TooMuchSexy.blog ‣ February 08, 2005 ‣ Eliminating Racism (news, politics, philosophy)

My Philosophy and the Black Experience course has presented me with a startling finding. While I have led my life along the belief that there is no way to eliminate racism without first eliminating the root cause of racism, namely races, it seems that this is actually a very racially divided issue. African-Americans seem to believe that the only way to gain equality is through the strengthening of blacks as a race.

The argument African-Americans put forth is that the only way to gain ground in America is through racial unity. Without people to help you along in life one can never truly succeed. In order to gain this help African-Americans must band together and help one another.

My viewpoint is that the inequality we see in America stems from the existence of separate and arbitrary races. Strengthening blacks together as one unique group will only prolong the racism seen against blacks as a race. In order to promote equality we must see people as equals not as colors.

I understand that my view is truly an optimistic view, perhaps that stems from being “white” (though the KKK would argue that I am a nigger in disguise, as I am ethnically Jewish). Is it really that unrealistic to believe that equality can occur through viewing everyone as humans instead of races and colors?

Nate ‧ Posted 3 years, 5 months, 2 weeks, 21 hours, 21 minutes ago

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Comments

1. I subscribe to your same view, Etan, although I am also “white” and ethnically (part) Jewish.

   Many African Americans do put forth that same argument, but certainly not all of them.  One of the biggest negative effects of that argument is that it tends to alienate a good amount of Black people.  Ever hear someone referred to as a “sell out” or an “Oreo?”

   I don’t want to get too presumptuous, and African Americans by no means offer the only example of this kind of thinking, so I’ll go back to an example from my own life.  I don’t like it when Jewish people tell me I’m a “bad Jew.” Oh, sure, it’s usually said in a joking matter, but I don’t like the assumption that because we share an arbitrary category, I’m expected to act a certain way, perform certain rituals, worry about certain things, etc.

   — Mister Swill 

1. i think that we all need to breed ourselfs brown. there are far too many white people around, and we need to start mixing more until everyone is brown and beautiful.

   though it is somewhat natural to want to band together with “your kind” white or black or asian or what-have-you… we sort of exist to see that our DNA is passed on, and so we would want to help out someone in need if there’s reason to believe that their DNA is similar to ours.

   sounds like a crackpot theory (which it might be, because i just made it up) but what IS true is that statistically you’re extremely likely to end up having kids with a mate that looks similar to yourself. (you might not think “i want her to have my babies because she looks like a female me.” …but there are subconscious cues that make you attracted to a person who appears to have similar DNA.) The reason people dont generally have children with their siblings is that as siblings, you smell similar. Smell is indicative of your immune system, and you want to mate with someone who has a very different immune system than yourself. …it’s good for survival. your genes are passed on, and you expand your gene’s immunity traits.

   i guess i got off on a little of a tangent. To sum up, the “Help out people who look like me” thing is, i would think to one degree or another, a natural phenomenon. also, You date who looks like you but smells different than you, and so the idea of mixing until we’re all brown might not ever work. (though i think it would be great, half-breeds are beautiful.)

   — Jeff Foster 

1. I disagree with Jeff.  That idea has actually been championed before, and it’s flawed because it requires active recognition of skin color, and that’s exactly what we want to avoid.

   The problem with the “solidarity” argument is that it often supports corrupt ideologies that are just as damaging as racism against blacks.  I read a book about race in Detroit (Racial Situations by John Hartigan).  Detroit is interesting for a number of reasons, but I want to give one example.  The school board created an all-black school called the Malcom X school in an all-white neighborhood.  In that school, they taught a biased, Afrocentric curriculum and when the whites in the neighborhood complained that their children were being miseducated, they were made out to be racists by the media.

   While not all applications of black solidarity are bad, neither are all applications of race bad.  I agree with Etan that the only real way to get rid of racism is to get rid of race itself.  It has no scientific basis or usefulness in its vernacular form, and all it does is create misconceptions.  Hell, the term itself was created in the 1600s to justify slavery by people who thought evolution occured in the space of a lifetime.

   I would also argue that African American is a horrible misnomer.  Most American blacks did not come here directly from Africa—their ancestors did.  Call them Americans because they are Americans.  Descent should finally have nothing to do with it.

   — shana 

1. Is the way to get rid of sexism to get rid of gender? The way to get rid of homophobia, to get rid of everything but bisexuality? The way to get rid of religious oppression, to get rid of religion?

