Racial Thinking

What's this in my brain,

That keeps my mind in stain?
Why can't I praise my friend,
Who has my back to the end?
It's this racial cancer,
Cut it out, is the answer.

I'm free from the racial thought.

My friend free from my sinful plot.

Now color is a blessing not a curse.

Harmony can reign in the ‘verse.

Only you can stop the cancer in your brain.

Reject it, forsake it, become sane.

Fight through the shame.

So you can stop the pain.

EC Holm 2017

All Deserve Respect

ALL DESERVE RESPECT

Boy.

Girl.

Everyone.

We respect.

Right!

(cinquain in fibonacci syllabic sequence)

Humans Are Xenophobes

I heard, the other day on the radio, a scientist claiming that humans have more consciousness than plants.  That humans have the most consciousness than all the animals.  To me this smacks of xenophobia.  When xenophobia is used in science fiction, it seems to refer to the fear of other species, namely alien ones.  The true meaning of the word is "an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange" per dictionary.com.  So it has a very broad meaning and implication.  Xenophobia is based on fear, as the name implies.  Fear is a huge driving force for us.  The consequences of this fear extends far and wide in our social lives.  I want to discuss how our definition of consciousness is self serving, how xenophobia repletes our history, and how xenophobia extends to behavioral types.

I cannot say that a tree has more consciousness than I do.  I know they do have consciousness because, as an empath, I can feel it.  In the consciousness wiki, there are some science studies on consciousness.  I think there is a problem with their definition of consciousness.  If you define a consciousness based on humans only with the assumption that humans are the most conscious, then your conclusion would be that humans are the most conscious of all the animals and plants.  Then the conclusion is not a conclusion at all but a bias and an assumption.  Here is the dilemma of science,  that science is based on reasoning, and reasoning is based on language.  Biased assumptions lead to biased conclusions.  I'm afraid that that might be what science has done here.  It's a xenophobic act. Which, of course, is not science at all but just human fear.

Humans have always been xenophobic.  We look at anything or anyone with suspicion if they look or act different than we do. I think we all know this.  Do I have to mention the racism in the United States and in all other countries?  Does Martin Luther King need to give again his "I have a dream" speech?  Decades ago it was not only the color of your skin, but your language and your customs.  Germans against Danish, Italians vs French, etc.  History is replete with examples.  When our fist instinct when we find an unfamiliar animal is to kill it, we are unreasonable.  Cruelty to animals is a xenophobic act.  The other day I saw a semi-truck run over a canada goose without even putting on the breaks.  It made me sick to my stomach.

I dare say the xenophobia also extends to behavioral types.  If you act differently than the crowd, you get labeled.  Terms like nerd and geek were derogatory terms to describe those who weren't sports buffs.  I figure the more insensitive you are to others the more you tend to belittle others for your own ego's satisfaction.  This is the definition of a bully.  I believe bullying is a byproduct of xenophobia.

We looked at how the definition of consciousness is xenophobic, how xenophobia is in our history, and how it extends to behavioral types.  The reason for xenophobia is the fear of the unknown.  The problem with it is that the fear is unreasonable and unfounded.  It's a default response to something new for some people and it shouldn't be.  We need to move beyond it and start analyzing when we encounter a new person or thing. We shouldn't be 'demonizing' it/her/him.  That is what science is for.  That is what critical thinking is for.  This is what education is for.  We should not take new things personally but take steps to understand what it/she/he is all about and find ways to relate to it/her/him.  This is especially true when you encounter people from other race and cultures.  The benefits to understanding are many times more prosperous than refusing to understand.  It's my hope that more people come to this conclusion, that thoughtfulness is a powerful and empowering tool for good.  We should be teaching our children how to go through the process of understanding things.

