Con­grat­u­la­tions to Keshorn Wal­cott, our 19-year-old gold medal­list and all Olympians of the 2012 Games. Every­one is com­ment­ing on what this will do for young peo­ple in mo­ti­vat­ing them to be the best that they can be. I am work­ing with young peo­ple who are try­ing so hard to be the best, among them young men of African de­scent.

When you look at them you see the moth­er­land, you see our an­ces­tors in their hair, their very dark-through all shades of brown-smooth com­plex­ion, their fa­cial struc­ture, and their tall, state­ly, mus­cu­lar physique. I am hop­ing and pray­ing that from now on when such young men en­ter a busi­ness place, or try to speak with some­one, that they are not met with crit­i­cism, fear, a "bad-eye" or "cross-eye" and that they are not fol­lowed by the se­cu­ri­ty at the busi­ness place be­cause it is felt that they are shoplifters or ban­dits.

Or when they walk in groups that they are not looked at in fear, or they will not be stopped and searched when they find them­selves out late at night hav­ing to walk home. I re­al­ly pray that they are met with a smile or a "how can I help you?" One of my "young peo­ple," who is now an adult and teach­ing at a sec­ondary school, dis­cussed with me a sce­nario. He had a friend here from Wales, blonde hair and blue-eyed. They de­cid­ed to vis­it a mall.

My young man was dressed very care­ful­ly, neat and hair combed, and the blonde vis­i­tor wore a dirty rub­ber slip­per, a very worn and stretched T-shirt and a shorts. When they got to the mall, they went about their busi­ness. My ne­groid-fea­tured young man could not help but com­ment to his Cau­casian friend that if he were dressed like him and walked through the mall, he would be la­belled a va­grant, some poor per­son who could pos­si­bly be a ban­dit or a shoplifter and he would be treat­ed as such.

If he were alone, mall pa­trons would look at him sus­pi­cious­ly and give him a wide berth, or he would be fol­lowed by se­cu­ri­ty. If the blonde-haired male went to the mall alone dressed like that, he would be al­lowed to go about his busi­ness. There would have been no sus­pi­cion.

My prayer is that the suc­cess of all our Olympians will help all adults in our so­ci­ety see the po­ten­tial for great­ness in our youth, no mat­ter where they re­side, no mat­ter if they come from homes with sin­gle moth­ers, homes in which moth­ers and fa­thers are not "mar­ried," homes with "step-fa­thers and step-moth­ers."

I al­so long for the day when we will stop the la­belling and on­ly work with all fam­i­lies no mat­ter their com­po­si­tion. I have been say­ing for years that we must be­gin to fo­cus on the con­cept of "fam­i­ly" and "com­mu­ni­ty as fam­i­ly." This is 2012, for scream­ing out loud.

An­na Maria Mo­ra

Arou­ca