RACE: the PROBLEM … & a SOLUTION

“How do we stop racism? Stop talking about it. I’m going to stop calling you a white man, and I’m going to ask that you to stop calling me a black man.” ~ Morgan Freeman

People of color all over the world have been exploited for thousands of years, and they continue to be unfairly treated today … There is a reason they are angry. It is a natural response to being oppressed.

AND venting that anger with violent attacks on “white folks” or angrily venting about “the white establishment” is just as racist and just as immoral. This racism might be “reversed” and it might be done to “obtain justice”, and yet racism it remains.

Similarly, I hear more and more white friends complaining about black-on-white violence as though it were something innate to people of color; as though these attacks are simply some latent, savage character trait that needs to be contained & controlled.

Don’t they see that this is the very response that bought on black anger in the first place? Don’t they see that condemning others’ rage and shackling their ill-chosen attempts to finally receive true justice & a valid equality will only ensure that the violence will continue? Don’t they see that racism cannot solve a problem that was caused by racism in the first place?

Have we really learned so little as a species?

Well, I happen to have more Faith in humanity than that. I happen to believe that we know better — I happen to believe that most of us have woken up to the Truth that only Love can conquer fear, that only Kindness can conquer anger; that only Forgiveness can quell unrest. And more importantly than that, I happen to believe we are ready to act accordingly.

Racism will continue — of this there can be little doubt. AND YET the vast majority of us have awoken to a new day for our species; a day that has dawned with a sun that shines not on warring tribes and squabbling nations and races in conflict, but rather a light that is illuminating the FACT that we are ALL actually members of one huge Family.

The bigotries of condemnation, criticism, ridicule, punishment and incarceration have been tried for thousands of years by our primitive forefathers — and they have failed us. They have failed us miserably and they have failed us completely.

AND YET I happen to have Faith that there are those of you out there who will join me in doing the only thing that will ever bring us further — the only response to race-violence that will ever heal the wounds they have torn open. What will work is the option we have yet to try en masse … What will work is Compassion (the verb).

*What will work is setting aside the bigoted beliefs we were taught by parents innocently ignorant, and choosing instead to see those of other races merely as darker or lighter versions of ourselves.

*What will work is refusing to give in to our primitive desires to lash out at those who trespass against us — especially if their skin is of a different hue.

*What will work is choosing to reach out to those of different color & different culture BEFORE violence erupts; to mend the Family-ties that were broken long ago; to remind ourselves and others that our only true enemy is the mindset that would label another as an “enemy” by the color of his skin or by the God that she worships, by the way he talks or by the clothes she wears.

The time for such uneducated barbarism has long since passed, my Friends. Please awaken to this Truth today, and then go forth with me to actively embrace those people in your own communities having races or religions or cultures other than your own.

Don’t wait for the next act of violence to heal wounds that are already bleeding. Start the Healing today …

Thank you.

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate. And yet if they can be taught to hate, they can be reminded to Love; for Love comes much more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” ~ Nelson Mandela

Filed under: Renouncing Racism by Scaughdt