Four days ago, following a heavy snow, two kids from our neighborhood spotted the snow shovels in our garage. One of them already had a shovel, the other didn’t, so he asked if he could borrow ours in order to raise money clearing driveways. Kids offering to shovel driveways in the winter are as ubiquitous as ice cream trucks in the summer, so I said, “Yes, but bring it back in two hours.” They agreed. I went in the house. A moment later my wife came around the corner and saw them taking the other shovel out of our garage. She asked if I’d told them they could, despite the fact that they now had three shovels. They said yes. She shrugged and made them promise to bring the shovels back soon. We haven’t seen them since.
Oh, and one more thing: the kids were African American, as are 3/4ths of our neighbors. The temptation, based on this incident, would be to conclude that “black kids steal.” Fortunately, we have a lot of wonderful black neighbors who we love and who love us, and we’ve paid some great kids over the years to shovel snow and rakes leaves, so we were able to defuse that lie before it blew up in our hearts.
A few days ago, I wrote about an incident that’s still blowing up in America’s heart: a group of white Catholic school kids appeared in a brief video to be mocking a Native American man. Virulent outcries about their disgusting display of racism flooded the internet. Then more footage emerged, showing that the incident wasn’t exactly what it seemed. Was their behavior faultless? Hardly (they’re teenagers), but it was far from the smoking-gun it initially appeared to be.
Then, in the wake of the information that followed, many commentators (and some of my own Facebook friends) concluded that what the students did or didn’t do doesn’t matter. Why? Because they are “white and privileged,” and therefore guilty anyway. (For what it’s worth, not all of the students at Cov Cath are white, and the school serves a largely working class community.)
In other words, some people are arguing that the cure for racism is reverse racism. No. White people who hate black people are racists. French people who hate Chinese people are racists. Chinese people who hate East Indians are racists. Black people who hate Mexicans are racists. (I’ve seen all of the above.) No matter how it’s justified, it’s wrong.
Because the cure for racism is not racism. It never was, and it never will be. Yes, many white people have treated black and indigenous peoples in my country abominably, criminally, and that must continue to be addressed. But loathing white teenagers from Kentucky because they are white is not addressing it.
As Dr. King said, “Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.”
So why do we persist in believing hate can cure hate?
Mitch Teemley 
“So why do we persist in believing hate can cure hate?”
Because many of us (humans) are disingenuous bigots…
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Maybe most people subscribe to the material and mathematical thinking that -1+1 could be nullified.
But in the spiritual and emotional realm, just as in music, it works best to simply let an unpleasant vibration fade out, instead of throwing more oil into the same flame.
I am so grateful for this article and beautiful comment section – it’s relieving to see other open hearts and minds, and a real sanctuary in the news.world where so much hate and fear is instigated.
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I fully agree, but sometimes we also need to take a cold hard look at humanity and simply state where it is right now (how far it has fallen). As a Jungian I believe we should look our collective shadow squarely in the face and start dealing with it (we are way, way, way over due.) It is especially the mass embracing of mobile screen technologies and social networking that has lead to the amplifying of the human shadow-side. We need to collectively take responsibility for that because we are collectively embracing screen-culture and social networking with all their rather extreme side effects. How low do we want to go? We have to face up to our individual shadow-sides which feed into the collective shadow – and that takes courage, real courage. It is really time for all of us to start growing up. There’s really no point in sugar-coating it anymore.
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congratulations for your website – your article about yugas and earth cycles reminded me that we simply seem just to come out of the darkest part. So of course there seems to be tons of residual racism to work out.
I just wonder how you intend for us to collectively take on responsibility. I can’t see that happen by the level of aggressive deflection of racists.
For now all I can see as an option is to work on myself and hope that somehow globally me working out my own crap will also have a cleansing or inspiring effect around me.
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Thank you for your comment and sorry for my late reply (I didn’t log-in for a few days). You are exactly right – by taking personal responsibility we contribute to collective responsibility. This is what Carl Jung’s main message was as well – every individual person who takes responsibility and withhold his or her dark side / aggression, etc, is contributing to peace and is acting as a positive role-model for everyone around him.
The interesting thing is that we are in a 20 year time period that has a very polarizing effect on everyone due the Spirit of the Age – I explained why this is and how we can deal with it in one of my articles:
http://gypsycafe.org/2017/09/25/the-fifth-earth-energy-transitions-part-3/
The problem with screen-culture is that most people have embraced it to the extent that they cannot live without it and social media amplifies the general polarization in society.
What I meat with ‘taking collective responsibility’ is that everyone who is active on social media – probably around 80 or 90% of the population in developed countries – should acknowledge that we have brought this type of extreme behavior onto ourselves / into our own societies, because we have embraced screen culture knowing the side effects which are not only evident, but numerous documentaries have been made pointing it out and even neuroscientists has pointed it out.
