Imagination

We should accept everyone as they are

Lina Uzunhasan

21 March 2016

I will start my speech by introducing myself. I am a fiction writer as well as an equestrian. I have 7 published books, 11 magazine articles and several interviews that took place in the newspapers. When I was small, I always thought how authors found topics to write about. Specially when you read a book that smashes your imagination, one might think how it is possible for someone to think of it. That was one of the reasons that made me follow this path to become an author. 

I realised that imagination is like a muscle. You have to train it for it to get better and stronger. However, there are some people that are much more creative compared to others, just like some people having stronger muscles than others. I believe it is what is called ‘talent’. It is something that you inherit from your parents, from your environment, from the people that surround you. Imagination is a thing that concerns your past and present. You can only imagine what you already saw. You might think how we can imagine dragons or aliens that don't even exist. Easy. You see a reptile, you see a butterfly, you combine them and you have a dragon. Human mind can almost never come up with completely non existent things. 

What I am trying to say is that, if imagination is based on our past, how can the ‘black’ people ever be imaginative if they are not allowed to accept their past. These people are avoiding their pasts because they think its not good for them. These people are running away from their cultures because we force them to think its not beautiful. If it was not for ‘black’ people and their pasts, there wouldn't be jazz music, there wouldn't be any boogie woogie! How are these people supposed to express their talents if we are not allowing them to be creative in their own way. It’s like trying to make a race horse jump. A race horse is build and breed for racing just like ‘black’ people have their own ways of art. We can't just tell them to do our art because we think their art is not nice, or even worse, because its not familiar! 

Everyone has to accept themselves as who they are instead of trying to change, because change might be a good thing but it shouldn't be used as a way of escape. If we are accepting the white art, why cant we accept the negro art as it is as well?

https://youtu.be/umQa7N7BQOA