Sub-Hero

Have you ever, and you may not have, been embarrassed or ashamed by your  heritage?  You may come from a people that have committed atrocities or have certain attitudes of types of people.  In history we read that many people have died in the 20th Century.  World War I saw the advent of wide spread chemical warfare, of the tank, and of the airplane bomber.   Thousands died in it.  Then thousands died under the Third Reich due to pure racism.  Thousand also died in the Soviet Union under Stalin.  Thousands died in China in the cultural revolution.  The killing fields of Cambodia were striking.  Murders upon murders in South and Central America were horrifying.  And what is yet to be told of the bloodiness in North Africa under the dictators of Egypt and Libya and others?  The genocide in Central Africa also comes to mind and many more incidents.  It was a bloody century, perhaps the bloodiest of them all.  What if you came from the people who committed those atrocities, or a people who had the attitude that lead to the massacre of thousands?  What if you were ashamed of these attitudes and tried to counter them?  I dare to coin a term for this, a sub-hero.  I will endeavor to define what a sub-hero is and does.

A sub-hero hates.  Of the first steps a sub-hero makes is that of realizing and hating the heritage of murderous attitudes.  He/She owns them.  He/She puts intent to not repeat them, ever.  He/She mourns the loss of lives and the loss of dignity.  The past is past and the sub-hero does not dwell in the past but looks to the future.

A sub-hero warns.  Any time the sub-hero encounters the murderous attitudes, their blood goes cold.  They cringe at it, and sneer at it.  Then the verbal counter to these attitudes comes out.  Due to tactfulness, a fight with the promoters of these attitudes can be adverted.  Loving the promoters as well as the victims is necessary to the sub-hero.  If he/she looses them then the war is lost.  Getting others to shun these murderous attitudes is the key.  Thus the sub-hero guards the sanctity of love and peace.

A sub-hero is not praised.  There is no honor to being a sub-hero.  The very nature of their state is shameful.  They may not reveal their identity with the atrocious heritage.  Who would praise them?  Who would look up to them to emulate?  None dare.  A sub-hero's path is lonely and ungrateful, and yet it's necessary.  It's a cross to bear and a penance to perform.

A sub-hero hates, warns, and is not praised.  This is a first definition of this term.  This World needs sub-heroes.  Our societies need healing.  Our people need teaching.  If the human race is to take the next step towards enlightenment, then murderous attitudes need to be left behind.  We need to grow up and face each other with our problems and work them out rather than having the cowardly cop-out of murder.

Why Is Discrimination Is Still Around?

When you think of social injustices its hard not to think of why these injustices are still around in the United States.  Consider that some people are living to one hundred years of age.  If you look back a hundred years ago, it was a really different world.  What was it like back then, who would remember such a world, and what does it mean for young people wanting to change the world?

1911 was a year that doesn't get mentioned in the history books as anything important happening.  In-spite of the history books, the women's suffrage movement was going strong, there was a revolution in Mexico, and Europe was preparing for World War I.  Jim Crow laws were in effect for a while and it would be many years before they were ended.  Domestic abuse was not even a concept let alone a concern until the 1970's.  So, women did not have the vote, segregation was enforced, and domestic violence was unchecked.  Yes, it was a different world.

Many social injustice issues that involve discrimination of some type or another were part of the social fabric of society back in 1911.  If that seems like a long time ago and if you wonder who would remember that, consider that in the age estimates of 2008 there were living 5,721,768 who were 85 years or older in the Untied States (as queried in American Fact Finder of US Census Bureau).  That's more people than were in the State of Colorado in 2010 (see Census 2010).  Well that answers the question of who would remember, a whole state's worth of people.

So fare you can see that the permanence of social injustice is linked to the survivability of the population.  The more elderly we have, the more their values have a voice in our lives.  With the elderly living longer, the younger generations have a harder time to change the world than did their grandparents and great grandparents did when they were young.  Not only do the younger generations have to contend with family members but also Congress.  The average age in Congress is 55 to 60 years.  60 years ago was 1951.  They have grown up in a United States with Jim Crow and domestic violence.  So, it's coming down to a generational struggle.

