I’m watching the anime series “One Piece” now, and I’m at the part where Jimbei (I love him) is telling the Strawhat Pirates about Fisher Tiger’s heroic acts about freeing the slaves.
(omg I love his T-shirt LOL)
In the flashbacks, Fisher Tiger said a lot of very interesting stuff, that I made me think. The whole Fishman Island arch is the author’s statement on prejudice, I think. Basically, the fish people are living in a secluded island under the ocean, and whenever they go to the surface, they are feared by the humans, attacked, captured, etc. So therefore, they hate humans and are afraid OF humans and attack humans for revenge. It’s one nasty cycle. The Fish-man queen is trying to get people to accept humans and live together with them, but the fish people won’t.
Through observing a little human girl, Jimbei (a whale-shark man) said, “shiranai kara kowai?!” (You are scared of what you don’t know?) He realized it. Then, when she got to know the scary-looking fish people, she understood them and loved them.
Then later on, Fisher Tiger was got emotional and said, “It’s too late for us, who already have this demon in our hearts. We can’t change because we can’t forget what happened to us in our lives. It’s up to the younger generation, who are not prejudiced yet, to make the peace!
Then it showed a picture of that little girl’s smiling face.
I thought that was brilliant, and true. And beautiful.
Think about some of the things in your life that your parents might be prejudiced against but you aren’t. I know some older people who are prejudiced….but I would never think that same way. I remember being flooded at school “everyone is equal!” etc. We have to NOT teach our children prejudice. Don’t give it to them to carry down.