We have also become so caught up in social media that many of us have thrown common courtesy, ethics, morals and respect for others out of the window.
(Although I say “we” I personally do not use social media except for WordPress and I don’t own a Smartphpone either, that’s my personal contribution to not adding to the polarization)
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Thanks for your reply, Jean-Jacques,
since I did not get around to fully finish your recommended 2012 post, I do comment here my intermittent quick brainstorms on your articles in order not to let you wait for too long.
About the yugas:
I meanwhile did ask an Indian Hindu about which Yuga version he believes in: The long one which is 365 times larger, or your one which Sri Yukteswar did calculate and which I have also seen favoured by another Guru whom I don’t respect.
I think Yukteshwar, like his student Yogananda were driven by the excitment of heart energy, so it is likely that they liked the possibility of us now shifting, which is uplifting.
But by looking at the world today my suspicion is that we rather still are in the deepest dark Kali Yuga, because some things are better than in the past, but overall the world still is in dark chaos, as can be seen by the immature political and corporate forces being in place.
So I think this will go on for thousands of more years – yet a seed of the golden age will come in the midst of it, which is like the white spot in the middle of the dark part of the yin-yang sign.
This is why I think that for the few who evolve now in the aquarian age etc… the masses still will be in the dark, so in my eyes I think we can’t expect a group-shift of consciousness as you propose, but the more alert people of us have to do the work within themselves first in order then to spread light to the zeitgeist in general.
Since we are here on a Christian blog I would like to take Jesus as an example:
He was in the age of pisces before the aquarian age (hence the fish-symbol for Christianity), and way ahead of his time by transforming the dark eye-for-an-eye philosophy from the old testament to the new one of love and forgiveness.
Still, even 2 Millennia later we still live in this terrible unethical mess – an example how the zeitgeist just follows the spreaders of light with a huge inertia.
So even if you now insist on the faster calculation and us already moving into the Dwarpa Yuga, the transformation times are so long that I doubt that we might experiance significant changes within our short lifespan.
I hope that I did not discourage you with my plain assessment, but maybe this even does help you on not relying on the shift of the masses and therefore being able to focus more on yours as a spiritual pioneer.
Thanks for your great and inspiring research which is important to educate us.
Btw… A tipp for you – something I actually learned from the blog-writer Mitch here:
Split up your articles in smaller parts, and I am certain that you will get more readers who then also are willing to digest the other parts out of curiosity.
I myself just learn this and find it difficult myself to keep my posts concise, but I work on it.
And so that you don’t feel depressed by plain assessment, I add a more optimistic documentary on this subject for you to enjoy 😉
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Thank you sitting bull for your further insightful reply and also the questions you raise – also thank you for the video link – I will have a look at it shortly.
I’ll just make a few brief comments since it’s such a vast subject and rather complex – and as you can see from the articles I have written it’s quite difficult to keep the information concise. In fact, the chapters I’m publishing on my blog are actually chapters of a forthcoming book, but I’m making them publicly available in advance as I believe people could in the meantime already benefit from the information. After the editing process the length of the chapters may be shorter.
– First things first: All cycles in ancient cosmological systems are cycles within cycles within cycles, known as fractals. So Sri Yukteswar calculation is a much smaller cycle within the much larger Yugas cycle. Many, prossibly most Hindus still adhere to the longer cycle. Neither of these calculation are necessarily “wrong”. The very large cycles are however not very practically applicable to human life, while the smaller cycles are – I mean what can you do with a Kali Yuga cycle that will last for hundreds of thousands of years more? It seems futile to even want to try. All one can do when you focus on such a large (negative) cycle is to “hope for better days” and get on with your life.
– More than 30 ancient mythologies (including the Mayan calendar) have been recorded (for example, see the book: Hamlet’s Mill by Giorgio de Santillana) which match the Sri Yukteswar length of the Great Year Cycle – which in turn more or less matches the Procession of the Equinoxes, which has been studied by many Western scientists – here is an in-depth podcast about that which I’m sure you will enjoy:
[audio src="https://cdn.voiceamerica.com/empowerment/010695/tongue040611.mp3" /]
In my own articles/chapters I try to focus more on the shorter cycles of the Mayan calendars and Yuga cycles within their large cycles – the shorter cycles and especially the shifts can usually actually be ‘felt’ and ‘seen’ (if we pay attention and ‘tune into them’) in practice in terms of societal trends and events – for example the undeniable high level of polarization we can actually see all around us (a high polarity cycle of 20 years comes around every 256 years in the Mayan ‘short count calendar’ a.k.a: the Katuns cycle).
You said: “…because some things are better than in the past, but overall the world still is in dark chaos, as can be seen by the immature political and corporate forces being in place.”
