Certainly, many cartographers of man's mind might claim we did so ages ago but I might argue that in such times, there was not so great a preponderance of evidence available to so many that they might overcome it. In other words, can one overcome that which they have not encountered?
Undoubtedly we still are without a complete understanding of the world and the universe it nests within, but we have easy access to compelling evidence of familiar claims. Racism, for example, or unfair tax policies, or the destructive affects of authoritarian rule on intimate and international scales.
Racism
Racism is the game we play when we arbitrarily divide featherless bipeds into groups based on physical characteristics. Discrimination is a broader term that can encompass other team drawing exercises that tend to feature large amounts of distrusting and blaming the weakest teams. Discrimination can feature religion as the basis for team building, but it can also feature geographic location, nationality, or the type of music a person listens to.
As social bags of gas and fat, it is quite natural that our pattern seeking soft tissue would assign values to physical characteristics. As upright apes intent on existing in proximity to other vertically inclined hominids, it is likewise assumed that we will seek to rank our place in the wider sphere of thumb juggling monkeys. It is important to know your place in the world. It is important to know who is above and who is below you.
This confluence of tendencies make it likely that meat-bags such as look like us would likely devise some grouping of arbitrary traits, rank the members of the group, set the group in groups of groups with their own rankings and then blame the less powerful groups for being less powerful because they lack a certain level of 'articulation'.
Does Racism Exist?
Thoroughly overcoming reality, though, has made it possible for racism to no longer exist and exist at the same time.
One thing I am forced to ask people who proclaim the death of racism is "What would it look like if it were alive? What signs exist or would exist to indicate the presence of racism?"
When we look to at the distribution of wealth and knowledge and opportunity, we notice that significant portions of the population are clustered around the bottom that share certain physical characteristics. Given we are wonderfully rhetorical creatures, there are all sorts of stories relating to how this came about. People love stories and become quite defensive if you question the facts or legitimacy of their story.
Who can I yell at so I don't have to think about it? Surely if we just burn few white guys in effigy and vote for democrats, we can solve this thorny issue.
But maybe the words of a story are less important than listening to one another tell it. Maybe the most valid story is not the story that will help us solve a problem that is hurting everyone but is hurting some people way more than others. Maybe, rather than vilifying people for exposing biases that we all have, we should accept each other's handicaps with love and help them overcome them.
I think by denying we have racial biases is why our previous interventions haven't worked to the extent we might prefer. I think we should be able to open up about them and say things like, "I am kind of afraid of black people," or, "I get really uncomfortable around Arab people," or, "Why are why are Mexicans not as hilariously foolish like they are in movies?" These are questions we can answer and help people overcome these fears or see Latinos as a diverse group from many cultural backgrounds who don't always know where to score some dank weed but they might know a guy or maybe they don't and that's ok too because my white neighbor who works with computers has a cousin in Denver and he sent me this primo bud that gives you the ability to travel in time.
At this point, people usually stop me and explain that we are travelling through time even as we write these words or read them and rather than acknowledging that they might have a point, I will pivot and say:
Maybe it doesn't matter?
Maybe it doesn't matter what story, precisely, you believe to most accurately reflect the events which led to a continuous struggle of getting people of certain phenotypes to succeed in this society. There are numerous advantages towards integrating a society. Race is not a field that benefits from specialization. In the same way that the whole body is affected when even the littlest toe is in pain, the whole society suffers when one group has a much harder time finding happiness and success.
We have seen what happens when a significant portion of a group feels their need is unmet: those needs get met in unhealthy ways. It is dangerous, it is immoral, and it is pretty darn difficult to deny the existence of racism in America.
I would say that it is also misguided to suggest attacking people who show racial biases. Instead, I would suggest we encourage talk about racial biases and look at ways we can overcome this cultural infection.
Because we all have it.
Every. Single. One of us.
And it's ok.
I know you didn't set out to be racist. I know you know it isn't ideal. But just like pooping, we all do it. Unlike pooping, though, we need to find a better way.
Thanks for your time,
A. Racist
(but I feel really bad about it)
P.S. Send me some feedback if you would like me to expand on this or continue with a similar summary of taxes or authoritarianism or if you would like to suggest a topic, I am open to that as well.
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