I saw the anger many people had over "Dear White People" and I'll admit when I saw that title I shook my head and thought again "People don't get it, you can't end racism by bashing ANY race. You can only end racism, by stop treating people like they are part of a different race, and stop viewing yourself as part of a separate race." People need to quit worrying so much about the minds of others and focus on the only mind they truly have control of. Their own. Do you identify as a white man? Do you identify as a black man? Do you identify as a latino? Do you identify as part of a native american tribe? I did not ask if you ARE those things. I did not ask what your skin color is. I asked if YOU identify as those things. Why? I identify as a human. That's it.

I see the value in knowing heritage and skin color only when it comes to potential medical reasons for things that have higher occurrences in some hereditary lines than others. Yet, if it is not a medical check up then I don't see a point in segregating myself.

Yes I used that word intentionally. Segregation is the act of breaking things apart and attempting to keep them apart. The first step to doing this is identifying groups which should not mingle. Then you setup special environments for certain groups, and restrict others. This is segregation.

By self-identifying yourself as part of a group you have already taken the first step in your mind towards segregation. Like I said the only mind you truly control is your own. So whether other people believe you belong in a group or not is irrelevant. The battle that you can fight is within your own mind. You can lead by example.

The best fuel for racism is to consider yourself part of a specific race other than human. That begins the segregation in your mind. Forming groups then leads to the US versus THEM mentality. It leads to conflict of one group attempting to improve their situation potentially at the expense of the other. This happens with other forms of bigotry besides simply racism. Yet think about what racism would be like if all of us simply viewed ourselves as human. Not as a black woman, white man, etc. What would happen to racism? In my mind it would have no fertile soil left to grow in. I have zero doubts we'd still have other forms of bigotry. Bigotry is all over the place. That would be a topic for another time.

So why mention Netflix

Honestly this is a subject I am passionate about. I didn't really plan to write everything I wrote above. It just kind of happened that way.

I thought Black Lives Matter was a good movement for about the first month it existed. Yet as it persisted I found myself wondering why emphasize black. Why not go for true equality and truly fight racism by saying all lives matter? Why not go after people being wrongly profiled and/or attacked regardless of race? This was of course met with the "you are trying to cheapen the message of BLM" which of course was not my goal at all. My goal was to broaden it to encompass all people instead of leaving a segregation element within the movement. The problem with saying Black Lives Matter is one thing and it is not another is that once again you only control your own mind. It is clear by actions and statements of some BLM members that they interpret it far different than you. That interpretation kind of ceases to exist simply by changing the word Black to All. Yet that should still represent the mission BLM originally was created (supposedly) to address. It does not cheapen it. It removes the potential to be interpreted by other people in a way that fuels racism rather than combating it.

Netflix released their trailer to "Dear White People" and it received a lot of down votes and a lot of subscription cancellations. I was aware of this. Last night I watched the documentary called 13th, because reading the subject it is truly an important amendment that is being abused against ALL people regardless of color. My wife and I watched it and it had some good points, it even had good points about past racism. Yet it became clear that its main focus was Black People or as some of the people there would say on the documentary "People of Color". It barely touched upon some of the truly epic and bad things that the 13th amendment enabled that have ZERO to do with race.

In fact the entire focus of the 13th documentary could have mentioned the racism and things going on that lead to the creation of that amendment. It then could have focused on the negative aspect of how it impacted ALL people regardless of race.

Instead it is more or less a Black Lives Matter propaganda piece. This was obvious as they step through time and then they are in current days and the idea of rape comes up and they instead jump back to an image of a slave owner raping a black woman. It was the statement "more black women are raped by white men" and they jump back to the time of slavery as an example. Do you know anyone in your family that was alive during the time of slavery? I don't as they would need to be in the Guinness book of world records for the oldest person to live. So when talking about rapes of whites vs blacks in current days why does that suddenly justify jumping to a period of which no one currently alive has ever known anyone? Comparing past to present is a scam. I mean how far can we go back? I'm sure we can find other cases if we go back into antiquity. No one today was alive then either, yet they still want to hold up slavery. No one alive today was that type of slave. None of your parents or grand parents were that type of slave. Some of them likely had to deal with segregation, and that seems to be intentionally being resurrected today.

No, where the documentary 13th and Netflix failed was in really pointing out how truly nefarious that amendment was. It prevents slavery except when used as a form of punishment for a CRIME. Yet, we know these days that a crime can be anything the government decides it is. The prisons are full of PEOPLE that are there for victimless crimes. Meaning for crimes the government decided were criminal even though no one was hurt in anyway by that "criminals" actions. For this they may spend all or most of their life in prison. They can also be treated like a slave in prison. Prisons allow slavery as punishment for crime.

Slavery exists today in the United States. None of the laws the documentary mentioned emphasize color. They apply to everyone. I am white in color (not my choice, and not something I'll EVER apologize for or be made to feel guilty about) and I have family members who have spent most of their life in prison. These laws do not distinguish between white, black, red, green, purple, etc. They enslave anyone.

These inmates are then forced to work and produce goods, provide services, etc. For decades they have been taking on more and more production, and more and more services. Need a web page? No problem inmates can make it. I made a post recently that had a play for words that said "there is a con for that" which was a play on the "there is an app for that" phrase. If you would like to read about it as it doesn't focus on race at all, feel free.

The use of the 13th amendment and how it has impacted ALL of our lives and continues to is VERY important. The Netflix documentary missed the chance to point that out. It's focus was clearly on black, and people of color and how they are being persecuted still to this day.

Yet those same things are happening to whites as well. Which if you bring that up they may say, yes, but not at the same proportion. Blacks are over represented. This will be their response. Yes this is true. Yet that does not mean the application of these laws is being done against blacks due to race/skin color. It could also be due to actual violence. It could be due to culture that holds up "thugs" as cool and thus inspires others to STEP UP and do something to get a REP. Such an environment would also lead to more violations of crime. In fact, the number one perpetrator of violence against black people from what I can find comes from other black people. More black people are killed by other black people than any other race. So why is this true? If this level of violence exists would that not also indicate a higher probability of negative interaction with law enforcement? Shouldn't a true focus of All Lives Matter be to discourage this thug love? Make it so people don't look up to drug dealers, gang bangers, cop killers, white killers, etc. Start removing the fandom of people doing negative things from the culture and I SUSPECT violence in the culture would drop, and likewise interaction with law enforcement would as well.

Yet the issue with the 13th amendment, and the slave pits we call prisons would still exist and be used against ALL of us.

Slavery is not gone in the United States. They simply moved it out of the public eye. See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil.

The Prison Industrial Complex is legalized slavery. The victimless crimes and the War on Drugs in particular is a system for insuring the acquisition of new slaves. They are not raiding African coasts and kidnapping people now. They simply wait for you to smoke a plant, or eat a substance. Then they can take you to the hidden slave pits and put you to work.

BLM is fueling racism. KKK is fueling racism. Neo-Nazis are fueling racism. Propaganda is fueling racism.

If we want racism to stop we really need to listen to what Morgan Freeman has said here in this interview. If WE do what he says here then we will end racism. Yet, as long as you insist on identifying as a race other than human you leave fertile ground for racism to grow. The only person you can control the mind of is yourself.

Steem On!