RE: Racism... Have you ever tried simply not referencing race?
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 :)