Wow. I read about this speech, finally got around to watching the clip. South Carolina Rep. Jenny Horne cut through the bullshit rather thoroughly. We are in an encouraging phase of civil rights. I don't so much think the battle was never won, so much as it is a battle that needs to be fought every single day. Against our own laziness, tendency to prefer in and distrust out groups, lay blame and underestimate hateful people.
Most people are pretty good, kind, loving, quiet heroes. It really doesn't take many mean and hateful ones to turn everything bitter. And the average folks just can't imagine that sort of motivation, they forgive and excuse, or want to avoid conflict, or fear threats, and shuffle along, unaware how much they are adding to the fire. Oh, yes, a little, but not that much, really, right? They want to believe that bigotry is over, they don't hate anyone, see? So, if those other people are having problems, surely it's mostly their own fault, somehow.
And so the focus keeps shifting, the people who look different, the poor, the unwed mothers, the gays, the young, the old, the most recent immigrants - Chinese, Irish, Italian, Somali, Muslims. The strange, the dirty, the lazy, the flashy, the money grubbers, the pushy, the snobs. The excuses scatter all over the landscape, because they are never the real problem.
The problem is in ourselves, as we try to shift what makes us uncomfortable in ourselves, we see it in Them, and safely, smugly, hate Them.
Only when we fully renounce hatred and anger as reasonable positions, do we start finding a lasting justice, the passion to fight without fury. When we pour out our hearts on hatred and quench it's fire.
11 comments:
Why aren't you standing for President?
RR,
What a crappy job that would be. I'd much rather wipe poop. Much more satisfying.
Fair enough, and you summarise exactly why the people who should be in politics aren't!
I think you have to factor in fear -- many of us have no interaction with minorities. Those of us who do not have contact with them tend to form our opinions of them from the media. I, on the one hand, tend to like black people I've seen in movie roles, like Morgan Freeman, or even comics like Chris Rock or Bill Cosby, even when they are criticizing white people. In my mind I know that these are roles these people are playing, but they are the images that come to mind when I think of black people. However, many years ago, when I did have contact with at least a few black people, there were some I liked and some I did not, just like with white people.
Coming face to face with an angry or challenging man of any race, especially at my age now, would engender a lot of fear in me. I am old and defenseless. Fear of the unknown is even worse. So you must take that into consideration as well.
However, don't get the wrong idea -- I am a firm proponent of civil rights and demonstrated and marched for Civil Rights back in the 60s and 70s. And, you're right -- it should be a daily effort to make sure that everyone is treated equally in this country!
Class,
I'm really tempted to ask you not to come back here. A lot of your comments are condescending at best. I do mention fear above, so you need to actually read.
Your generation, which is about 15 years older than me, so not quite a generation really, needs to wake up and pay attention and fucking deal with it. You are not my superior, not my parent (like that would make you better?) not anything. We are both adults, and I'm tired of you 'teaching' me like I'm some sort of child.
You are on notice, here. I've deleted a few of your comments already. You will be banned if you don't open your mind and heart a bit. You don't have a site of your own, so I don't really have your context, but you are bugging the everloving shit out of me. Quit it or leave.
Got it?
amen.
Got it...
Class,
We'll say no more then, start fresh. Thank you.
A friend posted this link, which really spoke very powerfully to me:
https://thsppl.com/i-racist-538512462265
I like to think of myself as liberal and reasonably enlightened, but then I wonder... nothing to boast about.
I grew up in colonial and post-colonial southern Africa, and then spent many years in London, England, where one of the things I liked most was that it was so cosmopolitan and multiethnic. Which isn't to say that it was or is a city of equality or that I mingled regularly with people of a different ethnic background to myself. I don't regret leaving London for a more rural life, but find that I am biting my tongue a lot because... … why? Because directly challenging racism when there's no 'target' in the immediate vicinity seems too much like hard work when I need to make new connections and find friends. But I don't want friends who think that people of a different race are 'inferior' and don't deserve respect or equal treatment, so what is my problem? I don't like to think that I am a coward. But maybe I am.
gentle,
I think we have to be compassionate with ourselves first. And then persuade those who haven't had enough polish to hide their prejudices - especially if they are simply ignorant, not actively hateful. It really is deep in our human psyche, to prefer our own and push away anyone "other."
Slowly changing the dynamic, with reliable operant conditioning (ignoring bad behavior, praising good) can work wonders. Start small. It is all changing.
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