Racial pride is a strange thing, with rules that must be carefully followed, and that do NOT apply the same way to all people.
I’m am the descendent of Gaelic and Bohemian immigrants. I do tan in the summer, after the layers of burn peel away, but mostly I’m a pretty pale guy. And I’m aware that I’m afforded some very real benefits in this nation because of that, and they have nothing to do with who I am as a person in relation to other persons. That’s not actually fair to me, and it sure isn’t fair to those who are NOT afforded the same benefits. I do not in any way make light of being treated as lesser than, even subhuman, because of your ancestry.
Racism is evil. It is sin. God created each of us in his image, and desires love and unity between us all, while racism is a lie from the enemy that allows us to live in hatred, isolation and self-pride.
And, I’m well aware I’m about to unleash hell on my own self, it happens to white people too.
Let me pick an example from local news. A woman – white – named Becka Thompson is a member of the Mpls Park Board and it running for city council. In her campaign material, se made a comment that she “may not have the right hair cut, or the desired amount of melanin. Her opponent – Aurin Chowdhury – Bengali-American responded with a a post wishing a happy Asian/Pacific Islanders’ Month from “this proudly brown, melanated South Asian Council Member.”
I want to pose a question. How does this make you feel:
BLACK PRIDE!
Not a huge problem. It’s on flags, shirts, bumper stickers, everything.
Now let’s try something ever so slightly different:
WHITE PRIDE!
Uncomfortable, right? Your whole body just reacted, one way or the other, didn’t is. Especially if you come from European ancestors and you put forth an effort to understand the wrongs done by this country and it’s people and leaders and see the news that makes it seem like the nation is awash in those kinds of groups.
What’s the difference – other than a color?
I’m told that the latter is supporting a group that never had to endure the hell that was put on the backs of immigrants and their children who came from non-European countries.
Wait.
Really?
We didn’t????
Because I passionately study the Irish part of my history, and the Taaffe, McNulty, McAloon, O’Donnell tree comes from a little island that has been abused and subjugated to atrocities that would STAGGER your mind. In the 1800’s England was the wealthiest, most powerful country to ever have existed, rivaling – even outstripping – the halcyon days of the Roman Republic, and it’s king ruled many countries, including the neighboring Eire. They methodically destroyed my people’s culture, our language, our religion, everything that made US different from THEM. Right around the time of the American Civil war, Eire endured an intentional, manmade famine that made what’s happening in Gaza look like a minor hiccup. We weren’t allowed to own land, it was taken from us, handed to landlords in a different country and then we had to rent it from the overlords, who strictly controlled everything down to what we were allowed to eat. Eire had several bumper years of crops during An Gorta Mor (‘The Great Hunger’ – you would likely know that if the Irish language wasn’t slaughtered in it’s own bed in the year 1801.), but still about half of the country starved or were forced off their land because they were so destitute. Then we got to America to find ‘Real’ Americans on the docks, literally stoning our immigrants, and telling them to go back to where they came from. We were called lazy, shiftless, drunk, rebellious, stupid, brutish creatures, and signs outside housing or apartments stated “NINA”: No Irish or N***** Need Apply. Before leaving, we endured about 400 years of colonialism. We were murdered on our own land for not following Henry VII’s netherbits into open rebellion against the Church we kept alive through the dark ages.
So, please, move right along with that White Privilege my ancestors had.
Keep moving if you think that YOU get to identify me, against my will, as ‘White’.
Keep on going if you think that you know anything about me because of the color of MY skin.
How about this? I’ll make you a deal.
You want to lump me in with a group of people who have nothing to do with me and have spent their history trying to eliminate my culture (and any others that didn’t match theirs), then I get to lump you into whatever group that I want to based on some arbitrary detail that YOU don’t care about…. how about height? If I get lumped into and condemned for being ‘White’, I’m going to hate on everyone taller than me, because I was once bullied for my height. And people with 20/20 vision, since I was bullied for glasses, too.
That’s Plan A.
Plan B is that you leave me to do my own thing and I’ll return the favor…
OR…
Plan 1 is you could tell me about yourself as a person and I can reciprocate, we can learn something, and we just stop trying to shove people into boxes all together.
Let’s find ways to build bridges across the rivers bisecting Humanityland instead of separating it with canals into ever smaller enclaves.
Seriously.
Wouldn’t that be a better world?
Wouldn’t that solve thousands of problems?
But then WE would each have to do that work in our own communities, our own homes, our own souls.
Are you human enough to try it with me?