Yes – you have summed it up perfectly. We are still partly in Kali Yuga, but we have also moved out of much or it (as can be seen on the Diagram in Part 5 of my Energy Shifts series), but in the last few years we have had a relapse (in fact we are going through major upheavle than can be likened to the Biblical Tribulation) back into some of the darker energy of the Kali Yuga and this will last for some years, but not for very long.
Reason being the 20 years of polarity on the one hand (as mentioned before), but also because we are about to move into a lighter cycle on the Yugas cyle, and just before a shift into The Light, the dark forces usually accumulate to resist such a breakthrough…. as explained in the following article, see the section about the Subsubyugas – the article also gives you a good insight of the cycles within cycles, or fractals as I mentioned before:
Excerpt:
“We can add a third level to the Yugas or ‘sub-subyugas’. For the current subyuga these would be.
1900 – 1920 Dwapara Kali Kali
1920 – 1960 Dwapara Kali Dwapara
1960 – 2020 Dwapara Kali Treta
2020 – 2100 Dwapara Kali Satya”
https://www.vedanet.com/keys-to-the-yugas-or-cycles-of-the-ages-subyugas-in-the-sri-yukteswar-yuga-cycle/
I have also written another article called: “The Valley of Shadows in the Landscape of Light”, which explains how and why we are going through a temporary dark patch that will last around forty years (in the greater scheme of things this is actually not such a long time). All my articles in this series is now available on a dedicated easy to read site:
http://energyshifts.net/
Thanks again for your feedback, Sitting Bull and for your interest! Please do not hesitate to provide more of your thoughts and options – I will respond as best as I can, time permitting – and thank you to our host MItch Teemley for providing the platform for this discussion! It encourages me to write more.
PS: It is important to note that all of this fits into Christian principles too. I come from a Christian background myself, but explore broadly in order to bring insights on/of the many facets of this fascinating and wonderful intelligently designed universe that we have the privilege of living in.
Best wishes,
Jean-Jacques
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This statement of “they’re guilty because they are white and privileged” reveals the truth of what they were thinking all along. They don’t care that they do not make sense. They are acting out of rage and indignation and self-righteousness. No amount of reasoning gets through to a person in that state of mind. How do we calm them down enough to actually have a conversation? How do you reach an adult acting like a two year old that didn’t get their way?
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I agree, PK. As I said in the previous “The New Death Penalty” post, I think identifying and culturally “executing” the bad guy has become a hallmark of our times. Grey areas and shared responsibility may be closer to the truth, but they aren’t the instant fix we’re looking for.
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I wish it were as simple as love curing racism. Yes, love drives out hate, but how do we get everyone to love one another, that is the big question. We know the answer, we just don’t have the desire of everyone to get there. That is the sad truth about humanity.
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You’re right, Carla. I didn’t so much say in this post what the cure is as what it isn’t. Though I do agree with Dr. King. I think love in action–developing relationships that obliterate stereotypes and foster understanding–is the closest to a one sentence answer as I can come. Of course, making that happen, especially among those who are highly disinclined, is where the real challenge lies.
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Yes, and that is where the problem lies.
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“So why do we persist in believing hate can cure hate?”
The answer to this is easy Mitch. It’s because it’s easier to hate than it is to love. Love takes work,hard work. Love is messy,dirty,and requires commitment. Hatred requires nothing of us but closed minds and hearts.
Love them like Jesus and rascism will disappear very quickly.
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Right you are, Ron.
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I hate to say it, but my view is that there is no cure for racism because of the lack of education and the fact that people don’t want to change. Too many people love to hate as well.
As far as these boys in the video…it’s like they’ve had no direction. I was shocked when I saw it. Racism aside, it seems to me that people are gaining a general lack of respect for each other more and more in this world. It’s scary.
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So, have you seen hide nor hare of these three shovels???????
As usual, a great post, Mitch. And once, again, kiddo, we soooo agree….
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Sadly, no, they’re gone with the wind.
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Had that White Privilege discussion just the other day with the wife. She was feeling guilty of being white and wondering why she was born that way. Worldwide, we are the minority, so folks, don’t feel so special. Totally forgot you’re a stone’s throw across the river from Covington. Peace my friend. (No answers to that question by the way)
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You too, Rooster.
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Thank you for your post. I work for a non-profit called Unity Unlimited. I’m the Farm Manager for Opal’s Farm, which is part of Unity. Our namesake, Ms. Opal Lee, is 92 years old. An African-American lady, she told me of having her house burned down on June 19th, 1939, by her white neighbors as they had just moved into the all-white neighborhood. For months afterward, her family was spread among various neighbors and friends until the day they could rejoin under one roof. It would be so easy to hate, to be vengeful, and to assume the worst in people of the majority race, but…
she didn’t. As she told me this story she also let me know she made a choice that day: a choice to love her neighbor anyway and to let go of any resentment. She is the kind of person (and disciple of Jesus) that I hope to be when I grow up. The love she has for others is contagious. Yes, I too, believe love is the answer. How I treat my neighbor spreads outward. Even when it faces obstacles of racism and hate, it leaves its mark. Maybe it is as simple as that. If I can love one person maybe they will be the change we seek…
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Amen, Gregory, and thank you for sharing the inspiring story of Opal’s extraordinary choice!
