By continuing on this way, we have allowed a handful of people—more specifically, a handful of Western men—to retain a great deal of power and influence over our perceptions of the world. We have allowed them to propagate stereotypes, solidify cultural divides, and maintain dominance, while we carried on obediently, in our mission of ignorance.
But we are changing. And so too is our world. By 2055, it is predicted that America will not have a single ethnic or racial majority. In fact, Americans are currently more racially and ethnically diverse than ever before. Rapid innovations in technology and infrastructure have enabled our world to become more interconnected than ever before. What’s more, over the next four decades, it is predicted that Islam will grow faster than any other major religion—with the number of Muslims being nearly equal to the number of Christians by 2050.
Assuming a position of power and influence on the global stage comes with a great responsibility—a duty—to continuously improve our systems, our structures, and our attitudes. We have a duty to adapt. We have a duty to progress.
A shift in the way our media has portrayed women in recent years gives me a lot of hope—hope for the progress that we are long overdue. Finally, we are starting to see more women of color and women of diverse shapes and sizes, at the forefront of major beauty campaigns. Better still, we are beginning to see more and more women of color in leadership positions.
On January 3, 2019, a record number of women were sworn into the United States Congress.
