wherever I am because what travel should teach anyone is that people can socialize and relate and rise above the tension. I really feel bad for the people who never get the opportunity to broaden their horizons, take themselves out of a place that's limited. So many people just have no chance to do that.
Obviously, there are differences whenever you go to a new country, or even a new city, and that's what makes it so appealing in the first place, being able to experience something that's not like what you have at home or eat at home or do culturally at home. But ultimately, we're more the same than not. I don't see that as a contradiction. Anything that's going to hold your attention is probably going to be complex and include contradictions. Travel reminds you of that, too, that the similarities between us, the ways we're all kind of the same, are as fascinating as the differences."
- Charles Barkley