Monologue
By Ben Soffer
“To be or not to be, that” would be the question if I were talking about Shakespeare. That would be an appropriate phrase if I were to be addressing you from the 1600’s from my Shakespearian era, but I am not. I am from New York City. When I meet people form outside New York City they divide the city and assume you are something from where you live. If you live on the Upper West Side you are cool, Upper East Side you are rich, SoHo you are trendy, and Harlem you are “dangerous.” This shows how little people know about NYC.
If you were to ask someone from the city about NYC than they would tell you that the whole city, every area, is diverse. Politicians live in Harlem, poor people live on the Upper East Side, weird people live on the Upper West Side, people with 0 fashion sense live in SoHo. It’s these assumptions that create blind hatred everyday. Lets say you hate rich people and when you ask someone you just met where they live and they say “the upper east side” what are you going to do? Are you going to hate them blindly? Or are you going to give them a chance?
Baruch College is the same way. Lets say that you grew up in a Christian home, went to Christian school, and were only friends with Christians. Baruch being the diverse school that it is has people from all different religions attending the school. If you meet someone Jewish, will you view them the same way that you view your Christian friends? Or vice versa if you are Jewish will you view your new Muslim friends the same as your Jewish friends? The idea is tolerance. Whether that means understanding that where someone comes from and not judging them, or realizing that everyone, from every religion is good enough to be your friend, that is tolerance.
