How to end racism
Published Fri, Oct 24 2008 7:05 PM
I'm really getting tired of the notion that only white people can be racists. To that end, I present you with the dictionary definition of the term “racism”, from dictionary.reference.com…
rac·ism 
(rā'sĭz'əm) Pronunciation Key
n.
- The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
- Discrimination or prejudice based on race.
rac'ist adj. & n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition - Cite This Source
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Now that that's out of the way, tell me where the “white” or Caucasian race is mentioned. You don't see it in the definition of “racism” as given by the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, do you? If you did, then wouldn't that be an example of the second definition listed?
I'm fairly sure that, in this day and age at least, we all can pretty much agree that the belief identified in the first definition given above is erroneous. No race is superior to others. Are we not all humans, regardless of our race?
American Conservatives believe in many of the principles laid down by the founders of our nation, and in particular we hold the Declaration of Independence in some high regard. In fact, we believe in and affirm that one of the founding principles of our nation can be found in these words…
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…
Believing that, we must reject the belief found in the first definition of racism given above. And so I now turn to the second definition of the term, “discrimination or prejudice based on race”. You and I both know that there's a lot of that in today's world. Accusations of racism fly whenever a conservative criticizes Barack Obama it seems — even to the point that the very word “socialism” is treated by the media as a “code word” for black. We're told by some even that if Barack Obama loses the presidential election it will be evidence that the American electorate can't transcend racism, rather than a rejection of the policies that he espouses.
Here we are, more than forty five years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. uttered these famous words still obsessed with racism in politics…
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
Dr. King was dreaming of a day when discrimination based upon race would no longer be a factor in how people judge each other. And yet today's multiculturalists tell us that we must be aware of race. They tell us that it's wrong to seek to not discriminate based upon race because that's merely a denial of our fundamental makeup. They tell us that we must reject the notion of a colorblind society because such a concept enforces racism rather than ends it.
I categorically reject those arguments. There is only one way that you can end discrimination based upon race, and that is to stop discriminating based upon race. Any multicultural program that requires us to focus on the unconscious or “cultural” racism of white people (a racial distinction), while denying the possibility that attitudes that discriminate against white people are possible (for an example of such educational material, see this lovely “art project”) is, by the second definition given above plain and simply racist.
I'll say it again, just to make it clear.
There is only one way that you can end discrimination based upon race, and that is to stop discriminating based upon race.
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David responded with:
 | Well, it seems a simple thing to do, but the devil's in the details. While I have never discriminated based on race. Heck, I was so unconscious as a youth, I didn't know folks were torqued about such things... and going visiting around town with my Southern Bapt preacher-grandfather did nothing to enlighten me. (Years later, I developed some strong business ties in that town's black community simply because many of the "grandfathers" of the community recalled my youthful visits in the 50s--visits I had never thought a thing about, because they were just normal "dropping in with Dad-Dad to say hi" things).
Later, when my wife and I were starting our own family while living in "the better part of the ghetto"--as its denizens were wont to call it--we noticed that folks there discriminated, but not all based on race. Blacks "discriminated" against blacks much more than whites did, for example, by refusing to associate with those they called [trash--substitute the "n" word]. Frankly, I came to share their awareness of and discrimination against such behavior, but against some arbitrary selection of skin color? Stupid.
All that to say, discrimination is a good thing when done for rational reasons. A friend of ours who was kicked out of college for marrying a black man (while he wwas kept because he was on a national championship basketball team) is a very good example of discrimination gone awry. She and her husband, though, showed wise and thoughtful discrimination when they agreed two decades later to serve as adjunct professors at that same in stitution. The folks in our neighborhood who disparaged their "salt and pepper" marriage were simply voicing a racist discrimination... that they were shamed for in their own eyes as they came to know our friends.
But discrimination that is not racist but rational--reject and ostracize those who engage in destructive or criminal behavior no matter what color they are; hire and promote based on ability, competence, honesty and hard work instead of preference for ones own "race" (I generally prefer those of my own race--human--for example, but if I found a chimpanzee to be the best applicant or worker, that's who I'd hire or promote *heh*) can be rational examples of discrimination. |
Marshall Art responded with:
 | Obviously, Perri's referring to "racial" discrimination, but David's points are good ones nonetheless.
I agree that racism is practiced by those who's ancestors suffered greatly from it. Reverse racism it's called and it stinks just as badly. Worse, is when one called intelligent, and by some, the next president of the USA, plays the pre-emptive race card, making accusations that are baseless.
One thing that I believe will go a long way towards reducing racism, is for those who are discriminated against, to simply move on to those who will not discriminate without assuming racism was a factor in their situation. We had a co-worker who liked to use his race for every occasion. It was such fun that I, as a white guy, would also use his same words when given trouble by management. "Is it because I'm black?" I'd say. And they'd balk before telling me to get on with it. My friend would get a kick out of it. Now, upon his dismissal recently, he did not bring up the possibility, and with the low intelligence of management, racism was not needed.
But I digress.
In those situations where one of color is referred to by some epithet, my suggestion is to ignore it, minimize it in one's own mind by considering the source. Wave it off as the insignificant blathering of an idiot and simply move on. This is the only way to take the power out of the word; to simply refuse to give the words any power by an emotional response. Physical attacks, of course, are a different story, but the verbal form often leads needlessly to an escalation that does no one any good. |
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