In attempting to answer the question why is discrimination still around, we've looked at what has been happening in a person's lifetime in the United States that has perpetuated discrimination and other social injustices.  I feel that the older generations do not put a priority on social injustices.  They rather put a priority on their pocket books.  To get rid of discrimination and other social injustices legislatures need to make them a priority.  Not only that but personal responsibility needs to happen.  People need to respect one another regardless of any differences.  I'm afraid that real change can only come by generational change.  As younger generations get into more and more power as time goes on, they will impose their values on society.  I hope its for the better.

Are We Ready To End Discrimination Yet?

I'm reading a pretty good book about the hunt for John Wilkes Booth right after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln called Manhunt by James L. Swanson.  It mentions that Emancipation had been in place a short two years, and this was 1865, just after the Civil War.  It's now 2011, so that makes it.....(let's see 2011-1865=146), 146 years.  It's unfortunate that in all that time living without slavery, we still have not done away with racial discrimination.  Discrimination happens in many forms not just racial.  We should be ready to end it.  Ending discrimination is hard but I believe it's doable.

We should all know what discrimination is.  Many of us have been its victims and many of us have used it.  If there is one root that discrimination has that would be its ties to social status and social acceptability.  People don't usually discriminate based on personal feelings, but rather based on social status feelings.  There was a young white boy who loved to play with his friend who was African American.  One day the boy told his mother that he did not like black people.  He said this because he heard it on the radio.  His mother told him that his friend was black.  The boy responded with surprise, "He is?"  So this issue is really socially based.  That is people discriminate in order to fit in to their society.  This means that the problem will not go away even if you convince people to love everybody on a personal level.  It's one thing to change the mind of one person but totally another to change the behavior of a generation.  That is why I think that one of the best ways to end discrimination is to do it with a generational change.  What I mean by that is that the next generation ought to adopt a policy of no discrimination, as the old generation dies off.  This requires parents and educators to teach that discrimination of any kind is not acceptable.  It also requires the new generation to hold to it and actively fight against discrimination comments and acts of even the older generation.  I want to say I do believe there are those who are racist on a personal level.  These individuals hate for personal reasons, but I do believe they are a small minority compared to those who are racist for social reason.

Racial discrimination has been historically held up by culture.  It used to be so acceptable that the racial marriage between like Germans and Italians was considered unacceptable is some societies.  This was true even in the early half of the 20th Century.  As an example I will point to a fellow blogger and her talk with her father about race in her 38-ways and Kingsley Plantation, where her father and mother were regarded as an interracial couple even though they were both white.  Today were mostly concern with racial concerns between whites, blacks, hispanics, middle-eastern, or asian.  Perhaps this means we made some progress with the efforts in the 1960's and thereafter.  Yet it took generations to make that progress.  I feel and hear that today many young folk deem racial discrimination as anathema.  I feel that is is also a good sign of progress.  To further my point, I dare you to talk to any baby boomer at length and you will find some form of racial discrimination still in their social thinking.  Incidentally, the Tea Party Movement that is rocking the politics in the United States is made up of people of about 45 and older (see link).  This means that they are baby boomers and some older gen-X-ers.  They are going to have some form of racial discrimination as a social movement.  It will be interesting to see the clash of the Tea Party Movement and the younger generations as they grow older on the subject of race and discrimination.  President Obama did not argue against the notion that the Tea Party Movement had some racial underlining motivations in the US News article titled Obama Says Race a Key Component in Tea Party Protests.  The social racial attitudes persist in any given generation.

