The Hamilton family of two generations back is quite bigoted. I have a great-uncle who is unconcerned to say that he "hates d---ned Mexicans" to the face of a man whose Mexican wife is sitting right next to him. In their anecdotes, my grandparents and most of their siblings are quick to point out if someone is Asian or 'colored.' The truth is, racism isn't dead: anywhere. White supremacists still exist, men who predate the civil rights movement and lived in a day when buses were still segregated, and I doubt that many of them even condescend to think about the "white man's burden."
The problem, however, is not limited to Caucasians. Taking advantage of the mind-boggling contortions that politically-conscious whites perform to ensure that no prejudice is ever even hinted at, other races (proving that they are, in fact, human beings just the same), have begun to turn they tables. They prey on the new white man's burden: the burden of guilt that has grown beyond all due proportion.
What is racism, after all? It is the assumption that a class of people with common ancestry are fundamentally inferior to another. The truth is, however, that no race can be lumped under one umbrella of definition. Even in my short life, I have had ample proof that there are incalculable gulfs between William Jefferson Clinton and Mark Steyn, between Mel Gibson and King Arthur, between Jacques Chirac and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Just so there are wide differences between Thomas Sowell and the common street rapper, between Michael Jackson (does he count as black anymore?) and Jesse Jackson, between Morgan Freeman and Harriet Tubman. Or between Pancho Villa and Vincente Fox, or between Mao Tse-Tung and the Emperor Meiji.
All this is to say that racism is not a new phenomenon. Nor should Caucasians take the burden of all its evils upon themselves, as though the slave trade and 18th century imperialism were the only manifestations of racism since the days of the Spartans and the Helots. Certainly the antebellum South never had tests of manhood where a Southern boy hunted down and killed a slave. This is not to excuse American slavery or any form of white racism. It is to say, however, that treating Western civilization as the grandfather of bigotry is a gross misconception. Have we forgotten that even from the dawn of Greek civilization until now is less than half the world's history? Have we forgotten the Egyptians, the Persians, the Amorites, or the Indian Untouchables?
The problem that needs to be addressed is not so shallow as the American slave trade and Depression-era segregation and prejudice. Ours is but one chapter in a long history of human depravity. For racism really centers around pride and the desire to have someone to look down on, and contrast yourself favorably with, and this has been with us since Eve bit the forbidden fruit. We did it once, and now African-Americans are beginning to do much the same thing. Perhaps we ought to be widening our perspective just a little, and stop acting as though it all began with those few slaves sold in Jamestown back in the seventeenth century. But then, to attain such an historical perspective would entail a radical change in the way history is taught...and that might take a few more posts of its own.
~Connor
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3 comments:
Well, Connor, I'm a long-time reader, first-time commenter. :-)
My children have heard me say many times that even if we were all the same color, height, etc., our sinful natures would find some way to separate us into groups.
Yes, there is racism; it will not go away till the world ends. But we can't allow ourselves to use it as a catch-all excuse when things don't go our way.
You all really should move to Missouri--our families could have some enjoyable times together!
Fascinating, most fascinating. I've long thought the same. It's always annoyed me that we treat slavery as if it was a Western invention, and was only directed at blacks. Never mind the fact that Africans killed and enslaved the people of other tribes long before Europeans came to Africa, and even then they had no qualms about selling fellow Africans (who really weren't fellows as they would have belonged to different tribes) into slavery.
And it annoys me even further that whites who have no belligerent intentions whatsoever toward people of other races, must be made to feel responsible for the crimes of their ancestors. Obviously there will always be racism, but I really think that most Western whites today would generally not be inclined to have racist feelings. At the very least, they are not allowed by law to make racial discriminations. Yet blacks, by behaving as if they are still in constant danger of being lynched, and therefore require special privileges just for being black are quite likely to aggravate the feelings they are trying to eradicate. White people would be tarred, feathered, and ridden out of town on rails if they said half of the things about themselves that blacks get away with on a daily basis. Imagine a group of white men tried to form an all white political party. Their heads would be on stakes within five minutes.
I certainly don't think I'm an authority on this, having only lived fifteen and a half years and in two places, but I have in my life seen far more blacks who are racist than whites. I could only name one person who seems to have racist sentiments, but that person also has a host of other prejudices that have nothing to do with race. I have been followed in stores once or twice, but other than that I have never been treated differently by white people because I was black (and the employees who followed me were only reacting to the tendency of young black men to be thieving). My older brother has been criticized by black people because he wasn't "black" enough, but as far as I know has received no negative reception by whites.
I don't have time to comment properly on this, but I figured I should let you know that I quite agree.
Well, Mrs. Maxwell, I'm glad you became a commenter! :)
You're absolutely right. Someone would still raise men higher than women, or vice-versa, or else older more than younger, or something.
Indeed, that's true as well. I imagine that some legislation can be passed if whites are convinced that opposing it will make them somehow racist, and I'm sure that's not an isolated situation.
On the contrary, you should move to Oregon. Mt. Hood, Crater Lake, the Willamette Valley--not to mention Nike World Headquarters!--we have much to attact visitors. :D I agree, we'd have great fun if our families got together.
David: An excellent comment, as usual. Your remarks brought to mind an interesting thing I have noticed. It seems to me that some black people actually get some enjoyment out of being discriminated against--that they like the attention they get or its supposed victim status. Otherwise, I just can't account for both the vigorous campaign that still goes on even after there is no real or effective discrimination going on that might truly harm the life of an African-American, and also for that weird insult you mentioned of being "not black enough." It seems that one's race is no longer based on common ancestry or even skin color, but a certain mindset. It's even more curious that the politically active, democratic black community seems to expect their race's mindset to be THE SAME across the board. That, in and of itself, would seem to only aggravate the race question with non-existent differences. Like I was saying in my post, there are differences in temperament, character, spirtuality, etc. within races that are far more pronounced than any physical dissimilarities among races. No one ever seems to get the idea that Germans, Czechs, Canadians, Americans, Spaniards, Slovenians, and British are all the same or should all think the same, and yet Africans in America, perhaps hailing originally from tribes as far apart as Mexico is from British Columbia, are expected to be single-minded.
That was kind of another post of itself, but I wanted to say it as kind of an addendum. :-)
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