RACISM

Today I had to ask myself another question.
Why so much deep seeded racism?
You know, some of it is heavy and some of it is a little lighter, but its still Racism.

This past Friday afternoon I got a phone call from a person that I had never spoken with before. I could tell that he was an older man, maybe in his seventy’s or eighties. He was calling for one of the people in our office. I told him that this person was not in and that he may not be available until Monday. The old guy said “you guys open on Monday”, “yes,” I said. He responded with this: “better be careful, they might march on you ‘cause your open on Monday”.

Again, this morning I was talking with a younger woman on the phone from a company that we do business with. I told her that I was not sure if they were open today or not because of the MLK Jr. Holiday. She said, “my skin aint dark enough for me to get the day off”….

Maybe I’m a little sensitive because I have an African American daughter, maybe I’m not. But I have to say that these two incidents were completely unexpected. Two perfect strangers, on the phone portraying racism as if it was acceptable and they both assumed that I embraced their ideal.

I feel so much sadness today contemplating this deep rooted resentment that even today, rears its ugly head. I guess it is par for the course for the “pale face” American population who are used to feeling superior to all other races. As far back as the inception of this country, we categorized some as inferior and evil. The first to feel the great wrath of this were the Native Tribal people who inhabited the land originally. Remember the savages who did not speak the ‘King’s’ English and lived off of the land? Not only did they suffer through a type of ‘ethnic cleansing’ they also were faced with:
Impartial Justice by the set government agencies
Regulated land loss
Assimilation of their children
Enforced enlistment in the early National Military

We then can move on to the enslavement of African Tribal People. Again, considered savage’s by the pale faced Europeans who believed that they were a far superior race. We should all know the History of this abomination, and if some don’t, Shame On You.

In the late 1860’s and 1870’s there was great prejudice and racism against people of Asian decent. Laws were drafted and passed in the Pacific West with Anti-Chinese sentiment. There was in fact a large riot in the City of Los Angles in which eye witnesses were Chinese. The perpetrators of the riot were acquitted because the only eye witnesses were Chinese and they were considered to be ‘less than credible’ in the eyes of the American Law.

Starting after the Mexican American War (1846-1848) another culture was considered to be inferior to the ‘pale face’ Americans. The American’s again, decided that they wanted someone else’s land. So they went, and took the South West region from the Mexicans by force and blood shed. After the war, from 1848 to 1879 Mexicans were being lynched, (yes, strung up by their necks to die) at a rate of almost 500 persons for every 100,000 in population.

Let us not forget the Anti-Semitism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Hundreds of thousands of Ashkenazi Jews escaping from Russia and Eastern Europe were subject to all forms or racism and prejudice. In the early 1900’s Jewish communities in the Southern United States suffered at the hands of the Klu Klux Klan. In 1915 an American Born Jew was convicted of rape and was sentenced with life in prison. The Klan took the law into their own hands and Lynched the Texas Born man.

The 1940’s brought us anti-Japanese sentiment in the form of internment camps. Thousands of Japanese Citizens were relocated into what was known then as War Relocation Camps. Sixty Two percent of the people who were relocated were American Citizens.

Today we have a new ‘evil’ culture and that is the ‘Muslim’ peoples of the world. Most think that this is a Middle East group, but it encompasses vast lands including Indonesia, India, Turkey, Pakistan and Iran. We have been brainwashed by the Government and Media that these are the new enemy. Not unlike any of the above people groups that I have talked about in this post.

On this day that we celebrate the life and vision of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr, I hope that people can get past this prejudice that invades the core of culture. I hear so many people talking about ‘getting back’ to a better time. When life was good and things were better. I have to ask. Better for whom? Better for the white authority? And what times are we talking about?
The time when whites were murdering the Native Americans.
The time when whites were lynching Africans and people of color.
The time when whites were lynching Mexicans.
The time when whites were lynching Jews.
The time when whites were relocating Japanese
The time when Chinese were considered less than human
The time when women were not allowed to vote
The time when ………

It is never time to go back, its always time to move forward.
I want to finish this article by saying that in all of the above listed incidents the majority of the prejudice come from Americans who considered themselves Christian and attended Church on a regular basis.

Today is a day to repent from prejudice and move forward with a heart of love and tolerance. A day to stop believing the lies that flood the political and media arena’s. It is a day to break the shackles that bind our minds and hearts with Racism.

PEACE