What is it with racism? I'm a Caucasian guy who, for all intents and purposes, who "isn't" a racist.. With that being said I have an example of a real life scenario I've run into where I have someone who seems (and this is how I'm taking it and how others have perceived it) to have a bit of a "Reverse Racism" approach to me and other Caucasians...
Let me back up and explain what I mean with my Reverse Racism comments:
We all know the plight of the Black man/woman in the United States.. I feel for them and I think what our ancestors did, in regards to slavery, was absolutely appalling!
We also know that NOT ALL Caucasians were on board with slavery... That line alone should stand out; "NOT ALL Causacians were on board with Slavery"!
Somehow the fact that slavery was a very touchy issue back in the days of active slavery gets lost in translation at times (and this is purely me projecting what I think about the scenario.. There's proof in the History books that we had white Americans on both sides of the Slavery/Anti-Slavery fence.. That alone should dispel the theory that Caucasians were for slavery).. This is how I feel and it's my own $hit per se... Maybe that fact isn't lost on African Americans, who knows.. All I can comment on is what I've seen, heard and felt;
What I've seen & heard is allot of anti-white sentiment... Seems every time I see CNN or MSNBC there's some type of racial debate which paints whites in a negative light (Again, this is how I'm perceiving it and doesn't means it the end all be all truth)... That's my experience of it anyway... Is it really that way through? Is there a crusade by African Americans to stomp out the Caucasians? To beat us down mentally to the point where we're getting our comeuppance? Doubtful...
White Guilt is just that, it's white people feeling guilt for what happened to other races... Without really thinking about this Caucasians get irritated feeling this guilt for something they haven't done, enslaving other races to do our bidding... But did our ancestors enslave people? Sure but it was a fraction of the white population in those times that did this, the majority did not... The majority were just trying to live, trying to help fight the atrocity against African Americans by way of the Underground Railroad...
The Underground railroad was something I'd like to think I'd have been a part of... Slavery is just God Awful and no one should have to live as a slave, period... The people who sacrificed EVERYTHING to help free the slaves are also our ancestors... The way we're ALL acting these days (all races in America) is not only a slap in the face to the men and women who lived on both sides of the slavery fence in those times (Black & White) but just a moot point now as far as I'm concerned...
WE're here, living together in the same country, and that's not going to change so why do we spend so much time making sure the fences are maintained? Why should I feel like I'm the bad guy? Why should the Black man feel as though he's still being persecuted? Who's the real enemy that we should be focusing on (assuming we can't NOT be pointing a finger at someone.. We're human and it seems so easy and normal for us to point the finger thanks to that little thing called "Ego"):
I truly believe that the REAL racist is and always has been BIG BUSINESS......
Nowadays it doesn't matter what color or what sex anyone is... We are ALL at the mercy of Big Business... Think about it... Who needed slaves? Big Businesses and those were the plantations... Wealthy families also wanted/needed slaves as well... Why? GREED! They wanted to accumulate as much money as possible and what better way to do it than legalized slavery! So these "Whores" were completely FOR slavery.... The lower classes (which, if looked at nowadays, makes up about 90% of the population) weren't buying slaves.... They were just trying to live... They were also the people who did what they could to help end slavery...
I guess all I'm trying to say is that just because I'm white doesn't mean I oppressed anyone... At the same time I don't like being treated as if I did oppress anyone which brings me to my example:
I dealt with a condescending, well educated African American who demanded I address him as "Doctor" just because he has his doctorate... Well I just dealt with the situation and never said anything to this person.. Part of me wanted to snap back and say "I defended YOUR country so YOU can address me as CORPORAL" (as I'm former US ARMY)... But I didn't say it and I'm glad I didn't feed into my ignorance..
This person's issues are NOT with me or with Caucasians in general... I understand that now after a super amount of reflection! He has legit reasons to feel the way he does but his angst is misdirected (my opinion)...
In the 21st century our plights are the same even though they look completely different on the outside; Big Business has made all Americans (and especially citizens of 3rd world countries who work for peanuts each day) slaves... The economy knows no color... Big Business is Greed and Greed is what made ALL of this happen... Bottom lines are all they care about! Doesn't matter where we or what we know, we're still slaves to Big Business, Greed and, above all else, human nature... Greed seems to be something Satan was able to stick us with so that we'd eventually implode under the supposed watchful (and vengeful) eye of God, the Creator... Then again we are just evolved animals... It's life's nature to survive at all costs... Maybe that's a warning sign that Greed will never go away, it's part of our souls and there's nothing we can do about it.. Millions of years of evolution and we still fight, kill, leave others for dead (in whatever sense you can think of)... That scares me.... Makes me being irritated about what I perceived as a slight based on potential racism pale in comparison...
Everything has roots, everything... We look at racism as a topographical thing, it's easy to do since we start our judgements based on something as silly as the color of a persons skin...! If we all looked further and deeper we'd see where the issue actually is and pool our resources and collective knowledge to try and break the cycle of Greed so that, hopefully, a domino effect would be created where things like racism, sexism and being poor could come to an end...
If there really is a God I can't see how he would have given us these inherent flaws... And if we're made in his image that's even worse! Might this ever-present God be nothing more than an entity with Greed and Ego?
Wow, I hope not... I'd much rather see everyone live in harmony, happy and full of life than to know the secrets of life after death... If you can't live life and love it then there's no difference between life and death...
The way things are going in society today only shows me that we've been dying inside for a long, long time....
No comments:
Post a Comment