“I wish I could live until everyone is the same color,” I heard someone say last week. “A lovely sentiment,” I thought. “Don’t hold your breath.” Interbreeding may eventually homogenize the species, but that will not mean flawless harmony. Some of the most grueling rancor on earth occurs within families. Or am I being negative again?
Seems like you can’t go a day, anymore, without hearing about racism. The topic is so fraught (to use a word that’s overused) that sometimes mere acknowledgement of racial differences is considered racist. C’mon, get real. These differences exist! I’m at the D.M.V today. The guy in front of me looks like an obese millipede. And, to my right, a pallid blonde who’s made of bacon fat. For all I know, they’re both great human beings. No matter if your people were once slave-owners or slaves, it’s not a feel-good topic either way. On one side, you may feel superior – or suffer guilt. On the other, resentment and rage.
One problem is the subject’s vagueness. What’s racist and what’s not? And what about the high level of unconscious racism most of us display, even if it consists only of nervousness? Does the discomfort of unfamiliarity count as racism, or is it just discomfort? Can you dislike someone simply because they’re not like you, despite that they’ve done nothing to offend? Of course not – or, not logically, at least. But, can’t you hate discomfort, just the same? You bet you can!
As Dr. Pavlov can attest, we all avoid whatever causes nervousness or pain. An earthworm on a heated grid will learn to take the long way home; and Cousin Alma won’t much like her gringo neighbors down the hall, who urinate against the wall. To bigots, white supremacists and crypto-racist “patriots,” those other folks with funny names don’t merely come to live here, they infest – and will erode “our way of life” – the customs we grew up with and think best. “Go somewhere else to eat your kimchee, Sven. You and your pals have got some gall! If you ‘d learn to eat proper food, we might not need to build the wall.”
There is no hype or dogma that we humans won’t embrace to duck awareness of our ignorance. We hate not knowing what we really are; and so, we cling to family, race, ethnicity and flag, or find religion in the NFL. These are the things to which we can connect and which we will defend against attack and disrespect, real or perceived.
Conflict or competition is a very basic element in nature. We see it pretty easily in animals, of course, but also among fungi and the ragweed family, too. The universe is bountiful. If we don’t have the color of our skins to fight about, believe me, we’ll find something else – like language, clothing, politics or how you like your chicken liver chopped. And, what about our thoughts concerning Jesus Christ or Allah’s holy word? Can you imagine using them to keep us all from being friends? Of course not! That would be absurd.
We humans like to “know” what’s good or bad, and seem to thrive on looking down on those we somehow think we are above. Some parents and some clergymen have taught us to discriminate instead of preaching universal love. There’s danger built into identity; it fosters pride. Once you have drawn a line around yourself, there’s always someone on the other side.