Racism... Have you ever tried simply not referencing race?
I am a firm believer that you cannot defeat racism by using racism. It is like a see-saw, or a hamster wheel, Oroboros, Musical Chairs, etc. It simply shifts the racism around but perpetuates it, fuels it, and strengthens it.
I am curious what might happen if people simply stopped referring to race. Can these people do it? Can they actually report stories without calling people white, black, mexican, asian, etc.?
I truly think if they could do this then racism would die. That doesn't mean it would not be replaced by other forms of bigotry, but that could at least end racism.
I find it the height of hypocrisy that one race believes that it is okay to bash another race.
I also don't know any slaves. You could go back three generations or more and I know no slaves.
I can go back more generations than that and guarantee you my ancestors in those generations owned no slaves.
So WHY am I, my children, etc being challenged over slavery?
If we can use slavery then how far can we go back? Go back far enough and every "race" has had slavery examples at one point or another.
So where is that magical line where future generations no longer have to pay for the actions of generations in the past?
I consider myself part of one race. The Human Race.
I have written on such things in the past before I had much of a following, but I still stand by these things:
- False Dichotomies rule the stage during this day... we should learn to recognize them... [logical fallacy]
- Have I experienced racism?
- Hate begets Hate, Apathy begets Nothingness, and You too can have a Hamster Wheel
- Old musing: Abolish bigotry and racism (excavated from older writings) - circa 2014
- So do you want to be treated equal? Of Potty Mouthism, Racism, Sexism, Whaleism, etc
- Reality Check: Black Lives Matter Demonstrators Don’t Need Permission to Protest
Edit:
It has been a couple of days, but I only just now remembered a very short and great Morgan Freeman video that pretty much sums up my thoughts on racism in a little over one minute.
Steem On!
A very good and thought provoking article extremely well needed right now, especially with the rise of neo-nazis and racism all over the world right now. Intolerance and most importantly fear of the different/difference" explodes almost all over the world with the usual disastrous effects it has plagued humanity with for so long. Thank you for sharing and asking tough questions that many might actually be afraid to even look at!
In deed, there is only one race and it is the HUMAN RACE. Trying to analyse it beyond this point creates the racism.
As to whether eliminating racism would create more bigotry somewhere else, the odds are there as racism itself is a fuelled by problems beyond racism most of the time. There are several sources for such philosophical views, it is not born out of nowhere. Xenophobia is a great nourishment for it to appear. Other discriminatory thought movements would arise to respond to the sickness, just like a bacteria can have multiple effects in our bodies and creating multiples different illnesses inside and/or outside the body. Racism as is stand in my mind as a sickness of the heart followed by a sickness of the mind to which many antidotes exists: Tolerance, courage, patience, travelling, and education.
By first exposing racism for what it is, we can find out very easily what it is not. From there, what do we want to do with it? Let it fester?? We are all humans, all living with some fears of some sort. By supporting each other through our fears, we can help each other overcome this disease. Strengthening ourselves individually helps us all become stronger communally. "Fear is the mind killer", as the movie would say, and racism feeds on it. By becoming strong within, fear goes away. No wonder some cultures of our human history considers fear as a disease. By building ourselves strongly within, we keep such affliction away from ourselves.
Reading your post, makes me happy to find myself on this platform. All for one and one for all! Namaste :)
In some of my other articles on the topic I recommended the movie Hotel Rwanda which is based upon a not too distant true story. Sadly, in that when they shared skin color they still found a way to define RACE and they committed mass murder and genocide against each other. They appealed to the UN to rescue them, and that didn't work out so well.
So when I hear people blasting one skin color or another I am always drawn back to that movie which shows exactly how much of a farce the division over skin color is.
Yet you and look at history. At times the Italians have been blasted in the U.S. At other times it was the Irish being put down. So that was also cases where even sharing a skin color was meaningless.
So yes... humanity seems to fall prey to being manipulated by one form of bigotry or another.
Lately though it is good ol' skin color, and/or religion that are being used the most. Historically those have been very good at dividing and manipulating masses to commit atrocities among others.
It always begins in something that SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME. Those ideas are generally reactionary in nature, and are really short term thinking, and the long term results are just the same bigotry/racism/religious persecution stories that repeat over and over again in history.
Black Lives Matter sounded GOOD at the time. Yet all it has ended up being good at is dumping fuel on to the fire of racism.
As you say: "Historically those have been very good at dividing and manipulating masses to commit atrocities among others". I would have to underline the good at diving and manipulating (conquering) the masses, in deed!
In relation to racism, it has been a subject extremely close to me for so many years and found myself, even as early as little 6 years old if not earlier, fighting against it. Movie depicting the subject very well are quite easy to find, luckily. Did you ever come across the movie "The Hundred-Foot Journey", "The Power of One", "Amistad", "Schindler's List", "Mississippi burning", "The Great Debaters" or "Lean on Me"? They are such powerful examples of this theme and offer some glimmer of hope to answer such matters for the sake of all humanity.