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A wonderful voice of sanity in a crazy world of chaos. Thanks, Mitch. God bless!
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You too, Nancy!
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I live in a very integrated city with a large mixed race population. Your friends, neighbors, coworkers, fellow church members all colors so you get to know them.
This has convinced me the cure for racism is integration and friendships among people of different races. Thanks for the like!
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I heartily agree, Seren!
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People still can’t appreciate the beauty of diversity, I guess. We tend to be scared or wary about something or someone that is different from us… Probably because we don’t want to try to understand them
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Absolutely. I tried to address that in an older post, linked to Dr. King’s line above (“Only love can do that”). Thanks for putting it succinctly and well.
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You make the case as it should be made, with good sense.
we look at the title of a book and say we don’t like it,
we look at broccoli and say we hate it (even though we’ve never tasted it)
we look at someone who looks different and we fear them or hate them…
all born of the same thing…ignorance.
It stinks that your kindness was abused and your shovels taken. The least they
could do would be shovel your walkways for the season!
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Yeah, we’re not holding our breath for that, Sarah. ;>) Thanks!
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“Judged on the content of their character’ never came about as the government counts only race over and over again and teaches victimization as if it were a virtue to ascribe to. In the meanwhile we have the ‘social gospel’ preached and the gospel of Jesus ignored. There is no such thing as sex in Heaven nor will their be races. The same actually is true here on earth: there is no race: there are only humans. I guess we will never reach this point of common knowledge whereas even little children know the difference. It takes an adult to learn to hate those who we perceive as ‘different’. Mitch, a fine exposition as always on your behalf. Keep up the good work..
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Thanks, T.F.
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This reminds me of something that happened with one of my stepsons when he was much younger. Though he is white, he used to live in a predominantly black neighborhood. At the time, his best friend was black, fact that was entirely lost on them both.
My wife tells me that he didn’t know there was even a difference until someone at school pointed it out. She said he came home from school one day and asked, “Mom, am I white?” Someone had rather unkindly made him aware that he was somehow supposed to be different because his skin is a certain color. The good news is that his attitude hasn’t changed.
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So true! Me being white my best friend was as black as it can be and once he said “Beethoven sounds black to US” I just became aware that he saw himself as black and did remember that I was white.
I think those racial discriminations are hammered into our brains and would kids never hear of it they simply wouldn’t be racist.
I am working on getting those unhealthy, arbitrary and stupid distortions out of my mind again.
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One thing we must not forget is that humans have a natural tendency to be clannish. It’s in our nature to be so, nor is there anything wrong with it. Where people get things confused is when they conflate that tendency with racism.
For example, I had a friend in high school tell me that humans are naturally racist because we tend to gravitate to the familiar. I’ve since learned that simply isn’t the case. Small children exhibit our base nature in all its glory, from the violent and destructive to the loving and kind, and I’ve never seen a small child react fearfully to someone of a different color.
My two youngest children are 3 years and 20 months. We are Hispanic, my wife is white, our best friends are Jewish, another of my wife’s best friends is black, and the church we attend is as racially diverse as can be. Neither of them notices skin color, nor do they seem to care. They do notice someone whose face they don’t recognize and go into “stranger danger” mode, but skin color is never a factor.
If I were to base everything on just their responses, I would have to conclude that our clannish tendencies are there for a reason, and race has not one bit of anything to do with it.
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Last spring I witnessed the coming together of different races for a musical event. Hundreds of people attended, and a number of groups performed. Enthusiastic appreciation was expressed by everyone, no matter the genre, including classical, Blue Grass, gospel, ethnic, and modern. All the smiles and friendliness that ensued contributed to an unmistakable atmosphere of unity. I don’t know if the organizers knew it or not, but research has proven: “Singing corporately produces a chemical change in our bodies that contributes to a sense of bonding” (Bob Kauflin, a member of GLAD vocal band for thirty years). I wish more such opportunities became available for us to meet on neutral ground and let the power of music bring us together–just one of many ways that just might help heal the rift among us.
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I agree, Nancy. Doing life together in as many ways as possible is key, but especially (when applicable) spiritual life.
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I like the clarity of this, helpful thoughts.
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Racism is, in my opinion, quite possibly the most illogical position one could attempt to hold, even moreso than atheism. The truth of the matter is that there are no races, there is only one race, the human race. All of our physical differences boil down to one simple fact: some humans take longer to sun burn than others.
The idea of race is relatively new, having come into existence in the past few centuries. They needed an excuse, as God designed Scripture to eventually weed out slavery. In the end, someone came up with the idea of using pseudoscientific principles to justify continuing slavery as an institution.