   I’m just playing Devil’s Advocate here—I honestly don’t know what the right solution is (and I suppose no one does)…

   — Ari 

1. Gender classifications are not arbitrary. As Shana pointed out, “[race] has no scientific basis or usefulness in its vernacular form, and all it does is create misconceptions.  …the term itself was created in the 1600s to justify slavery…”

   As far as I understand, gender is more than just a set of classifications made to keep people down. There is more basis for me being straight, bisexual, or gay than for me being White, Asian, or Black.

   The reason I am advocating the elimination of races is because they were created as a means to stem racism. Genders, sexual preference, and religions were not created as a means to put down others. At least not to my knowledge.

   — Nate 

1. Additionally, we must consider that gender is a construct in every single culture in the world, while race is only a western white people thing.  Other societies may have adopted use of the term, but only after seeing it in use in ours. 

   That said, there have always been classifications of ‘other’, and I think it’s impossible to remove our catergory lenses entirely—it’s the way our brains are structured.  But it is one thing to say, “There is a Nigerian,” and quite another to say, “There is a black man.” The connotations it carries are vastly different.

   For centuries, humans referred to each other by nationality and descent groups, and prejudice appeared as a sort of side order.  Race institutionalized prejudice and made it pointed—and that is what we must avoid.  Think in categries, fine, but when those categories are founded in hatred and bigotry, we must leave them for better systems.

   — shana 

1. Let’s also not miss the bigger picture.  Getting rid of the concept of race, either through interbreeding or attitude changing, will not get rid of prejudice.  The human species is a tribal species, and it is in our nature to cluster into groups.  Ditching one idea of classification is not going to get rid of the idea of classification itself, and people will still find groups to belong to and prefer.

   — Mister Swill 

1. I don’t recall ever saying we could eradicate prejudice.  Certainly not completely-besides, some prejudices are useful.  But if we get rid of the implied tie between biology and culture that’s inherent in the race concept, we’ll blow the foundations for a lot of prejudices out of the water.

   There’s something final and inevitable when people consider biology.  That sense of finality is part of what makes the race concept so poisonous—ex. “Those people are such and such because it’s a part of their genetics.  They were born that way.”

   While it may be impossible to remove prejudice, we can endeavor to erase the worst of it.

   — shana 

1. The issue is quite complex.  Back in the 1960s during the Civil Rights movement, there was actually a stronger connection between blacks and whites who simply thought racial discriminiation was unfair. Simple as that.  The goal was to unite with other like-minded people.  Strengthen yourself, but don’t separate yourself from the things and people who might not be of the same race but in spirit are fighting against the core of what you’re against.

   Nowadays, racism is not as bad as it once was.  Still exists. But it’s not as bad.  But the problem is the economics of the world have changed as well.  And now there are class divisions and classism ruling people’s decisions.

   So you get more of a racial nationalist mentality. Unite with ourselves and forget about everyone else, because economically that’s the reality. In a way the classism breeds into the racism and creates divisions that might seem racial right now, but are purely rich vs. poor.

   For example—slightly a tangent, but connected—wheras in the past entry level jobs were factory worker jobs (for the most part), nowadays the the main entry level job is in the service industry. Working behind a counter. Helping people on the phone.  Serving.

   What does this do? People who are poorer and less skilled will now work in a job where they serve people who are better off than them.  That aspect is screwed up.  At least in a factory, everyone works together and the job you face is non-human.  With the service industry, when in certain areas everyone behind the counter is black and most others in front are white or generally not black, you get unneeded tension. And the unneeded idea that nationalism based on race will save you.

   The sad thing nowadays is that the cooperative spirit that existed in the early days of the civil rights era is not as strong as it once was.

   I think Chris Rock said it best when he was talking about homophobia and such and said:
   “We shouldn’t hate people because they are gay. We should hate people because they are people.”

   If you want to unite to end a common issue, you need to find like minded people and ignore race issues.  And face the bits of racism that might even exist in yourself.  Nationalist movements do nothing but scare people and really will kill things in the end.