Do you think that Black Lives Matter issues have made the matter of racism worse or has it allowed for racism to surface and be seen for its ugliness? Maybe a bit of both???
All for one and one for all! Namaste :)
Very good post.
Just take such a thing as calling people "African Americans" when they've not even set foot in Africa and neither did their relatives several generations back. They are clearly just "Americans", not "Africans" or a "mix" between the two.
But try calling a white person whom actually lived in Africa since several generations back and then immigrated from Africa to America "African American". It would make more logical sense, since neither "African" or "American" is a race, but this would be looked at with contempt by a lot of people.
For me as an outsider, it would seem that the term "African American" is simply the nationalist lesser form of earlier racist terminology, resulting from the fact that people were no longer allowed to say "nigger", "negroe" or in more recent years sometimes even "black".
It's been an easy way out, rather than having to explain what race or nationality is or what role it plays/should/shouldn't play in society. It's a "nicer" term, but which confuses terminology and could ultimately end up hindering progress in the U.S. just because it ties race or even just skin color itself to a continent.
Yes, color terms such as "black" and "white" are imperfect too, but they don't confuse even half as much as jumping to conclusions and presuming African identity or heritage simply by looking at that same skin color.
African American is actually an attempt by people to not be called racist by referring to someone as Black. There have been times in the not so distant past that calling someone Black was considered racist by some people.
The problem is that people can decide just about anything is racist.
Thus, why I wish people would stop referring to race at all except perhaps if they are dealing with a medical condition that has a higher genetic occurrence in a certain "race". That is about the only case where I believe race TRULY matters. If talking to witnesses and trying to identify a violent criminal (intentionally put violent there) then knowing skin color is of course going to be useful.
Other than that racism will continue to exist as long as people continue to use it. For example: Is there a White History Month? Are there White only Scholarships? Is there a White Lives Matter? (probably is on that last)
I don't think any of those things should exist regardless of color. They encourage segregation and fuel racism.
I'm in full agreement.
To me, race is a moot point. What really matters is whether or not you are willing to think.
Personally, I believe that "race" is simply another hobgoblin put in front of people to help divide us. Divided, we are much easier to control. If we eventually manage to get organized then the days of archists (mon, olig, etc.) everywhere are numbered... and they know that.
Nice post with some interesting data. I'm not certain we are all human. (Yes, looking at you politicians here... vampires...)
I agree. We are all human, but not all human's are decent people. :(
I really love this video... and love the hell out of Morgan Freeman.
Thank you. Sanity. Part of what the human brain does is discriminate, which can be helpful at times, but also lead to delusional prejudice. When the prejudice is about skin pigment or what region of the Earth a person is from, then it is called racism. Even though there is, scientifically, only one human race it is still called racism. Corporate media perpetuates delusional prejudice.
Divide and conquer. It is much easier to manipulate people if they can keep us divided and pointing fingers/weapons/laws at each other.
Among the critical theory crowd, color blindness is now said to be a form of racism, because it enables one to ignore racial issues and how their experience of life differs from someone else for racial reasons.
This surprises only because critical theorists were once the foremost advocates for color blindness. But it was only one step. You have to tear down the way people see something before you can replace it with the way you want them to see it.
How is "Black man/woman" or "White man/woman" racist?
They are discriptions not like all the others in the picture. The rest of them I would say are racist.
Am I wrong or does that make me racist or something?
:/
Those are only racist depending upon context. It is popular lately to use "White Male" as a derogatory statement. "You are oblivious because, you are a white male." That is actually happening quite a lot lately.
I have often pondered this problem and think you have a well written discussion. It's a difficult one!
The issue of race is all around us. As long as there are different cultures and skin color there is race. But a reference to a certain color or culture is not racism. It is the intent with which it is used. Even members of the same race or color can be guilty of racism. The problem is, we have been made hyper aware of the issue and now any reference at all is construed as racist. I have many friends of different color, ethnicity, culture and gender. We openly discuss issues on this matter regularly and no one considers another racist. We all just need to learn to get along and look out for one another.
I am in total agreement with this. You will get a number of arguments along the lines of "But there are other races, we just have to accept one another's differences". I don't agree with that logic, because now you're not just using 'race' you're using 'differences'. I think these bodies are like costumes. Yeah, there are different shapes, sizes, and colors, but they hold a spirit that has no race.
Yeah bigotry (of which racism is just one type).
You can't fight bigotry with bigotry.
You can't fight racism with racism.
That is simply hypocrisy.
Dr. Martin Luther King had a great quote that apparently MANY people do not understand. It is beautiful and puts it very eloquently.
Yes, this. Well said. I'm afraid that many people do not have the level of empathy it takes to evolve to the next level...yet. I'm encouraged after joining steemit though, to find a number of like-minded individuals.
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