I wrote about bigotry and racism years ago, and I did have a successful blog post on equality here on steemit the other day. That one is far more current than this document.

Today I was digging through some of my older writings and sharing them on steemit. This will be the last one for today.

I am going to present it as it was written years ago. I may format it to make it easier for you to read, but I will not alter the words.

Source: 6gym-rodou.dod.sch.gr

Abolish Bigotry and Racism

by Deva B. Winblood

I am of Swedish, English, German, Celtic, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, and “black” Dutch ancestry. I appear to be Caucasian by my skin color. I am a bigot against one thing. I do not like bigots. I know this is hypocritical. The fact that I hate bigots naturally would presume I should hate myself.

“Bigotry is the state of mind of a bigot: someone who, as a result of their prejudices, treats or views other people with fear, distrust or hatred on the basis of a person's opinion, ethnicity, evaluative orientation, race, religion, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, or other characteristics. “ - Wikipedia

Bigotry requires by its nature that an individual view themselves as part of a group that is superior in some way to that of another group. This can be in the form of believing they should be able to treat another group as less than themselves, or it can be in the form that they believe their own group should have special privileges that the other group should not. It can also occur just by believing they should never mix or interact with another group.

I wrote this little blurb because I wanted to discuss one particular form of bigotry. That form of bigotry is racism. This is also why I started this document with my ancestry. I believe racism should be eradicated from our planet. I only see one way this can happen. That is by all ethnicities being treated equal. The word “equal” is extremely important here. What I am historically seeing is more of a see saw, or pendulum type scenario.

Historically when racism is combated there is always an ethnicity that came out with the sharp end of the spear and had negative things occur. This could have been in the form of slavery, attempted genocide, having their ancestors land stolen, etc. Eventually if this ethnicity survives and enough guilt and logic towards the fact they should be treated equal sinks into the population instead of being treated equal they are usually given special treatment. The pendulum swings, the see saw tilts. The speed of this swing varies, and the results of any racism vary in intensity. However, the pendulum of racism continues to swing from one side to the other. There is a way to stop this motion.

Equality. If all ethnicities are treated equal and have no special treatments then there would be no fertile ground for racism. It would cease to exist.

I can prove my point:

Let's go with African American Slaves. Some of them may have been your ancestors. Indeed they may have been my ancestors too despite my skin color, as my family appears to fit the term “melting pot”.

Slavery was abolished. Though for a long time there still was no equal treatment. I saw the tail end of some of that when I was 4 or 5 but it was from two generations older than myself. This was in the 1970s. Such attitudes were dying off. In fact African Americans at that time had many “hero” figures for all ethnic groups at that time. I remember loving Mohamed Ali. Later I would love Jimi Hendrix. I didn't see them for skin color, I saw them for their actions, and what they offered the world.

• How many of you here know someone that has attended college on a minority scholarship?
• How many of you here know someone who is part of a black community group?
• How many of you here know a black person who uses the term “Nigger”?

Now the final question. What happens when a Caucasian person tries to do any of those three things? In my current experience there is an explosion about racism. However, let me qualify how those questions would be phrased to fit a Caucasian.

• How many of you here know someone that has attended college on a Caucasian scholarship?
• How many of you here know someone who is part of a Caucasian community group?
• How many of you here know a Caucasian who uses the derogatory term “Cracker?, or “Whitey”?

There is a Caucasian community group that is known as the KKK and they tend to be rather secretive as the majority of Caucasians like myself do not like them for it. There are also the Neo-Nazi type groups. These groups are NOT unique to the United States. I do not support them and consider them BAD and RACIST.

That is because, they are racist.

However, if you answered yes to any of those questions then you see examples of racism. They indicate cases where certain groups are being treated special.

As long as this special treatment exists there will be racism.

If you believe there should be special treatment then you are in fact supporting racism.

If you believe that because of past treatment that someone should be given special treatment then you are planting the seeds of bigotry.

The way to stop bigotry is to identify mistreatment situations and rather than now granting special treatment, give them equal treatment instead. Treat EVERYONE the same. It is only when one group believes they should have special treatment that we sow the seeds of bigotry, racism, sexism, religious intolerance, homophobia, etc.

If your answer to hate is hate. Hate is what you will always receive.

In other words, you cannot defeat hate with hate. It is not possible. Well there is one way to defeat hate with hate. If you totally eliminate the group you hate then it is theoretically possible. Odds are you will just move onto another group to hate at that point. There is also a really bad name for this... GENOCIDE. It is what Hitler was pursuing and what the Jews of Israel now use to justify anyone that challenges them as Anti-Semite.

In our country if we have a white president that we disagree with something they are doing that is acceptable.

If we have a black president and we disagree with something they are doing we are “racists” even though our reason for disagreeing likely had nothing to do with ethnicity.

Source: www.over-educated.com

END SPECIAL TREATMENT = EQUALITY

Conclusions for steemit

I wrote that it looks like in 2014. Black Lives Matter was not yet a thing when I wrote that.

Source: Wikipedia

I know some time after that I did find a wonderful Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quote that I thoroughly love:
Darkness cannot drive out darkness;
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that.
Hate multiplies hate,
violence multiplies violence,
and toughness multiplies toughness
in a descending spiral of destruction....
The chain reaction of evil --
hate begetting hate,
wars producing more wars --
must be broken,
or we shall be plunged
into the dark abyss of annihilation.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Strength To Love, 1963