“Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.”
Abraham J. Heschel
“In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently.”
Harry A. Blackmun
“I hate racial discrimination most intensely and all its manifestations. I have fought all my life; I fight now, and will do so until the end of my days. Even although I now happen to be tried by one, whose opinion I hold in high esteem, I detest most violently the set-up that surrounds me here. It makes me feel that I am a Black man in a White man's court. This should not be I should feel perfectly at ease and at home with the assurance that I am being tried by a fellow South African, who does not regard me as an inferior, entitled to a special type of justice.”
Nelson Mandela
I have encountered a type of racism today that I did not know existed, and its power to divide seems to lie with its ability to hide in plain sight.
To many, the initial reaction to perceived racism is usually a turning away and a silent rejection unless the recipient is himself racist, but the racism I describe here not only rejects, it returns fire whether warranted or not far beyond the scope of the initial position, again whether the perception was justified, real or imagined.
This has had the effect of watering down the debate or diluting the discourse so that, were we to approach a situation like alcohol abuse in one race, we would have to mention another race's penchant for violence and banditry, and perhaps even a third's involvement in the nefarious drug trade for example so as to be 'equal opportunity offenders' or worse, to scare 'outsiders' away from discussions outside of their own race altogether in some backward territorial display.
Does it take away from the fact that the initial premise may still be valid and at the heart of the malaise requiring attention?
No, but it empowers all sides and hardens positions based on justifying one race's wrongdoing because of another's.
I watched a situation dumbfounded over the weekend where a teenage boy who was caught stealing and carried to his mother so that she could deal with him, watched as his mother turned around and lambasted and disrespected those who she said were lying on her son. The fact that he was wearing the items that he stole had no impact on her, and in her rush to defend him from his captors may have inadvertently reinforced his belief in his right to a life of crime or to take whatever he wanted if the opportunity presented itself.
I suspect that I may see her again in the future if his planned life of crime delivers him back to her in a body bag, lamenting with pious tears what a good boy he was.
There is an inescapable truth that we are all interconnected socially and we impact each other's lives for good or bad depending on the choices we make. In this we are obligated to toe some level of respect for each other, the observance of the social contract and in the rule of law. When we leave that place it is quickly replaced by something akin to the law of the jungle where who dares wins, as is plainly evident to all who have eyes in all of the ills that plague our society.
Our first step towards first world status has to be with the people and their attitudes to themselves and each other and requires a relaxing of prejudices into a more united and 'national' approach if we are to come to terms with all of these frustrations to our quality of life. The second has to be an acceptance that there are issues specific to each race that need addressing individually, separate and apart if we are to bring everyone up to the same level playing field.
This must be the goal, to get everyone's standard of living on par with whoever has the highest standard of living right now, rather than defending turf that disempowers, neuters and isolates.
If we cannot do this then the uneasy peace we live with will not last forever and at some point for some silly reason all of the hopes and dreams of a plural and multi-ethnic society will burn away like chaff in the inferno of racial conflict.
There is little satisfaction to be had by being the one that prevents us from becoming a true family united as different shades of one people, and anyone who wants to build bridges to community where canyons now exist should be encouraged and rewarded rather than humbled and put in their place.
Something to think about...
Yes it is me the same person who posted about the non blacks. Listen you don't try to pretend to care about black people okay,cause you really don't! As long as you and other non blacks not affected directly with the negative issues that plague this land,you all don't give a f**K! MY community has a lot of problems and until and unless we ourselves face these problems,by treating the cause and not the effect,you non blacks could talk till the cow comes home,it would not change a damn thing! So stick to fixing your community first!
ReplyDeletePerson...if you are going to stand up for "your" black community at least have enough backbone to let the world associate those counter productive comments with your name. Solutions, regardless of where they come from are helpful to all. You dear person should stop trying to pretend to care about black people, it is obvious that you don't and I as a black woman do not wish to have you speaking for my community so you can take up your soap box and leave. The Black community is not enhanced by your denigrating comments. Personally I would rather give the author and those like him a shot than have my children and my community subjected to your brand of assistance
ReplyDeletei disagree somewhat with this: "solutions, regardless of where they come from are helpful to all."