In ancient times, regardless of which part of the planet you were on, humans took turns enslaving each other. It’s nearly as old as humanity. No one cared about skin color, the shape of someone’s eyes, nose, or mouth. Free labor was free labor, and that was all there was to it.
Africans held African and white slaves, whites held white and African slaves, Muslim Arabs have consistently enslaved anyone they could, we humans are rather indiscriminate in how far and wide we spread misery. It’s a gift.
I think that the sooner the concept of race goes the way of the dinosaur, much like slavery and the Jim Crowe laws (thank God), the better. Cultural difference are one thing. Historical and ethnic histories are one thing. This race thing is another, and it has no place among us. We are all human, some just happen to darker than others. So what?
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Amen, sir.
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Understanding history is not the same as using history to refuse to understand. Somewhere we need to find a starting point for progress.
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A good starting point is what a Hindu (i.e, someone who believes in reincarnation) did tell me: It is not about becoming a good person, but to leave the axis of entanglement, such as “good vs evil”.
His example was that in the past life someone might have been a criminal, in this life, he became a police-man in order to balance out his mindset;
but because his internal moral axis still stands, in next life he becomes a criminal again.
This taught me that fighting something won’t work and resistance to anything is persistence of it. So whenever I hate racists I keep in mind that I am not doing anything against racism, but feeding that axis of indoctrinated values.
I say “indoctrinated”, because the joke is that the border between races is so fluid that it becomes absurd framing people for it. I for example don’t see mulatto people as black, but as half white half black and therewith being brown just like most of the world.
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Thank you for your input. There is much more to my comment than what is read. Remember spiritual thinking is based on tenants of those who follow that path. When there is an opportunity to understand, that is what requires no need to follow a path. I prefer to not look at people as “masses” but as “spirits”.
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Thank you. I think.
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Thank you for your profound insight which said:
‘I prefer to not look at people as “masses” but as “spirits”.’
We probably differentiate much to materialistically when judging others or ourselves for “the packe in the body”, when in fact it could be that those are merely a bunch of different energies flowing through someone at one moment which later might (have) change(d).
I think I will work on not clinging too much to “physical compilation prejudices” anymore but look at the world more as it is NOW instead (away from the brain to the heart).
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You are welcome.
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Something that I always try to emphasize when commenting on race relations is that from a Christian perspective everyone who is in Christ is of the blood of Christ and thereby one family. There will be no races in the future. Only Christlike spirits. Everything else will burn
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Now, that’s taking the long view, Lloyd. One might even say an eternal view.
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I really try brother.
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Tribalism is as old as humanity itself and racism, xenophobia and identity politics are all forms of extreme tribalism, also know as ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is a built-in mechanism to naturally motivate cultural differences – and therefore genuine cultural diversity – without ethnocentrism cultural diversity would disappear.
What needs to be cultivated is positive ethnocentrism as opposed to negative ethnocentrism, because ethnocentrism (the root of tribalism, racism, xenophobia and identity politics which are all forms of negative ethnocentrism) itself cannot be removed from the human behavior as it is embedded within our psyches.
In other words racism can never be completely eradicated. Instead of trying to do that (which is impossible) it would be best to educate people towards positive ethnocentrism.
I have written an extensive article on positive ethnocentrism if anyone would like to look into the subject:
http://writerbeat.com/articles/19576-Unity-in-Diversity-vs-Disunity-in-Ideologies
(please click on “read more” for the whole article once on the page)
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I’ll check it out, Jean.
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I agree with you that hate and prejudice won’t cure hate and prejudice. And bravo for the way you handled your shovel incident!!One thought comes to my mind though – re blacks, Asians, Latinos and native Americans being racist: you’re right, but they’ve been the victims of racism far more that the white MAGA-hat kid. To people who’ve spent too much time on the business end of racism, that kid’s wrong. Yes, the black group, the Native American group, and the white kids were all being a-holes, but not everyone’s coming at this from the same place.
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There is no cure. Black people should view all other ethnic groups, especially whites as open enemies. Though racism is supposedly against code law and some common law, it’s still very prevalent in the social laws of whites and others to have refine their racism to where people who don’t understand racism and how it works can’t tell when racist aggression is being practiced against them. It is critical for black people to focus on obtaining power in opposed to the tradition of chasing racism and being victims. With power, it wouldn’t matter if racist man and racist woman hates you or not. Power is the name of the game and the dynamics is what define our relationship with the rest of the world
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I’m so sorry that experience has hurt you so badly that you believe all non-black people are your enemy, my friend. Power may be “the name of the game” for those in power, but not necessarily for those under them. There are black people in power in some places who badly abuse their black citizens, just as there are black people in power in other places who treat their people well. Every race and ethnicity has both good and bad leaders. Like you, I am an individual, not a type, and I am not your enemy, even if you declare yourself mine.
