By Maurice Bobb
On the same day that Kim Kardashian took to Twitter to refute all of the rumors that she and Kanye West were already married, the “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” star addressed her stance on a more serious topic: racism.
Just days after the NBA was forced to ban one of its owners, Donald Sterling, due to racist remarks, the new mother decided to take a stand on the issue of racial discrimination. But a topic so multi-layered and deeply-rooted in our nation’s history took more than 140 characters to express.
“I never knew how much being a mom would change me,” she tweeted via a link to her website with the phrase, “On my mind.”
“It’s amazing how one little person and the love I have for her has brought new meaning to every moment. What once seemed so important, now feels insignificant. It’s like I get to see the world for the first time again, but through someone else’s eyes. It’s a beautiful thing to feel and experience so much more, but with that beauty comes a flip side – seeing through my daughter’s eyes the side of life that isn’t always so pretty. To be honest, before I had North, I never really gave racism or discrimination a lot of thought. It is obviously a topic that Kanye is passionate about, but I guess it was easier for me to believe that it was someone else’s battle. But recently, I’ve read and personally experienced some incidents that have sickened me and made me take notice. I realize that racism and discrimination are still alive, and just as hateful and deadly as they ever have been.”
Kim cited her role as a mother to her biracial daughter, North, as the catalyst for her newfound empathy with fiancé Yeezy’s struggles as a minority and the plight of the gay and lesbian community.
“I feel a responsibility as a mother, a public figure, a human being, to do what I can to make sure that not only my child, but all children, don’t have to grow up in a world where they are judged by the color of their skin, or their gender, or their sexual orientation. I want my daughter growing up in a world where love for one another is the most important thing. So the first step I’m taking is to stop pretending like this isn’t my issue or my problem, because it is, it’s everyone’s… because the California teenager who was harassed and killed by his classmates for being gay, the teenage blogger in Pakistan who was shot on her school bus for speaking out in favor of women’s rights, the boy in Florida who was wrongly accused of committing a crime and ultimately killed because of the color of his skin, they are all someone’s son and someone’s daughter and it is our responsibility to give them a voice and speak out for those who can’t and hopefully in the process, ensure that hate is something our children never have to see.”
Kim’s unexpected, but poignant message reached over 21 million followers, most of which applauded her memorandum against discrimination, evening going as far as saying it took “a lot of guts to post that online, thank you.”
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