  READER'S REPLIES: [Reply #1] [Reply #2] [Reply #3 (two parts)] [Reply #4] Tell me what YOU think! Back to Philosophy page |
 The United States is a country whose history has been strongly influenced by issues of race. The defining moment in our history -- the Civil War -- was, revisionist historical nonsense to the contrary, fought over the issue of Negro slavery. Amazingly enough, even though every non-Indian citizen of this country is either an immigrant or a descendant of immigrants, the issue of "foreigners" coming to this country raises the hackles of many people. Even in a 1990's culture which professes a love of multiculturalism and diversity, an off-hand remark by a white professional golfer can cause a national uproar of racist outrage at the same time that "urban contemporary" music artists can attract widespread praise and legions of fans while selling millions of CDs which contain blatantly overt lyrics extolling such things as racial hatred, cop killing, and sexual abuse of women. Something doesn't add up. What's the root cause
of this? Are Americans naturally more prone to racism and intolerance than
other people? I don't think so. I think that what we witness happening in this
country is a symptom of basic human nature.Even in social
groupings that are racially homogenous, the members of those groups will always
tend to find ways to "choose up sides". It could be "athletes" vs. "nerds",
"uptown" vs. "downtown", Catholic vs. Protestant, Coke vs. Pepsi, or anything
else that can be used to separate people into different camps. Once lines have
been drawn, each group will tend to find ways to rationalize themselves as being
"superior" to the others and will "defend their turf", if necessary. If the
groups stay separate and the issue is one which tends to discourage interaction
between those groups, the division will tend to escalate and can eventually
reach what might be termed "critical mass". At that point, rationality can be
completely lost and the probability of reconciliation or settlement of
differences becomes quite low. In this respect, the only real difference
between a Catholic-Protestant feud and a White-Black conflict is that it's much
easier to tell the difference between a White person and a Black person at a
glance. You might have an irrational bias against Protestants, let's say, but
you could "accidentally" befriend one before discovering his religious
preference. It would be next to impossible for the same thing to happen between
Whites and Blacks who are biased against each other.If Blacks had never
been enslaved in America, it's highly doubtful that "racism" would be a major
social issue today in this country. Human nature would still rear its ugly head
from time to time, of course, and that won't change until we can truly embrace
the societal ideals we like to preach. Also, while we need to learn from
history, we need to ensure that our history is taught accurately. For example,
it's a popular misconception that all Southern Whites owned Black slaves. In
fact, slavery was almost the exclusive enterprise of the prosperous plantation
owners. The majority of Southerners owned no slaves. It is also a popular myth
(such as what is depicted in "Roots") that the African slave trade consisted of
White men rampaging through the jungles of Africa capturing and dragging off any
Black man they could catch. In reality, the large majority of Black slaves were
sold into slavery by other Blacks. Normally, these were tribal warlords and
chieftains who sold prisoners of war, criminals, or others in exchange for
European goods and money. Similar arrangements have been the main source of
slave labor throughout the history of Man. What really brought the practice of
slavery in American under scrutiny was our own Declaration of Independence.
This is the document which declares that "all men are created equal" -- a very
radical idea in its time. How could a society founded upon that principle
justify enslaving other humans?So, human nature plus
the sins of the past combine to create the issue of "racism" in this country.
Is there any hope for us? Of course there is. However, that is dependent upon
how much we actually want things to change. Part of the problem is evidenced by
how we choose to identify ourselves. We still like to see ourselves as members
of smaller, homogenous groups rather than trying to be "Americans" first and
foremost. I'm of Norwegian heritage and am the 3rd generation of my family
here in the United States, but I don't demand to be classified as a
"Norwegian-American". My family arrived here a few decades after the end of the
Civil War. This means we have neither owned Black slaves nor had anything to do
with the slave trade. Yet, I have still experienced racial hatred from some
Blacks simply because I am White and it was "White folks" who owned Black
slaves.On the plus side, my
career in the Army has afforded me the opportunity to travel the country and the
world and meet a wide range of people. The more people you meet and the more
you see and learn about them, the more you come to realize that we are all
basically the same. It is easy for anyone to befriend anyone else. It is much
better to use one's arms to open doors and embrace others than to close doors
and shut them out. Whether you believe in evolution or in religion, both
essentially claim that we are all descended from a common source. That means
that all members of all races are brothers. It's time we started acting that
way. Whether you're White, Black, Green or any other skin color, there's no
acceptable reason for locking out the portion of the human race that is a
different color from you. If all members of Homo sapiens suddenly turned Purple
tomorrow, the only differences between us would be in how we choose to behave.
And, isn't that essentially the only real and important difference in the first
place?E-mail: mlbakke1@earthlink.net Earthlink Network Home Page |