   — Jack 

1. I personally think (as well) that humans by their very nature are far too “tribish” at present to simply overlook racial differences and thus eliminate race…maybe sometime in the distant future but certainly not now or in the near future. 
   I myself believe in Blacks banding together to become “stronger” not in that we should ignore or try to isolate ourselves from others, but that we really need to take a look at the problems in our own “back yards” and do something to fix them.
   I think the philosophy of “banding together” really means we need to come back as a unit and build more self esteem amongst the members of our community, we need to get rid of the stereotypical b/s image of the “cool black person” (meaning thugs)and emphasize ideals like family, education, harmony etc and I honestly believe that’s something we need to work out for ourselves….like if you have a “family” issue then you need to leave it up to the “family members” to fix it…not that outside help should be unwelcome but we need to deal with certain things on our own.
   I also think the concept of coming together for racial unity is because within Black culture there is so much racial discord…there is still the Dark Blacks vs the Light Blacks, the North American Blacks vs the Blacks from Africa (etc); the “Oreos” or “White wannabes” (namely blacks who are educated, articulate and striving to do well for themselves) vs the “Blacks who keep it real” (namely the Blacks who embody the negative stereotypes of what a black person “should” be)
   These are the issues that black unity are trying to address…I mean how can we expect others to take us seriously as a group of people when there are so many other members of our group following along with self destructive actions?

   — Soul 

1. Etan
   great post. spot on. right on.
   first, there are no races. this is a canard spread by Nazi scientists who invented the theory, THEORY, of race. there is no such thing as race. get over it. SMILE

   there are Gene Pools. yes, jewish gene pools, african gene pools, that is all. no such thing as race.

   so you are right.

   email me and let’s chat. i live in asia, left the USA in 1991 because of racism and religous bigotry. never going back there. it is a sick sick country.

   email me at

   i like your thinking/.

   — danny bloom 

1. I don’t think race shouldn’t be complimented with a designation of theory—a theory is a testable, falsifiable hypothesis that has a lot of evidential support.  Race was shown to be scientifically unsupportable a long time ago.

   I live in ‘Asia’, too—specifically Japan.  And the Japanese can be every bit as racist as the most backwards hick in America.

   — shana 

1. Unfortunately, racism is built into much of our everyday society—church, school, family. I’ve struggled for some time to shed the racist views passed on (possibly innocently) from my father and my religious tradition. Though I don’t think my tradition is any more racist than the national average, it’s still overly racist.

   — Rage 

1. I am black and female, was surfing the web and came across this interesting dialogue. As long as people look different I feel like there will always be some form of racism, people will just not talk about it for fear of being viewed as a bad person. It’s not always about skin color alone, it can also be about hair or facial features too versus what society brain washes us to believe is physically aesthetic.

   I blame the fashion industry for that primarily and the major film industry as well for not embracing the concept of diversity long ago. Now they are using gays to validate their willingness to be open minded. They need to do it with race. This is no secret but we must not forget it.

   Even black people can have racist attitudes and that is really a tragedy. I am still learning what is racist and what isn’t I suppose because a lot of situations that I saw as just plain ignorance are viewed as racist by other blacks which makes me rethink my position about it.

   Anyhow, I hope I have contributed something useful. I have printed all of your responses and will read all of the tonite. Thanks!

   — Anisoptera 

1. Very well put Anisoptera, it’s almost like people can think racist thoughts so long as they don’t acknowledge that they are racist…I have a friend who says almost daily “I’m not a racist” and in the same breath she will go on to criticize the Native American people because “they don’t take care of what they have bla bla bla” …I don’t know if she is unaware that her criticism of Native Americans is a racist one or not but she is CERTAINLY upset when I point it out to her.  For the life of me I’ll never understand why people get mad at you when you point out that they are doing something wrong….

   I also agree with the media brainwashing us all… I’ve heard so many times “look at the BLONDE hair and the BLUE eyes…they look like an angel/they are perfect” Not that there is anything wrong with liking blonde hair and blue eyes (of course) I just didn’t understand the almost blatant worship of these features until I talked to a few of my white friends who pointed out that it’s because of media brain washing us to see those features being glorified over and over again.  Unfortunately because of this same brainwashing anyone who “doesn’t fit” is seen as ugly…A good example of this I think is the concept in which many black women are ashamed of their natural hair (if it is not straight) and spend thousands of dollars each year to straighten it so it can look “presentable” or “professional” or “good”.  I think it’s high time we all got away from the idea that European features are the “best” ones and start embracing the fact that other features are just as good/beautiful.

   — Soul 

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