Despite the liberal tolerance of our New World, racism still thrives in societies the world over. East and West, Third or First world, it’s always there; sometimes beneath the surface and sometimes in our faces. With that said, when the black son of an African Muslim, Barrack Hussein Obama, becomes the President of the United States, we can at least say we’re headed in the right direction. RELATIVTY OnLine’s David Anthony Hohol talks racism, straight forward and to the point.
Many of us will live out our entire lives without ever truly experiencing being unlike all those with which we surround ourselves. It’s hard for many to understand what it’s like to walk into a room and have everyone take notice of our presence simply for being the only one. To fathom the self-image born from being a member of what society calls a minority can be very complicated for those standing amidst the towering forest of the status quo. Perhaps most importantly, it’s difficult to comprehend the enveloping sense of judgment and conversely, the tremendous feeling of solidarity amongst the membership of a societal out-group.
Throughout human history race has been our most defining characteristic. By extension, race has consistently produced powerful forms of judgment and continues to do so today. Although the concept of race scientifically does not exist and is purely a social phenomenon, the social reality of race permeates every part of human life. More than anything, visible immediacy perpetuates its superiority as a master status and the lines of racial division are systemically ingrained within our thought patterns from the moment we join the empirical rabble of humankind.
Whether it’s been random or evolutionary adjustments to the environment, the fact is that the physical disparity amongst us is due to genetic mutation. In the days before global or even continental travel, isolated gene pools created common ancestries with similar traits, and even communal diseases, but never has there been a sub-species to the human race. Nevertheless, race is unquestionably a very significant part of our lives and is repeatedly used to explain such cultural nuances as skin color, ethnicity, values, traditions, or ancestry.
Pre-conceived notions and socially conditioned images of race are downloaded onto the human psyche via television, music, film, and the ever-manipulative mass media. By the time children reach their tenth birthdays, the socially constructed images of Black, White, Indian, Asian, or Arabic have been fully installed and are an integral part of the massive hard drive that is our subconscious mind. With the music and film industries working as system engineers for the youth of every generation passed, one can begin to see the fateful stereotypes that shape the minds of today’s youth in preparation for adulthood within the walls of the Western World and beyond. Whether it’s the White angry banger bands or the even whiter super-hero, the Black pimp daddy hip-hop bands or the blacker still foul mouthed criminal, ideas of what it means to be Black or White are ingested constantly. Further still, whether it’s the cerebral Asian computer geek, the scheming Arab terrorist, or the money loving Jew, a pre-determined and entirely misleading range of archetypal racial images rain down upon us from all sides. Whether pejorative in nature or not, these images can thus be defined as a fundamental part of our societal matrix from which all thought stems.
The differences amongst the human race and the significance attached to them have been the cause of conflict throughout our long and arduous existence. Simultaneously, we must take care not to subscribe to the flawed belief that recognizing the differences amongst us is synonymous with the proliferation and sanctioning of inequality. Many like to claim that the recognition of differences is integrally linked to discrimination. This kind of naïve fear-mongering is wrong, but has unfortunately become a knee-jerk reaction in the hypersensitive, politically correct minefield of today’s world. We are often made to feel as though we are not supposed to overtly recognize the differences amongst the human race. In other words, many of us have been conditioned to withhold thoughts and ideas about the differences amongst us for fear of being labeled a bigot or a racist; an accusation, whether true or not, that permanently stains an individual’s character. At times, we even catch ourselves questioning our own thoughts – I know I have.
Come on now, be honest; how do you really perceive Blacks, Whites, Indians, Arabs, Asians, or any other so-called race different than your own? Look into the mirror and be completely honest with yourself… no one else has to know.
There are many differences amongst us and there are no absolutes, this much I know to be true. Contrarily, we are more alike than different, no matter how difficult it may be to initially recognize the similarities. It’s in our nature to see the differences amongst us before we see that which is the same, but when given the chance to truly see, like a blind man regaining his sight, what was always right in front of us can become an emancipating vision of truth.
Experience – tangible, first hand experience with that which we don’t know makes all the difference. It is then when we feel the comforting cloak of legitimacy. Behind every fallen lie within our intricate puzzle of existence will stand a piece of magnanimous truth, and when put together they will create a picture of clarity and conviction. It’s a process to which I have become addicted and it continues to this day.
We all need to shine a light upon that which makes us feel uncomfortable, odd, hurt, or even angry, so that we can see inside ourselves and begin to understand. The result will be the inspiration to learn more, to experience more, to understand that which we do not, and see that which we have never seen. By extension, people all around us, regardless of who they are become more like the person we see in the mirror each day. In the end, exposure and experience bring understanding and hope, and the further we reach into the bottomless depths of empiricism, the smaller our majestic world becomes.
From David Anthony Hohol…
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