ReplyDeleteTruth be told, i dont know much about you or anyone else in this post and so on, but I think that is fallacious. from Avatar to Dangerous minds we see the white messianic coming to save the black masses. Im not a racist. But Im just saying that the symbol (which is the transcendence of any quotidian act) of that is much greater than the material void it may have filled, or even 'intellectual' void and so on. I somewhat agree with the anonymous poster, that the core of change or revitalization of any group who consider themselves a people (the question is, do the people he is speaking of as HIS COMMUNITY, consider themselves a community, or maybe that question need not be asked who knows) have to come from within them. The outside 'solutions' are coming from a place outside the core of the problem. But quite on the other hand, I remember CLR James saying something: that revolutions are usually headed by people who were once the benefactors of the system being overturned. Not necessarily benefactors I guess, but people who had been spared its drudgery. Esp. in the total dehumanization that took place in both holocausts : the black and the jewish one. Yet if the group sees themselves as a community based on race, and that group is black, I really think that it may be a little too ambiguous and too familiar (bcuz even missionaries who wreaked havoc in Africa seemed to be coming on modest and humble pretexts) an unknowingly noxious symbol, for a group trying to rehabilitate itself from the very thing that this (inadvertantly) dangerous symbol can promote. But I dunno if I say rightly, but if you feeding people and you helping them get housing, I cyah tell you stop: Hegel say give a man bread before you give him philosophy. But hegel may or may not have been an ass: I say give a man identity so that he may form/recognize community, and with a true (not the capitalistic- "admirable" compromise of the egocentric individual- that Western civilization considers community) community the possibilities abound. The sad fact is, the legacy we have been left, and its vestiges which still inhere today--- the very system through which it survives has an inbuilt mechanism to have these communities based on race, chiefly because a people were having something that made them a community (i.e. religion/cultural practices/ cultural/philophical standpoint) taken from them. As ambiguous as my reply sounds, it makes sense. We are in a very ambiguous situation here. So don't cut each other's throats. The situation itself is tough. blessings
i jus read your post on rhoda's wall! and its telling that the first thing u jump to was an ethnic group as opposed to socio economic! it seems u are a racist who doesnt know they are. A quadroon who has mastered his one quarter and thinks he knows the whole. Brother, givin a man food doh give u a rite to talk about historical eternities. this aint Avatar. Im glad I came across you. Soon you'll want to write a version of Naipaul's Masque of Africa on Trinidadian African population. You do speak the truth, but from a very ignorant place. Read up on your history, and see if within a mulattoed moment of epiphany, you may find the navel of the very system that allows u to be a volunteer, and keeps manufacturing KFC workers and Cocaine addicts, to make you look good, and look like the 'truth teller' on fb. I doh care if u dont post this. my message is clear. And all ur little sympathizers can read it as well. U my friend need to look at what is YOUR problem bcuz u certainly have one. And its usually ppl like u, those with confusions of the alleigances, and due to that lack of grounding seek the realm of politics, a place where one can act, where one can seem secure, esp with a crowd of semi/ cocaine addicts...or at least the brothers n sisters of them, and d kfc workers. I'll keep my eyes on your truth all the way to ur leading role.
ReplyDeleteBut I wont be able to recognize you, because you still say all you say hidden in plain sight. I posted your contribution for the world to see how brave a coward can be behind anonymity. I said what I had to say from a good place and had the courage to defend it.
ReplyDeleteYou, you're throwing stones hoping someone throws you a bone.
Here, fetch...
I am presuming Ghede se mete tet mwen that I should have phrased it as a good solution (maybe). I still can't subscribe to the racist venom ascribed to the person who hides in anonymity. Possibly feeding a person is not enough as much as teaching them to get/grow their own food but I still fail to understand the racist tones that would lead someone to dismiss a valid solution (regardless of the author's colour) simply based on race or ethnicity.
ReplyDeleteWhile I fully get your point, I have learned to take the good from a message and throw away the sore points.
No one is asking for a white saviour but let me end with a very, very simplistic question: If my house is on fire should I refuse the assistance my neighbours' offer simply because they are all of a different race to me? Is it not that they fully understand house on fire = out with water? Does their race make that understanding invalid?
Phillip,
ReplyDeleteThese discussions, although potentially painful and incendiary, are necessary. Maybe if more people would do more talking in the open and less shoo-shooing in private, the elephants in the rooms could finally escape and give us all more room to manoeuvre.
Don't agree with Abraham J. Heschel's: “Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.”
I think that racism is a symptom. Ignorance is the real root.
Don't agree with Harry A. Blackmun's:
“In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently.”
I'd say instead, “In order to get beyond racism, we must treat ALL persons equally.....AND eradicate ignorance."
Nelson Mandela's entire quote, I agree with 2000%
Phillip, I'd like to comment further on this post and the comments it inspired but I am puzzled. You mentioned, "I have encountered a type of racism today that I did not know existed, and its power to divide seems to lie with its ability to hide in plain sight."
What exactly was that encounter? Since the only encounter which you described was that of the woman denying that her son had stolen the items, I am wondering if this was where the demonstration of racism occurred? Is there something that you did not mention? Were racist comments used when the mother "lambasted and disrespected" those who she claimed were lying about her son?
If this is not spelled out, there is nothing to prevent thoughtful readers from coming to the conclusion that the "racism" was introduced into that equation by yourself as a result of your attributing the woman's attitude to the fact that she belongs to a particular "race".
There would have been no harm in sharing her "racist" comments, if she made these. I like to see the opinions of all sides [whether justified or not] being presented when they are voiced.
Blessings
Guanaguanare
It was what prompted this, a discussion over who had the right to say what about who.
ReplyDelete