It is hard to decipher where the war of races began but it’s clear that the main fuel source is fear.

For example, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was afraid that their way of life would be no more once blacks were freed after the Civil War. It is the same issue with Indian aristocrats being afraid that their way of life would be threatened by the denouncing the caste system in 1930.

Race is the one factor that people then and people now still have trouble understanding. For example, the KKK doesn’t understand that blacks are humans, not objects to objectify. Although people today are a lot better off than they were in the 1800s, racism is still a problem today.

Since Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s march on Washington for the civil rights of blacks in the U.S., this generation of teens has witnessed a whole new racial revolution. Racial events like the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, to Texas denying to take in Syrian refugees, have shaped how teenagers view the issues of racism.

Unfortunately, race has become more of a I.D. card that tells the world wrongly who you are, but the color of your skin isn’t there for stereotypes to be made. Your skin tells a story of an origin, one that you may or may not belong in.

Not only your skin, but your clothes can cause you to be stereotyped. For example, Muslims who practice wearing hijabs are often stared down because some people automatically think them to be terrorists. Muslims are ridiculed for what they wear but many people don’t seem to know that they wear hijabs because of their religion.

But the color of your skin does not necessarily tell your story. Being black does not mean that you’re dangerous or a threat. Just because you wear a turban doesn’t mean that you can’t be trusted in public places.

The I.D. that falls upon everyone is only a illusion to who that person truly is. It doesn’t have just basic information that strangers input by themselves. It’s your history of what you or your ancestors experienced. It may be different from their expectations or it may not, but that doesn’t matter because it’s your story. It’s your culture.

King Jr. did not die so African Americans could be put under one simple title as dangerous criminals. How does a race grow from the past if they are under the thumb of indignity?

Teenagers today are fortunate enough to start off on a new slate and can be accepted for their color. Although due to the previous year’s tragedies like the San Bernardino mass shooting and the Paris bombing, the world is on its last leg.

But students can end this trend by showing tolerance to people of different colors and hopefully, we can change the world’s tunnel vision of race.