This one was interesting because many people of one race (or another) completely agreed with me, while others of the same race completely disagreed. And so on.
Last week and over the weekend we had a very energetic and opinionated dialog here about race, racial issues, and racism in a post called My View: No Such Thing As Racism.
I’m glad that’s how it was.
I invite heated discussion, passions to come out, opposing points of view.
This one was interesting because many people of one race (or another) completely agreed with me, while others of the same race completely disagreed. And so on.
Fascinating. But how can that be?
Mostly I think it’s because what I was trying to say could be viewed or interpreted differently depending upon what kind of outlook one has.
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My point was to raise the stakes.
I believe it’s not enough to just sit there pointing out in bold capital letters all of the things that prove racism still exists.
So what?
What are you doing to eliminate the underlying causes? Do you even care what the causes are? Or are you vested in having racism continue even as you swear you aren’t a racist and even as you list your grievances?
Don’t get caught up in semantics.
If I say “Don’t think of the color orange!” then you must first think of the color orange in order to not do so.
The same way, if I say “Anti-Racism” then you must focus first on racism, which acts to reinforce it by the Law of Attraction.
Instead, begin focusing on the solutions.
What I was doing was listing the underlying causes.
I was suggesting that president-elect Barack Obama was helping create an environment where a growing number of people are beginning to do just that.
Last week and over the weekend while comments were coming in for that post, I was at a training course about relationships.
It was called All Your Relations. (I attended with my lovely wife, who wants me to take the garbage out faster, among other things … more on that later!)
One of the speakers was Marianne Williamson, the brilliant enlightened thinker, creator of the Foundation for Inner Peace, and author of A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles”
She has her own show on Oprah & Friends. (Admit it, she’s hot for a 54-year-old, no? Must have some inner peace, no?)
Ms. Williamson suggests that there exist in the world very few racists, terrorists, and others who truly hate. It’s just that “they hate with more conviction than those who love.”
It’s worth repeating: They hate with more conviction than those who love.
So, essentially, we need to capitalize and use bold for LOVE, and just let hate fade away into the page.
Chew on that for a while and then put it all together in your own life.
Make a difference one person at a time.
Make history now, one moment at a time.
Hey Claude…I’m happy that you’re continuing this discourse. FYI…for the vote, I’d pick “more enlightened ways of thinking” for what our focus should be. But that’s not to say that racism doesn’t exist. I too look for solutions, that’s the basis of my practice. In most cases, I don’t believe you need to have an extensive history or understanding of a problem in order to find solutions. You don’t need to know how rain comes from the sky to figure out you need to cover up so you don’t get wet. But you do need to acknowledge that it is raining.
You asked “What are you doing?” In my field, Marriage and Family Therapy, (MFT) I’m working to draw attention to how ignoring this very topic in many ways encourages it to survive. We have to invite (as you have so eloquently done) others to discuss this. We have to get past the anger, the hurt, the blaming, the excuses, and work towards solutions. Then we need to advertise this is going on. Hate has a great marketing dep’t, that’s why it appears they have more conviction.
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Because racism exist because of peoples ignorance (lack of knowledge), I don’t think we can change them. We can’t “enlighten their thinking. Many will ague you down or simply disagree because they think they know what they know. (In reality, they don’t know squat). They have to change their thoughts. They decide to change they’re thoughts after exposure. Exposure brings knowledge, and with knowledge comes understanding. I believe that’s scriptural. That’s how people grow, through the renewing of their minds. Just like children playing together can learn to see each other as individuals. They are operating though knowledge and not ignorance. We can’t even change our spouses and likewise we can’t change other people. So how do we make a difference?
In your poll what needs more focus right now, I say IMPROVED QUALITY OF LIFE. That’s what we can control in our realm of the World. How because as you achieve, you enlighten people to your strengths and they can see that people really aren’t very different. People have the same basic needs, wants, desires, strengths and weakness. The differences are purely individual and as they know this, if they are open to seeing it, they will change their own minds. Their preconceived ideas will change, the knowledge base changes and they can grow. Because of his visibility, Obama is in the best position to dispel the myths and begin to expand the thinking of people in this Country and around the World.
The old saying garbage in garbage out is also true in this case. However, what we do and achieve is, in my opinion, the best way to change the garbage in to positive information in and to get something positive out.
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Claude…finally I agree with you. People HATE with more conviction than they LOVE. We can debate the definition of racism all day, but I think this last bit is most profound.
Which leads me to another line of discussion entirely. My daughter asked why I like the old school music better than today’s hip hop. There are many reasons, including the memories old school music brings, but the one that jumped to mind when my daughter asked me was the fact that when I was growing up, all the music was about love.
Falling in love, being in love, falling out of love, falling back in love again. We didn’t focus on n____as and b____s, and all the negativity and hate I hear in today’s music.
Think back to the best songs of all time, from the Temptations to EWF to to Luther. From the Supremes, Aretha, Dione Warwick, to Teena Marie to Whitney.
We definitely need more Love in the world today…couldn’t agree more.
By the way, I voted for Quality of Life. There’s too many brothers and sisters struggling out there and they need our help.
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You should come over to my world! More harmony!
You see I bleed the same color blood as all the other humans on this planet.
And when you bring up the “race” issue it stirs the pot again and focuses on the physical rather that the meta-physical. Our subconscious doesn’t understand racism!
When we live in our subconscious, meta phsical world, low energy issues disappear like race etc. We learn to control fear…and that is all racism is.
I have a rule I use in marketing my many websites on line…. Don’t use the word “Risk” like in “Risk FREE” because people still see the word “Risk” and it triggers FEAR. So I don’t have a “risk free” policy….I call it a “guaranteed promise” and sometimes “guaranteed priority”. I test this and it has increased sales 11%.
This attitude applies here.
John Finn
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Initially I was’nt going to reply to the statement”No Such Thing As Racism ” based on the energy it takes away from my spirit to have to think or discuss the topic. But it is and has always been necessary to talk about. It is something that has to be dealt with on a daily basis depending on your situation.
In saying that I do believe racism exist.
Racism has many different labels depending on how you want to approach it. Or if you are trying to figure out what disguise it’s concealed behind.
Pick one.: Evil, Hatred, Capitalism, Power ,Class…etc.
It is that sickening feeling you get when you are in a situation and a remark is made that catches you off guard and you either address it then or give it a pass to regroup and deal with it later.
I do believe if people thought on a more enlightened level that the world would be a different place but it is something engrained in us culturally that creates this divisive way of thinking and being.
Being able to discuss racism in any form can be empowering because it is generally hard to explain or understand the cause and effects of it’s use. I do think the cause of racism has created the collapse of all governmental agencies because the people are becoming more informed and smarter about how they make choices in life.
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Dean, I couldn’t agree more. The lyrics and the brand identities of those groups were aligned with inspiration, positive messages, unity, trust, love, peace, teaching, preparation, wisdom … all good stuff. The music and lyrics were equally important. Today, I think the beat is the main thing. Not even the melody, the harmony, the instrumentation. Just the beat and the attitude and the artist-faux-image and you have a modern day music talent. It’s not their fault, entirely, as much as it is the fault of record industry execs. Many of these artists have much, much, much more inside them … but their label couldn’t care less.
This old post of mine hits on some of our misery:
Like Phonograph, The Blog Is Leading To New Black Renaissance
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