Sharon's Muse.... Let's chat over coffee while I ponder some things
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Sharon's Muse.... Let's chat over coffee while I ponder some things |
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Name::Sharon Cullars
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Thursday, December 01, 2005 Blog Against Racism In honor of the 50th anniversary of Rosa Parks' arrest, today has been designated Blog Against Racism Day. It’s a good concept to speak out against racism. But we need more than just one day and more diverse avenues than merely blogs that only reach a portion of those who need to hear the message. This is a message that should last longer than one day. Every one of us needs to speak out against it in our daily living. The message needs to be blasted from the pulpits, from the board rooms, from the bedrooms. Racism has to be repelled in the schoolyards, the stockyards, the playpens, the bullpens. Until it is, then we will always have symbolic days of observation, with a lot of theorizing but little application. So what do I have to say about racism? Anything that I can say has basically been said before. Racism is a form of hate and everyone knows that hate is destructive, divisive, and even self-defeating for those who hold it in their hearts. Yet racism appears to be so intractable. Why? I may have found a partial answer in a term I saw mentioned on another blog. The term piqued my thoughts about the subject, put the issue into another perspective for me – self-importance. So why is racism so pervasive, so intractable? Maybe because those who perpetrate it need it in some way. There are so many –isms to combat in this world, that maybe we (and I include myself in this fallible “we”) latch on to any one of them that serves in our favor. Sexism denigrates women, but the man who is sexist may feel so powerless that he grabs hold to any tenet that says he is superior to somebody, in this case, women. “Thank God for not being born a woman” is part of a Jewish prayer and may be a rumination of many men. “Thank God I was not born this or that (fill in the descriptive) “Thank God I’m not black,” says the new immigrant to our shores who so desperately wants not to start at what he perceives as the bottom of the rung. The cashier who barely makes six or seven dollars an hour looks askance at the black customer at his station who is holding the keys to a Lexus. The cashier may think, “Yes, he has a good job, a nice car…but he’s black. Thank God I’m not black…” If you can find someone to measure yourself against and come out ahead, then you’re going to hold on to that measuring stick as though your life depends on it. An Archie Bunker knows he’s not in the running, but at least he’s ahead of “them niggers…” As he sees it, anyway. Nowadays, there are so many of us who can look and compare and make ourselves feel good against certain “others,” whether it’s a comparison of better looks, better health, a better job. Denigration of others is just another form of hate, another –ism. But racism is so much more malevolent in its historical aspects. It has caused death and destruction, pain and despair. It will continue to divide us, to bolster our misconceptions of the “other” because some of us need it to do so. Without the illusory comparisons in which we perceive ourselves ahead of the game, we will be forced to see our actual positions in this race. And find ourselves far behind. Self-importance. It may be a reason. Then again, maybe it’s as simple as the Bible says. Sin is destruction. Hate is a sin. Racism is hate. And can a sin be entirely abolished by us mere humans? Maybe we need to call on a higher power. Addendum: Forgot to thank Monica for the info on today.
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