Thursday, February 22, 2018
RACISM, AN ENDLESS SUBJECT
[This month I am putting up the same
post on both my blogs; one is on the historical Jesus and the other is on
Darwin’s racism. The link to my Darwin blog is at right.]
Last month on both my blogs, I
posted two different brief essays about racism. I realize it is possible to
endlessly refine one’s points, with the goal being to get to the essence of
racism. There are different angles one can take, so I’d like to do some summing
up here. Consider the following a case of thinking in progress.
First, racism is an action
system, not a belief system. Racists do not believe in inferiority, but they do
believe people can be made to feel inferior. The point for racists is to take
actions that will not only deprive a people of well-being but make them believe
they deserve this. Statements like “They are inferior” are part of this action
system. It is an action intended to make Others believe and feel they are
inferior. Racists know very well that inferiority is a lie, but they still
think they can make it come true.
Second, racism is filled with many
lies, but the idea that racists believe Others are inferior is the primary lie.
They don’t believe this at all. The truth that racists always wish to conceal
is that their primary goal is to demoralize Others and then convince them they
were born demoralized. The demoralization is actually the result of all the
actions, including verbal pronouncements, that racists take.
Third, the essence of the
demoralization is to make these people believe they are less than human, or to
put it another way, to believe they are separate and disconnected from other
human beings. Feeling all alone in the world will certainly induce depression. Racists
play the game of divide and conquer better than anyone. They will frantically
combat those who teach that we are all connected.
Fourth, racists may be good at
spotting vulnerabilities in people and exploiting them, but their main job is
to create vulnerability. It is just like child abuse: To take someone who was
not born vulnerable and make them feel vulnerable. Racists like child abusers
hate it when their intended victims discover God or anything (like elements of
their own culture) that gives them strength.
Fifth, there is a goal behind the
primary goal of demoralization. Racists are not in this to play some kind of
macabre game or conduct a vast social experiment as to how effective they can
be in demoralizing Others and getting them to believe they are inferior and
alone. The demoralization has a point to it. The ultimate goal is take
everything from the Other. Once you demoralize a people, you can rob them blind.
You can steal their land, their resources, their labor, and their memories and
stories. Racists are thieves. In a sense, their only goal is larceny and they
will do almost anything to conceal this.
Sixth, greed is behind all
racism. Nobody is a racist just for the hell of it. They want something. They
want everything. They want all the
wealth and all the memories, but mainly all the wealth.
Seventh, since racism is an
action system, not a belief system, this means that all true investigation into
racism is also an action system. Gaining insights into racism is about undoing
racism. If an insight does not contribute to defeating racism, then it is not a
genuine insight. For example, exposing the larceny that is behind all racism is
important because racists need to keep this a secret so that they can look more
moral. They don’t mind being called ideological racists. That is a moral
position as far as they are concerned. They are happy to be labeled racists. They
love debates about inferiority and superiority because this just furthers their
distorted view of the world. But to demonstrate that they are just stealing is
what really scares them. They don’t want anyone to see how small they are.
Eighth, not all racists benefit
equally from racism. Some get a lot more out of it than others. Somehow the big
thieves make the smaller ones believe they have gotten more out of it than they
really have. There is no honor among thieves.
Ninth, to combat racism it is absolutely
vital not to do anything that favors their cause. Thus, racists, as I said, are
very good at playing the game of divide and conquer. So it should be obvious
that we must not do anything that plays into their hands. Promote connections,
not disconnections. It is a big mistake for any victimized people to promote
the idea that the racism practiced against them is totally unique. That just
helps racists separate peoples. Each people does experience some unique
injustices, but overall, they have more in common and that is what we should
seek to understand. Don’t lose sight of the unique features but don’t
exaggerate them either.
That is not quite a dozen points,
but it will do for now. If anything, I would like to go in the other direction
and reduce this number. I could refine our understanding of racism down to
three important elements. Racism is 1) an action system, which is 2) intended
to demoralize people (chiefly by getting them to believe they are inferior), so
that 3) racists can rob them of everything. That is the entire scheme in a
nutshell. And racists believe that their materialistic motives and ultimate
goals must remain hidden. It is easier to steal if people don’t see what you
are doing.
About Darwin, I will just add
this. Darwin and many other scientists present themselves as out to discover
what the world is like, through theory and experiments. They are out to gain
knowledge. I think there might be a little bit of truth to this, but not as
much as everyone thinks. Darwin and others were creating an action system. For
example, “survival of the fittest” is not so much a description of the world as
it is an action which is intended to fulfill itself. It is not an objective
truth, it is rather an anthropomorphism framed to project European humans into
nature. It is a point of view imposed on nature so that Europeans can declare
themselves, through circular reasoning, the fittest and the winners—winners
being a euphemism for “the biggest thieves.”
They were creating a system of
“knowledge,” the aim of which was to reinforce imperialism. In a succinct way,
in Chapter 8 of A Short but Full Book on
Darwin’s Racism (available at all online vendors), I give a thorough
discussion of how much implicit racism and blatant imperialism can be found in
the pages of The Origin of Species.
It’s true. Whether scholars want to see it or not is another story.
As for historical Jesus studies,
my last post on the historical Jesus blog for January 2018 is about racism. By
way of summary here, I will just say that there is not one book by a historical
Jesus scholar which will leave you with an overwhelmingly positive impression
of ancient Judaism. They all deprecate ancient Jewish culture in one way or
another to make these Jews look inferior compared to Jesus. The best aspects of
this culture are left out so that ancient Jews will look deficient and
small-minded. Gone from scholarly books are Judaism’s dedication to
constitutional government, fair treatment under the law, due process, and
openness to gentiles. It is all gone and replaced by scholars with a
trivialization of Judaism into excessive concern with rituals, purity, Temple
sacrifice, and ethnic exclusivity. You will never read a book on the historical
Jesus and feel good about ancient Judaism, unless it’s my book True Jew. And if you are Jewish, it is
particularly disheartening to read the usual stuff about the historical Jesus,
which is why most Jews avoid this subject altogether.
© 2018 Leon Zitzer
