Dear Friends,
It seems to me, what makes a person a racist, is how they categorize other people, ie. race being a primary factor in how they categorize a person, but if race is considered a tertiary attribute, then they are not. A primary characterization would be to believe that all people, of whatever race, have a distinct character. For example, all purple people are mean, all polka dotted people are racist, all striped people are stupid or all invisible people are mischievous. The race so characterized is irrelevant. Striped people have no more right to say all purple people are mean, than purple people have a right to say all striped people are stupid, both are racist statements. Yet today, we have a contingent that are openly racist while slandering anyone who disagrees as racist… this can only harm society.
The correct way to judge others is as individuals. We are all individuals and should be treated as such. It makes no difference if I am polka dotted or purple, I am an individual. Only I dwell in my head… as do you in yours. To treat people as if they are automatons based on a model number, denoted by race, is to deny others their very humanity. Of course there are purple people who are mean, and there are purple people who are agreeable, it would be impossible for it to be different. Every attribute given to Man falls on a bell curve. Therefore, we cannot sidestep the work of having to build a mental construct of who they are, as an individual person, not assign a prefab mental construct on them based on a tertiary attribute. We must judge others, as we would be judged… as individuals.
Sadly, it seems like many don’t understand that how you treat people says more about you, than what it does about them. If a purple person treated a polka dotted person extra nice, that would be as racist as treating her like she is automatically a racist, seemingly less destructive to social cohesion… or maybe more destructive, in a counter intuitive way. Because pandering to a person, rather than elevate them, lowers them. You pander to a child, not an adult. To treat an adult like a child is to disrespect them. Disrespect leads to anger, and anger leads to acting out… like children do. If we are treated as a child we act like children… to the world’s injury. Moreover, if we are treated as villains we soon take up the mantle of villain. Because we all act as we are expected to.
Government policies meant to counter racism, by their nature, are racist. Things set by society should be changed by society not forced on society by the elite. If there is such a societal shift, to elect people looking to impose counter racist legislation, there are sufficient people to change society from within. Far from eliminating racism, when government seeks to rectify racism, it must institutionalize and codify racism into the cannon of law. Moreover, people being self interested, when one group gets an institutionalized advantage over others, for whatever reason, people will seek to exploit it to their own advantage. Often countering the very reason it was set up in the first place. Some will even stoop to pretending they are a member of an effected race to gain advantage.
The single thing we can do as individuals to stop racism… is to embrace the philosophy of the Golden Rule. Lead by example, follow the golden rule in your own life, apply the Golden Rule to real world situations in conversation, and teach your children the Golden Rule. You cannot fight racism with racism, it can only be defeated by the compassion that comes of an individual, understanding we are all individuals. “Judge others by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin…” is based on the compassion that comes from embracing the golden rule. In a society where the Golden Rule was not only taught, but practiced, there would be no racism, the economy would flourish, children would grow up happy and well educated while people could live in harmony.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