Bullying is discrimination.  How can I say that when bullying is just child's play?  I dare you to think about it.  Why does a child bully?  More often than not it's to gain social status among his/her friends.  Who do they bully?  The bully anyone who is believably different.  That includes different race, hair color, interests, handicap, ...etc..etc.  You name it, it's probably a difference that is bullied.  Well these are the same reasons why people discriminate.  Schools are doing a poor job of stopping bullying.  These days I have witnessed schools that only stop racial bullying but laugh at other forms of bullying.  Everyone who has gone through a public school in the United States can understand how much bullying and discrimination goes on in High School.  I remember deciding to be a part of the "nerds" of the chess club.  These happen to be the brainiacs and socially free students in my High School.  They had no faculty support, unlike the preppy and polished cheerleaders and football players.  In the 80's "nerds" were discriminated against.  Today we see people being called "dorks".  Whatever name calling is used you can rest assure that there is bullying that will lead to discrimination.  The only difference between bullying and discrimination is the fact that bullying is not a legal offense while in only some cases discrimination is a legal offense.

The World is growing up.  Global economics is taking hold.  Europe is united.  Middle East citizens seek democracy.  These are a few signs that the World is becoming more organized and united.  There is also a world culture growing.  With that world culture, discrimination must be abolished.  Now is the time to start shaping it.  Some fear a united world, but if you look at history you see that it's inevitable.  The real issue is what kind of world culture to you want?  I for one would like to see a united world that repudiates discrimination of all types.  In my lifetime I have been discriminated against because of my hair color, my religious beliefs, my medical needs, my learning disability, my vocal accent, my nationality, and for thinking differently.  Some incidents were on the job, some in education, but most were comments and jokes.  Does this surprise you coming from a white guy?  It shouldn't.  More people are victimized by discrimination than we care to think about.  It's a disease that permeates society.  How can we change it?  To change something legally you get a politician to make a law.  To get the politician to make a law there has to be popular support.  To get popular support there has to be many people supporting the issue.  To get many people to support the issue it takes talking about, opening up conversations, fight for it.  To do all that it first takes one step.  The one step is to believe in it, to adopt it in your personal life.  I made a conscious effort many years ago to abhor discrimination.  I did this when I found out how the social fabric of a particular country resulted in the systematic homicide of a people, and that my family came from that guilty society.  There is a sense of shame in that, and there is an intent of repentance.  So I determined to counter the discrimination.  I did so to the behest of my family elders.  What am I getting at?  Own an anti-discrimination attitude, fight for it.  Fight yourself for it, fight your family for it, fight your friends for it.  Then you can make open dialogue.  Then you can create a ground swell of support.  Then a politician can grasp your vision, and a law can be created.  It all takes that first step.

I ask again, are we ready to end discrimination yet?  Only you can answer it.  I for one think it's possible.  It's possible one person at a time.  Then it takes social effort, then a law, then and educational effort to end it.  You may ask what is the opposite of discrimination?  The direct opposite of discrimination is empathy.  That is to relate and respect another person's situation and emotion.

Slave Auction in St Louis

To finish off this Black History Month, I have a history lesson that we should never forget.  In January of this year, 2011, there unfolded an eerie scene at the steps of the old courthouse in downtown St Louis, Missouri.  The courthouse has seen this scene before.  The River Front Times covered the story.

The following document was taken from the River Front Times article.
SaleFlyer[1]

This scene symbolizes the suffering of a people.  Something we should never repeat, the slave auction.  Yes, they reenacted a slave auction to remind us that slavery was ruthless, inhumane, and horrible.  Its not a pretty history.  Its not a proud history.  Its a history that reminds us of how cruel we can be if we let ourselves be ruled by greed and money rather than by emotion and dignity.

Here is a link on a slideshow of the auction.  Check out the faces of the people as you look through the pictures.

Kudos to Professor Angela da Silva and her team of reenactors.

Diverse Bigotry

February is Black History Month in the United States.  I recall Dr. Martin Luther King having a dream where he says "when we allow freedom ring", he was speaking of the Black People to live in peace without bigotry.  He was not just speaking of the Black People, but of all people of all forms of identity to live in peace without bigotry.  This day and age we live in a place that has made strides to this peace.  There is still a long road ahead for the Black People.  There are other forms of identity that have just started making strides toward that peace.  The Gay People are making such strides.  Then there are forms of identity that have not made any strides at all.  Bigotry is a huge problem in these United States and I presume in the World at large as well.