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As’e, you are right,
your name As’e means “the power to make things happen and produce change”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ase_(Yoruba)
But I don’t think this does more apply to power within yourself than that in society.
I tell you deep from my heart that worldly power is not the first step, but a result to come after a healing, because without having resolved the pain, the issue will keep popping up again and again.
Imagine you yourself to be in the most powerful position you ever dreamed of. I doubt that it would guarantee your happiness, because whenever someone would be racist towards you, you still would get upset – all that would change would be that you had the means for revenge.
Just look at the ever continuing blame-game between blacks and whites, men and women, jews and muslims etc… I doubt that the blamers are truly are happy.
I also can speak from own experience because I had a very dominant father, but me having become much stronger than he ever was never did resolve the issue – my traumas actually continued far beyond his death.
Here I have something quite difficult to do, because it requires 15 minutes of patience to listen with an open heart. So just watch the following video when you are in the mood for it.
There is a sincere apology from a white women spoken to black people up to a point when a tremendous trauma can be heard to be released: https://youtu.be/ccKdu5PT5dE
It would be beautiful if this helps you to accept that times are changing and not all people from a group are equally evil.
Actually – once you found peace within yourself, regardless of attacks from stupid people (who do exist throughout all cultures),
your chances of becoming powerful are very much increased, because tons of emotional burdens don’t drag you down anymore.
And believe me – I am talking to myself here, because I am not yet there yet, but I am working on it ever and ever again, until my heart can fly free again.
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a stupid typo changed one sentence totally around. I wanted to say in the beginning:
“But I * think this does more apply to power within yourself than that in society.” (not “don’t think”…)
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im not really a fan of apologies & symbolism. whites apologize all the time and its back to business as usual. racism is the most profitable construct on earth and white/foreign supremacy is business. there is a material gain behind it. for me my beef is not with other races, but with my own for failing to create a collective culture to deal with such aggression
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mitcheemley there are no black people in power anywhere, even in certain parts of africa where there are no white people around, when you take a closer look at it, remnants of imperialism still remains. the so called independence only transformed into neo-colonialism(white power in blackface). but white people still shape those nations policies, create a class struggle, pay the African bourgeoisie to do their will, assassinate real African leaders who do not play along, bomb and destabilize nations, plant rulers to control the masses, etc… did you know that france makes 14 african countries pay a colonial tax today? i think around 65%. this same tactic is used here in america when they use black politicians. my peoples conditions get worse. they get used because most of us have been socialized and have no honor. but thats an internal issue. we have many…. i think that there are well meaning whites, but i dont think they have the power to change the majority of those who are not.
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Because the previous threat is full I have to reply to your comment for me above here.
Ok, As’e, I did take great care and spend much time reading your website and twitter.
What I like about your discussion-style is that despite you having a very strong opinion you never degrade anyone or are rude; and also that you listen and reply.
I also agree with the exploitation from Europe towards 3rd world countries in general (and I don’t think they were primarily targeted at Africans, but any country they could exploit, like India for example), and I often find it a hypocrisy or lack of understanding of rich nations now to panic about refugees when in fact the entire problem is caused because the first world did exploit the third world – either the resources or by slavery. These days it is done by destabilising oil-countries as you can read in John Perkins confessions an economical hitman. That’s why many victims of damaged countries now seek help from the perpetrators and become refugees.
But before we can continue a discussion, I think that we have to clarify the term “racism”, which you on your website define simply as “white supremacy”. When I search for “racism definition”, I get a different understanding of it, saying: “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.”, which to me applies to people from all trades, colours and religions.
So it seems to me that you are talking about “systemic racism” and it would be very important not to mix up those terms, because else the effect will only be that you antagonise white people who never had an animosity against black people. This is strategically not recommendable as this will backfire in the form of hardening opinions and destroying the good will there is., An Irish guy for example said that in the past the British did enslave Irish, so he felt annoyed for being called a perpetrator merely for being white.
Look of the history of the millions of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_slavery to see that whites not only and always were perpetrators.
Apart from the worldly fight to change injustice in society there also is another aspect which should not be forgotten: Your personal happiness. The question is what your goal is:
I would assume that your longterm goal is not the fight for the rest of your life, but a state of satisfaction, so I shed light on how I find inner peace:
1. Holding onto frustration is like holding onto a hot piece of coal in order to pass it back to the perpetrator who gave it to you or your ancestors. The only thing happens is that it burns you for as long as you hold it, so strategically it is best to drop it as soon as possible and therewith free your energy for a constructive power – exactly the power you long for in your first comment.
