Racism

Racism I like many others think racism is far too common, this is easy to say. But something not so easy to say is that I don’t think racism is any more hideous than discrimination based on income, religion, age, political party or any of the other petty tools humanity uses to hurt itself. Racism, like all cruelty in my view, stems from misconceptions which breed insecurity. An example is the commonly held idea among racists that all black males are aggressive and violent; this misconception causes fear and thus insecurity. As of this writing racism is still very much a problem in this and many other countries. And although I feel that racism is a valid problem and should be dealt with I think that many of the methods employed to deal with it serve only to increase and perpetuate racism’s existence. Perhaps intentionally. Racism is profitable for some much like the drug war. For example affirmative action while noble in intention has degenerated into counter racism. It assumes that some groups of people are somehow more deserving of education or employment based on color rather than qualification. That should sound disturbingly familiar. Furthermore, I feel that special sentence magnifications in cases of hate crime are fundamentally unfair, considering that it suddenly suggests that it is more socially acceptable to assault one over money then to assault another because of hate. In my view criminal assault on a person, regardless of their age or political power, is wrong. In short I think that people -including children- are due equal protection under the law. Hate crime legislation protects a select group unequally because of race. And that is the core issue here, equality. Some people don’t really want equality, they want vengeance, or special privilege. That also sounds familiar. Some know that affirmative action increases racial tensions and that is their real goal. While others claim to want to solve the racial troubles in this country, but merely can’t compete at the level asked of others and want special exemptions from the stringent requirements associated with their goals. Such as the man who blames racism for his poverty rather than his total lack of effort to better himself, or his addictive and self destructive tendencies. I’m quick to add that poverty is not the result of fault. That will be covered in more detail later. I feel that asking for things from society in this light is insulting to those that have attained their position on their own merit. This does not mean I buy the

Horiatio Alger myth. I think special treatment because of how you were born is as unfair as being hated for what color you were born. For example it is easier for a felon to get school funding then it is for one with a clean record. Although I am not a felon, I would very much like access to the pool of resources allocated for “rehabilitation”. This does not mean I support prison over rehabilitation. It's almost like society is capitulating to an unspoken hostage situation. "Give me education or I'm going to kill someone." Rather than giving special education to felons why not make available good education for anyone, and lack of education for those that feel they don’t need it. All forms of useless arbitrary discrimination need to be attacked, and in this case fighting fire with fire only burns the house down quicker. Racism is a symptom of a larger problem. Society seems to pigeon hole and categorize far more often than is necessary. This tendency is a large part of racism’s staying power. It has to do also with special interest groups and the lobby structure of our two party political system as well, but that's also another essay. That is not to suggest that it’s the only reason racism endures, but it definitely has a significant impact. People see problems and want to call them black problems or white problems when they are just people problems, and like the tension caused in the scientific world over naming and categorical issues, these racial misconceptions cause similar tensions in the real world. And as long as categorization is lauded as man’s chief intellectual capacity the racial problem will crop up, but soon it will be clones, cyborgs, “pure” humans, and AIs not blacks and whites. Another significant factor is of course the same process that drives religion, political inertia, and other facets of life; the use of a child’s impressionability. A detestable example being the toddler in full KKK attire when clearly he’s not even capable of defining it’s meaning. Obviously this isn’t the child’s choice, and odds are by the time he is old enough to make it himself it will have effectively been made for him through a process of assumptions, indoctrination, and context control. Regrettably by this time it will be very unlikely that the insecurity and misconceptions are ever removed. The best way to get rid of racism is to make race a non-issue. Stop even asking. Make it totally irrelevant. Do employment applications ask you what your favorite type of movie is? No, because it simply doesn’t matter, if race really doesn’t matter, then stop asking. We'll outgrow it eventually, just like gay bashing, spanking, and religion.