Contents
What Constitutes Racism
Racism is Difficult to Define
Attempting to Fight Racism Leads to More Racism
Humans Tend to Group Themselves
-Rivalry Amongst Groups
The Jews – The World’s Most Sanctified Racists
Benign Versus Malignant Racism
Racism Versus Nationalism
Race Versus Race
What Constitutes Racism
Racism is the inherent or learned belief that one’s race is superior to or more privileged than another, certain other or all other races and therefore deserve better treatment. Racism is also the belief that another race, certain other races or all other races are inferior to one’s own race and that therefore they deserve lesser treatment. Racism is also inherent or learned hatred for another race based on the belief or preconceived notion that that race is inferior, evil, etc. Racism may also be defined as the tendency to judge a person’s character, merits, demerits, abilities etc by his racial heritage.
Racism is Difficult to Define
In the above chapter, I attempted to define racism. However, defining racism is problematic. There is often a thin line between beyond racist and being real. For example, the black race often cry out that other races are racist for harboring negative preconceived notions about them, but if someone says, “the black race is generally more muscular than other races,” no one from the black race would call that out as a racist statement. But if someone says, “the white race is generally more intelligent than the black race,” then the black race would cry foul. For this and many other reasons, the concept of racism is difficult to define. But we can at least try.
Attempting to Fight Racism Leads to More Racism.
Racism is a difficult problem to address because the more you fight against it, the more you create it. For example, the African Race in the United State formed a “Black Lives Matter” Oraganization to combat apparent racially motivated attacks against people of African descent in the United States. But the Black Lives Matter Organization, which represents the African race, in trying to fight racism, has created more racism by segregating itself based on race. It has been labeled a racist and even terrorist organization by many individuals – even though it has not been officially labeled so.
Humans Tend to Group Themselves
Racism is a difficult problem to fight because humans are inherently racial. Humans tend to group themselves based on physical appearances, age, intellectual disposition, wealth, abilities, beliefs, etc. You’ve probably been taught the metaphor “birds of a feather flock together” in school. This metaphor refers to the different groups that humans form based on qualities whether physical or intellectual. And it is something natural. For example, starting from Primary School, the students of a certain intellectual level will be placed in a certain grade. They will be in one room. Also, students are grouped by age.
As we move into high school, students are grouped again into different schools based on their academic abilities, and this is further crystalized in classrooms. Further, students are grouped based on their interests. For example, students who study science are grouped into one class whilst students who study business or arts in another. We can see then, that grouping by qualities is nothing unusual among humans.
Rivalry Amongst Group
Humans grouping themselves is not a problem. The problem is the competition that exists amongst these groups. Each group wrestles to prove its worth and prove that it is better than the other group. This is not a problem until the competition takes on extreme measures. Competition can be a good thing. It helps us to bring out the best in everyone, and competition amongst different races help to push the human race to its full potential. However, it becomes a bad thing when it causes groups to attack or degrade others.
The humans’ natural tendency to segregate or group themselves leads to what is known as racism today. In ancient times, during the barbaric ages of warfare, the only way to have identified the enemy was the way they looked. Therefore, on capturing an enemy soldier, one could have told whether he was Turkish, Arab, Iranian, etc by his physical features – his race. In ancient times, as it still applies today, a person’s geographic background could have been determined by the way they looked. And this is not something unusual.
The Jews – the World’s Most Sanctified Racists
The Jews may be very well the only race on earth with a divine right to practice racism. That is because, according to the bible, God called them out to bless them above all other nations and do for them what He has not done for any other people. In the book of Psalms, David writes, “you have chosen your people Israel…you have not dealt so with any other nation.”
In biblical and world history, we learn that the Jews carried out mass genocide, invasions and conquests that were approved by the God of the bible. And yes, the Jews were a race of people with defined characteristics and features. The Jews were neither white nor black. They had a middle tone complexion described as “tan,” but which is very close to white. If you didn’t know better, you can easily mistake a Jewish person for white.
The New Testament of the Bible, however, preaches a different message: a message of love and unity. Nevertheless, there are still millions of Jews on the earth today who still carry out the religion of their Jewish forefathers. They occupy the Holy Land of Israel.
Around the year 2018, black migrants were paid a sum of money to leave Israel. No one could have questioned the move by “God’s Chosen People.”
Benign Versus Malicious Racism
We can say then that racism has its room in the evolution of the world. However, as a philosopher and psychologist, I can say that racism can take two forms: benign racism and malignant racism. We’ll dive deeper into this topic later, but for now, let’s summarize it by saying that benign racism is striving to prove one’s race superior to other while at the time appreciating other races. Malignant racism is the outright belief that one’s race is superior other races and hatred for other races.
Racism Versus Nationalism
Sometimes, its hard to distinguish racism from nationalism. For example, the country of India is made up a variety of races, yet most Indians identify as the Indian race. If you study the history of India, you will learn that most East Indians are mixed with the Tamil, Caucasian and Arab races, among others to a lesser extend. This is why the skin tone of East Indians vary so greatly through the spectrum of dark to light. Somehow, the fairer toned East Indians have managed to hold on to a position of power creating the present day caste system which affects many (but not all) East Indians.
Related: How Bad is India’s Caste System?
Race Versus Race
Someone once asked me, “what’s your race,” and I replied, “I’m not taking part in the olympics.” OK, so that was supposed to be a joke, but it highlights an important concept: the race of the races – which is the race of all races? Get it? OK, let me explain. The fact is that competition brings out the best in people. US Bolts would have never reached his record speed unless he was competing against someone – and that someone “pushed” him to do his best.
In the same way, there is rivalry amongst races. No one wants to be the reason that someone says in a disdainful tone, “black people are like that, white people are like that…etc.” But you want to be reason that someone says in awe, “it’s because he’s black, white, Jewish, Arab, East Indian, native, etc.” As members of the human race, we have a responsbility to take part in a healthy race of the races. We need to explifiy our race. We need to compete to show the world that the race we belong to have better skills, technology, systems, family values, etc. By doing, we encourage a healthy competition that only serves to uplift the human race.