3. Holding onto grouches can also overwrite your ability to see the accomplishments. Last term the first “not-all-white” president was voted in the US, which is an incredible change in history – despite the fact that he unfortunately ended up only to play along with the federal reserve’s agenda and neoliberalism… Still him being president opened a door for the next one who will not have to be such a play-along puppet. It always happens this way: The first ones to change a system have to be moderate in order to put a foot into the door, like Louis Armstrong who first had to be the “nice uncle Tom” to get into the music business – something todays black musicians (like rappers for example) don’t have to do anymore. Yet he opened the path for followers.
3. One always will find what one seeks. Make the shamanic experiment and focus on feathers for a week. You will be surprised how many you will find – on the ground, in graffitis, on pen-logos, etc… So as long as you seek out for unfairness you will find it everywhere – you so far saw white racists, but the video of the apology from Marianne Williamson in the comment above was dismissed, because your filter is set to seek out for perpetration. I understand not to want to give someone who commits domestic violence a hundredth chance, but I always will try to open my heart for new people even when their kind did give rise for bad experiences.
Mrs Williamson chose to run for president next term, and as you can see in her video brings a lot of good will for black people. Just to take her as an example – not to promote her, I would like to ask you:
Will you fight her merely because she is white (and therewith a perpetrator in your eyes), and wait for decades until the next black person will run for president (only to possibly be as disappointed in him as you were in Obama)?
If you are set always and without exception against whites, you might marginalise yourself,
and therewith endanger yourself to become bitter and out of frustration instigate hate.
But my feeling is that your agenda is larger, and it seems to me that as soon as you manage to rise above the black&white blinker your full potential can become unleashed.
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That was a nice read. I use racism/white supremacy as synonyms. I define it as a global system of people whom classify themselves as white and are dedicated to the mistreatment & maintenance of subjugation of everything in the known universe that they classify as not white. Racism/white supremacy is a form of terrorism in all forms of human activity, be it, economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, religion, politics, sex and war. I’ve concluded that racism/white supremacy is the greatest and most powerful government and religion on the planet. Nothing is more profitable than racism. Most people just don’t pick up on it.
Whiteness always changes depending on Era and geography. Your example about 60 years ago Irish, Italians, Jews and non-Anglo-Saxon people weren’t considered white. They got let into the club and got those white benefits. In certain parts of the world, due to the legacy of colonialism, whiteness is everything. In Latin America white Hispanics mistreat black Hispanics. In certain parts of Asia, Asians who consider themselves “white” mistreat darker sects of Asians. Especially China. Skin bleaching cream is extremely profitable world wide.
Irish slavery by British colonies is a myth that they like to say. They were indentured servants for a period of time. I think up to 7 years. Sure they were looked down on. But when you look at their relationship with our people, especially in the 1900s, they participated in numerous massacres and red summers of our people. Now they’re more covert. Boston is one of the racist cities in America. The most dangerous racists are not the ones in the back of trucks screaming “white power!”. No, they’re the ones who set policies and in positions of power. Now the median black wealth in Boston is $8. This is insane. But it’s because black people are extremely confused. Integration is the worst thing that could’ve happened to us.
End goal…. Did you know that America has 11 seperate nations? Each one uniquely different from the other. I want to be a catalyst for a black nation but with our own economic system, our own education, our own entertainment, our political leaders. Then we can start to solve this problem.. It starts with having a culture to do it. That’s why I critique black people more. In Chicago, the white supremacist closed 50 schools and outsourced jobs and critique violence. I tell black people to build their own schools and businesses. But integration made them dependent. White people have been at war with mine for centuries. My frustration isn’t with whites but my own for not adjusting accordingly
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Thanks, As’e,
somehow my screen name suits our talk very well – I chose it for a double meaning:
the first half is: I do run a meditation blog and am a taurus I chose “sitting bull”,
but the second half is dedicated to the revolutionary native American Indian Chief who did not let anyone fool him – I like his speeches – he is a hero of mine.
I guess he would be an example of what you would like to see in black people.
Now I am just brainstorming away anything that comes to mind spontaneously:
Misclassifications:
Recently I realised that probably most of all those fights amongst groups of us are probably due to people wearing the wrong glasses, grouping problems into wrong categories:
An example is aggressive feminism which is directed against all men, when in fact never was all men who did suppress women, but a small group of powerful men who did exclude women from their old BOYS network.
Most men in fact are not even in the position of being sexist, because they themselves struggle to be on top – they have not even the means to suppress women, vice versa – they often even slave away to support their wives.
So if a woman attacks a musician, programmer or healer for example, she hits the wrong group, because those are fields in which women can excel and are often even sought-after. Hence feminists shoot themselves in the foot when they waste their rage by directing it at the wrong group. They rather should stand in front of Wall-street, banks, or the offices of managers of large corporations.
That’s why I am of the opinion that you rather should only use the term “white supremacy” and not “racism”, because that will lead to confusion and aversion.
