This post is about my appreciation, my admiration, and my love for black people and their culture. I want to make this very clear to the beginning. If you disagree with this in any way, you can go straight to hell and eat a bag full of d’cks. I will not tolerate negative comments or feedback on this post. If I get it, I will immediately assume you are a bigot and a racist. For clarifications sake right now; I am white. My heritage is Scottish, German, and English… mostly…. I am white as white can be, but boy can I hold some liquor… that’s a story for another day.
First off, I want to say Happy February. As we all know it is Black History Month. This is a time to celebrate black people, and the wonderful things that they have done for humanity. I also want to say that I know I cannot understand. There is no way for me to fathom what it is like to be a black person in America. I’ve grown up with white privilege and don’t have any way of knowing the hardships you go through. I appreciate that the people of color I have encountered in my life have all be friendly, supportive, and kind despite it all.
I don’t want this to sound like a typical wipipo post about black history month. I don’t want it to sound like I’m unsympathetic to the plight of blacks in America. I am hoping that everyone who reads this understands that I love all of humanity, regardless of the color of their skin. My hope is that we can all learn to work together, to love one another, to achieve true unity. But that hope may be lost in the semantics.
I love black culture. I love black comedy. I love black movies. Not a fan of current hiphop, but love classic 90’s hiphop. Mostly though, I love black culture. I think white people have a lot to learn from black culture. One thing that I’ve noticed is experienced by a lot of other people, not white people, but a lot of other people is unity. It seems that all “minority” groups have a pretty good grasp on unity. Black people especially have a great grasp on this concept. The thing that unites them is the adversity that was placed on them by my ancestors. There is an unspoken bond between them that they all understand and I can only see from a very external point of view. I think that we have a lot to learn from black culture and that we can all become better by learning from their example.
So, I want to briefly cover some controversial topics in America right now. Black lives matter. It’s true. Get over it. I would kneel too, and yes, white privilege is a thing. There, I’m done. Any questions? If so like I said, eat a bag of d’cks.
Let’s take one step back and focus on the whole black lives matter movement. A lot of white people really can’t grasp this concept. They think that because it doesn’t include them that somehow it’s wrong. Well, white lives have never really NOT mattered. So there’s that whole white privilege thing… but the fact of the matter is that to some white people, black lives don’t matter. The important part of this movement is to help people grasp the concept that black lives matter TOO. A fact that seems to have escaped some people. That’s all I have to say on the matter. If you don’t get it, then you need to do some serious thinking.
Now, let’s get into my thoughts on racism, segregation, and how we can unite as one race, the Human race.
I’m going to start with the word race being used as a cultural determinant. There is no such thing as a black race, a white race, a mexican race, etc. As Bahá’u’lláh says, “The Great Being saith: Blessed and happy is he that ariseth to promote the best interests of the peoples and kindreds of the earth. In another passage He hath proclaimed: It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.” (– Gleanings from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh pp 250). I don’t think I could say it better than that. That’s why I’ve included the quote. The reality of the fact is that we are all human. We are all made up of the same parts. So what if someone has more melanin than me. It has nothing to do with their humanity. So we need to stop using the word ‘race’ as a way to segregate our cultures. Furthermore, we need to stop saying ‘African-American’ as a way to specifically refer to black people. We don’t say that I’m European-American just because my family came from Germany, do we? No. We just say that I am American. A lot of black people in America have been here just as long as I have. Why is it that we refer to them as ‘African-American’ directly segregating them from other Americans? They are American, deal with it.
This is one that I have a hard time speaking about without offending black people. I feel I need to say it though anyway. The ‘n’ word. To start with, I really don’t like it when anyone says it. But why is it that black people can say it but white people cannot? This is something about black culture that I will never understand. I think I can see from the outside though. I see it as something that’s more like a ‘take it back’ type approach. It’s their word, and for a person who is not black, someone who cannot understand what it is like to be black, to use it is still offensive. OK. to me, that explanation would make sense. I still think that it is something that is segregating our cultures. Something that is preventing us from growing closer as the human race. Either we all have to stop using it, or we have to recognize that it’s just another ‘bad’ word, like f’ck, or sh’t or a bag full of d’cks.
On to racism… this one blows my mind. First of all, the word alone assumes that humanity is made up of more than one race. Science shows that the color of one’s skin is actually an evolutionary trait. In places where sunlight and UV rays were plentiful skin evolved to be darker in color so that it would protect the people from the harmful sun. In places where UV rays were not as plentiful, and snow was abundant skin evolved to be lighter in color so that it would serve as a defense mechanism. Internally we are all made up of the same parts. We are all the same species. Why is it that the color of skin is so different from the color of hair or eyes? I could easily say that I hate all blue eyed people. Is that racist? Am I a different race because my eyes are blue, and yours are brown? I don’t think so. So the better way to say it is ‘ethnic discrimination’. That’s what it is. It is literally discrimination based upon culture alone and really has nothing to do with color of skin. We can see this in recent times with the way wipipo have treated Mexicans or Muslims. It really has nothing to do with the fact that their skin is darker.
I do like the term ‘People of Color’ it’s actually quite beautiful. Sure, it seems to exclude white people, but I have freckles, so f’ck those guys. Well, not really, but sometimes, yeah… really…. The matter of the fact is that humanity is a garden. We are all different colors, different cultures, different beliefs. There is beauty in diversity. So I’d like to end with another quote: “Behold a beautiful garden full of flowers, shrubs, and trees. Each flower has a different charm, a peculiar beauty, its own delicious perfume and beautiful colour. The trees too, how varied are they in size, in growth, in foliage—and what different fruits they bear! Yet all these flowers, shrubs and trees spring from the self-same earth, the same sun shines upon them and the same clouds give them rain.” (–‘Abdu’l-Bahá Paris Talks, pp 52)
