On Racism

 Friday, Jun 19, 2020  

Homo Sapien has a lot to answer for.  We seem to have mistakenly invented the idea of race.  Now we must, somehow, get rid of the idea.

In our efforts to do away with racism, we first define it, and then empower it.  We must not discriminate against journalists of color, for example.  To insure that we are not discriminating against journalists of color, we hire
immediately a dozen of them to help us write articles and steer opinions
away from racism.  But notice, we are now discriminating against whites,
by only hiring black journalists.  We discriminate in order to fight
discrimination. 

Maybe we have good discrimination and bad discrimination?  Are we so set
in our minds that racism exists and can not be ignored that we must hire
only blacks to represent blacks?  That no other-than-black journalist can
possibly write anti-racist material?  Must we discriminate in order to
not discriminate? 

I actually laugh at this.  It just shows what messes we homo-sapiens get
ourselves into with our superior intelligence.  I don't mean to imply
that I know the right answer to any of this.  I don't even imply that
there is a right answer to this.  I do suggest that somehow, sometime,
we have to completely stop noticing skin color in our dealings with our
fellow homo sapiens.  It must be as meaningless as eye color or the
choice of drink in the espresso shop.

Back to the original problem of discrimination in order to stop
discrimination, if we limit our job offers to those we identify as
"black", then we run the risk of not hiring the best qualified for the
job.  If we persist in this, eventually, I believe, we will reach the
stage where the best qualified will be "black" in exactly the same
proportion as those identified as "white".  In other words, that black
and white no longer have any corresponding indication of competence, or
even of personality.  Either we have "race" or we don't.   If we do,
then let's recognize races and use the fact of race to our advantage as
a society.  "Blacks" will do what blacks do best, and "whites" will do
whatever whites do best.  If we don't have "race", then we select the
homo-sapien best for the job, period.

Unfortunately, for this to happen, the "blacks" must give up on being
black.  That will take time and persuasion.  The converse is also true,
of course.  The "whites" will have to give up on being white.  If there
is no black race, then there is no white race, nor is there any other
kind of race.  The word race no longer has any meaning at all, unless
you are in one, getting all hot and sweaty running down a road wearing a
paper with a number on it on your shorts.

We can go back to the phrase, "The race of man," I suppose, once we
relieve the word of it's skin color and cultural inferences.

--Jim