How many times have you seen people mock a stutterer?  How many times have you hear of people making jokes about overweight folks?  How many times have people complain about the elderly?  These are all examples of forms of identity that have made no strides in procuring the peace that Dr. King spoke about so many years ago.  There are other forms of identity as well.  Forms that perhaps you have not thought of as an identity.  We should be careful to respect everyone.

Often I am misunderstood or demeaned for thinking the way I do.  Co-workers, bosses, and acquaintances have mocked me for forgetting things they don't, for being passionate about things they are not, for having a different outlook on a situation.  I cannot change the way I think because its a part of me.  Its part of my innate nature just as my skin and hair color are.  This bigotry has caused me to be quiet about my opinions and to refuse to give an opinion when asked.  It has caused me to regard someone else's decision above my own.  It has cost me years of not taking control of my own life because I could not see myself fit to make decisions of my own.

Dr. King is an inspiration to us all, and yet his dream goes on incomplete today.  Bigotry is a subtle yet horrible way of discrimination.  It has real results and often its victims are powerless to fight back.  So please, think before you speak.  One day you just might be a victim of bigotry.

Ain't One Of Us

Have you ever looked at a person and found they are not like you?  Discrimination is a big problem in today's world.  People are being discriminated based on sex, race, age, disability, learning ability or a number of other categories.  Why does this occur?  We all do it or think it.  I theorize that the problem is based on our outlook as humans.  The source of discrimination is the attitude people get that says "they ain't one of us".  When people take no group ownership of other people this causes discrimination.  We need to change our outlook of what our community actually includes in this day and age of global economy and global communication.

Its a matter of preserving the group or village.  Humans are community based entities.  We structure our society based on our concept of who we know and how we interact with them, whether it be practical interaction or cognitive empathy.  We naturally consider anyone or anything outside of the community as a potential threat.  We also show a blind eye towards the shortcomings of those in our community.  Therefore we have bias.  One of the first things we do with potential threats is that we demonize them.  We talk among our community and bad talk the potential threats.  Thus, this is where discrimination starts, and it evolves into hate and violence.

Modern man needs to expand his outlook and understand that everybody on the planet is part of his community . He needs to change his mind, from a mindset of living in just a local community to one that matches the structure of a global community working for the same thing.  Humans across the planet are generally working for freedom, economic success, and peaceful life.  We have disputes and wars, but these only stifle our efforts for our posterity.  It takes intelligence to recognize this, but it takes courage to do something about it. What are we really going to leave our sons and daughters with?

We all belong to one big village, Earth.  Look at the stars and count them.  Thus is the old old challenge to people and kids.  If you look at the sky through pictures of many space craft and telescopes eyes, you can see wonders beyond belief.  Super Novas, Gamma Ray Bursts, Nebulas, Super Black Holes are just a few wonders that are vastly greater than our planet.  If you haven't done so you might want to check it out at hubblesite.org.  You get the sense that Earth is an oasis in a desert of blackness and wild energetic stuff.  We are small, yet we are alive.  Earth is our planet and the people on it are our people.  If we are to continue as a society we must embrace this concept.  We need see how useless our petty infighting really is.  We must own all humans, animals, plants on Earth as our community, and as our village.

The realization that our community has expanded over the last 40 years can change our attitude towards others.  Our community is big and beautiful and its name is Earth.  We have global travel with the advent of the Jumbo Jet, and we have global communication with the internet.  We need to get rid of discrimination.  The first step to do that is to include everyone on the planet as part of your community.  This way you can interact with others with empathy.  This does not preclude steps you need to take to protect yourself.  You can empathize and protect yourself at the same time.  Empathy is the way to go.  In the area of relating to others, if you empathize you can engage people in a constructive way.  The time to change is now.


Disclaimer: This post is based on my opinions only.