I grew up during the heady days of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s: rallies by Martin Luther King Jr., the Watergate Affair, the Vietnam War, multiculturism heightening in Canada, and my sisters writing essays on Elie Wiesel’s Holocaust memoir, “Night”. On my birthday, March 15, l965, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson would sign the monumental Civil Rights Act.

Being in primary school during that era, I didn’t understand what was going on in our world, but the energy was thick, powerful, the age of Aquarius, and it would set the stage for my humanitarian passions.

I grew up in a Jewish family, not religious by any means, and I was fortunate enough to have an older sister of great vision and wisdom, a sage in her own right.

At just 12, she taught her 7 year old sister--me!--not only to treat insects and other beings with respect, but people as well. She emphasized not to judge anybody by the colour of their skin or by their religion or country of origin—including people of German descent. She taught me not to generalize about people and to judge each as an individual who is part of one race—the human race.

I always believed that each person is born with a Buddha-like nature; that we are all inherently good at heart and maintain this potential. Somewhere along our path, our parents, teachers or just our own fear or ego may interfere to create animosity towards others and racism in its various forms.

When we share our stories, our hopes and sorrows, we recognize the undeniable similarities in each person: their concerns for their family, for their community, for their world, and at the end of the day, compassion blossoms in us, the listener.

I live in one of the most multicultural cities in the world—Toronto—and every day, I am grateful for living in this city, a “mini-universe” where I can meet people from all backgrounds, from different countries all over the world, speaking languages I’ve never heard before. We have Serbs who have escaped their homeland for safer pastures, Afghan women wearing burkas, Somalis who fare better in our country and dozens of other eclectic cultures.

From each person I am blessed to meet—whether in a park, a coffee shot, a grocery store or on the bus, I have learned that we are al the same—we think the same, we look the same, we love the same.

And the years of getting to know more people from such diverse lands have just served to confirm my belief in the oneness of all.

My sister's words and many more incidents ignited in me a passion whose flames were further fueled by living beside a Holocaust denier as a child, watching Charleton Heston’s powerful rendition of Moses in "The Ten Commandments", Ben Kingsley in "Gandhi", reading the books Roots” and “Obasan”, watching the movie “Gandhi”, and reading about Harriet Tubman in "The Underground Railroad", Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin", and many more, and I developed a strong desire to further their voice in the world.

Years went by. I majored in science in university, experienced anti-semitism there, became a journalist and forgot about my dream. That is, until the early '90's when a new form of racism struck my country where black slaves had fled to freedom over a short century ago. Now white supremacists were pamphletting schools, reaching the most vulnerable, to boost their ranks.

Now was my time to take action, to also teach the youth, to prevent further racism and to combat what was happening. So I created Artists Against Racism to produce campaigns which would bring the messages of well-known musicians and other artists right into the schools.

I was just three years old when Martin Luther Ling Jr. was fighting for equal rights, but had I been old enough, I would have marched in his rallies and been there live, on site, for his “I Have a Dream” speech. Perhaps the background energy of those times sparked me in my youth. What I do know is that the words of Dr. King Jr. and all the Mandelas and Gandhis in this world continue to inspire me to this day.

~~Lisa Cherniak~~