This subject is touchy as hell. Most of us would much rather sweep it under the rug, myself included, but it needs discussion. Every time it gets discussed, something else comes out of it which is revelatory and worth pondering. The thought-provoking nature of this topic can reward us with enlightenment, despite the difficulties in talking about it.
Discussion of it can also cause damage, unfortunately. It can be easy to go off half-cocked and emotional without setting the brains to "Function." But again, discussion can easily bring about new ideas and concepts to the betterment of us all.
I'm as white as they come. Blonde hair, blue eyes, german blood, german name; the works. I don't have a prejudiced bone in my body but that was not always the case. My mother's family is a group of Missouri rednecks in the most extreme sense of the word, "Redneck." The only reason we can't call them Hillbillies is because they aren't THAT inbred.
Just kidding, really! :D Still, they are as racist a group of people as you can possibly find in the world. I've forgotten ten times more racist jokes than any of you will ever hear and they all came from that group of my mother's family. As an impressionable child, it would have been easy for me to become a Nazi-thinking nutball just like my racist pig uncles. If you're wondering, no, I don't have a great deal of love for them.
One of the things which tempered me somewhat and kept me from becoming that racist azz was that from age 7 to age 16, I grew up on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Window Rock, AZ. At the time, the population was about 2% white. (Now, I think it is about 3% white.) Picture this, however, if you will. A small-for-his-size white kid with snow white hair and at age 8, wearing some pretty geeky-looking glasses.
Sad, really. Hell, even the few white kids thought I was goofy-looking! :D
But what was really sad was the number of times I was harrassed by indian kids for the simple fact that I was a white boy. A bilagona (sp?). A term as derogatory as niggger ever was. An Navajo kid pulled a knife on me on the school bus one time. I was in third grade. Scared the he!! outta me, to be sure. (As an aside, that same guy contacted me about three years ago and apologized for that, if you can believe it!)
Why do I tell you all of that? So I can tell you this. Just as there were more than my fair share of life experiences where I was treated with racism and prejudice, there were just as many times when I was treated with decency and respect by people of other races. Other beliefs and skin colors. Other views of life.
I've come to believe it's never about racism, it's about respect. And respect is one of those things you're taught to have for other people at a young age, regardless of anything to do with their appearance. How they dress, wear their makeup, how they smell, how they carry themselves, how they speak, where they live, their sexual preferences, and yes, what color their skin is.
Most racist people were taught to be racist by their parents. They were not taught to have respect for people who deserve it. They were taught to judge people by their skin color alone. No, I take that back. They were taught to [b]hate[/b] people based on their skin color alone. To hate that which they do not understand. To despise that which is different from themselves. To consider themselves better than the other guy because they have a 'better' skin color.
As I implied above, people of all races are prejudicial and racist. Whites are not any more racist than Blacks, Asians, Latinos, etc. We are, in fact, all very much the same in that regard. The one Sioux indian who lived on the reservation was harrassed by racist Navajos just as much as the white guys were harrassed by racist Navajos. And treated well by the non-racist Navajos.
In my never-to-be-humble opinion, the only thing worse than racial prejudice is religious prejudice which starts more wars. Still, racism affects us daily and more constantly and will be many centuries before it is completely extirpated from our little world here.
--Wag--
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2 comments:
Hi Louis.
Very interesting - one theory that i formed having chosen a bunch of Misfit-Semi-Neo-Nazi's as friends all through highschool (aside: as you know, based on my particular bloodline, there is absolutely no reason for them to accept me).
This probably does not apply as well to people raised in households where racism is practiced - better to apply it to people who find racism on their own.
It seems to me that it is not so much that they think their skin color is "better", it is the Misfit part that matters most. These kids are angry and full of self-loathing for whatever reason and they latch onto the ideas preached by, in this case, white supremacist groups because these ideas teach them that they are better than other people without being smarter, faster, stronger, prettier, whatever. They are better inherently and THAT can be a beautiful thing.
For my part, I did not participate. Actually i found out recently that one of my good friends who hung out with that same group has been influenced by them - she told me that some guy from her work was interested in her but . . . dun dun DUN!!! he is half black. Gross. She innocently asked me if i would ever sleep with a black guy. (she is so dumb that i honestly believe that she believes this based solely on what was said by those boys).
So I told her that I had no problem with the idea of it at all, just - well, I live in a city in which i would speculate that the African-American popluation is like .25% or something. But I made sure to point out to her that I would never base such a decision on the color of a person and that to do is is an ignorant choice indeed.
Anyways - back to these boys, what I find interesting is that it seems to be a choice in life-style. Even though some of them no longer feel the same way about the supremacy of the aryan race (which by the way is silly because as far as I know the "Aryans" originated somewhere near modern day Turkey if I am not mistaken), not a one of them has become successful (i find this interesting). They are all mechanics and marines and bouncers, and whathaveyou. And most were raised in communities where the avg house sells for around a mil. Their parents were successful, afforded them every opportunity and I am the only one of that group of people that I hung out with in highschool who went to college. (not that i havent passed up my fair share of opportunities).
Just some thoughts.
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