(You actually could get even quite a lot of white (or friends of whites) supporters standing with you against white supremacy, but hardly anyone likes to be called a racist simply for belonging to a group. The same applies 90% of all Germans who will stand against Nazis, but hardly any German will stand against “Germans”.)
In the same way our analysis of social injustices seem to be tainted usually by the factors we can distinguish easiest: The most obvious aspects which make us distinguish and discriminate against others are obviously looks, which is why race, color and gender are the most fought about factors.
The next level are the simple ideologies, such as nation, religion, political affiliation, which is why there also is a lot of war amongst those groups.
But it gets more abstract if you would classify people by non-ideological classifications such as pathologies, star-signs, dexterity, etc, because it is hard to say that short-sighted, left-handed virgos did supress the others.
Initially it seems that the obvious groupings, like races and nations and gender-roles grew naturally,
but nowadays those rasters are used by people in power to keep us separated by making us fight amongst each other as the ancients Romans did: “dīvide et imperā”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divide_and_rule
To me it seems like prison guards instigating fights amongst prisoners in order to distract them from attacking the guards themselves.
If the prisoners could rise above it they should rather rebel against the justice system.
And I think that we both are totally aligned here.
The problem now is how to do it.
I share your frustrating experiences in wanting to educate fellow people about social injustices, and it is frustrating about how dull the masses are – all they want is their exciting pleasures never to have to leave their comfort zone again, so by doing nothing they play right along the twisted system.
After having fought the rebellious fight for ages in vain, my experience is that people can not be kicked out of their consumeristic lethargy, but that they have to evolve spiritually.
To fight AGAINST other groups, such as whites is playing along the same logic as building a wall against Mexico – so it keeps this horizontal axis of us little people fighting against each other running, and therewith inhibits us to literally “rise above” vertically by the means of high ethics, or a sense of self.
(And this, Mitch, in case you still are following, is the reason I do believe in self-realisation in opposition to a subscription to an authoritative god which has all the power over me).
Nothing is as strong as a person full of integrity and sincerity – they can look anyone into the eye and will come out strong, like Martin Luther King. Actors who in my eyes do portrait those trades well are Denzel Washington and Sidney Poitier.
Long rambling short: I think that the solution to the inequalities of the world are not revolutions anymore, because those just are jumps from the fire into other frying pans, but an evolution of humankind as a whole.
So I think in the long run you could be more successful through your great spiritual work on Ma’at. (Thanks btw for those tweets, because I didn’t know about it and will study it further.)
You remind me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Aurobindo who in the beginning first was working on a passive and even open revolt against the British, and when he became 30, in jail, shifted from transforming society to transforming people.
Let’s see where life will lead you to 😉
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Curing racism is easier said than done unfortunately. Love is always good for any situation but it is not realistic to brlieve that love is going to drive out racism becahse trust me, love alone is not going to. We as humans are just too individualistic to achieve such a goal.
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Sad but true, Shadee.
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I know Mitch. I mean I’m black and I love everyone . My peers may find me weird at times but at the end of the day who am I to decide well” this race is better than another one”
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Amen.
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Your comment made me think beyond love, Shadee,
because the question is anyway what true unconditional love is.
Todays partner-selection is totally overwritten by intellectual calculations about the net-worth of a person in terms of prestige or fortune.
The problem probably lies rather in the boxes in our mind we group people into:
The obvious ones, like gender, skin color etc…, get most emotionally involved,
and because most people react to those patterns, the hype around it gets even people sucked in which don’t wear this stereotyping glasses.
Yet abstract classifications, such as health-issues or psychological terminologies don’t make us hate those entire groups.
So my takeaway is not to classify people by obvious but totally irrelevant aspects, because there are all kinds of characters in each group.
Let me start here by questioning why you should be put into the category of being black?
I mean – judging by your skin-colour you don’t seem to only having had black ancestors, just as it seems to me to be the case for Obama for example. So the hype of him having been the first black president in my eyes was overrated, because he merely was the first not-all-white president.
Maybe the reason why all non-whites are thrown into the pot of black people, is because three centuries ago ignorant Europeans started doing it.
Not too long ago even Italians in the USA were classified as being black, because to the WASPs they looked dark.
I personally see you as mulatto and therewith mixed race person, just as most people on the planet are, which is a good sign, because this is what prevents all kinds of diseases caused by inbreeding. So by breaking up those boxes your ancestors actually did nature a favour.
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A very interesting take on this . Thank you
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I just saw today that the judge decided that there was no hateful action there. Apparently, it all happened afterwards with the armchair quarterbacks. I really think that people need to stop recording everything and start listening to what other people are actually saying
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Loved your post. How about you check out mine on a similar topic – http://himanaya.com/2019/02/14/are-we-all-racist-and-discrimnatory-in-some-way-or-the-other/
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Will do.
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Reblogged this on Racism and Police Brutality.
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Reblogged this on Racism and Police Brutality.
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