Guest Editorial: Foundations of bigotry

As we go down a slippery slope of change in America, we need to think about the kind of world that we want to create by the time the smoke clears. What is apparent is that there are people who exist who are very different from what we call the “norm.” The dynamic variances of thinking between people reveals the actual social mechanisms connected to how we are wired differently.

For starters, we all basically want some of the same things for our existence on Earth; food, protective covering (clothing), and shelter. These are basic. But they are not enough…if we look around us, we will see that the notion of bigotry keeps us apart and diminishes what would be possible if we’d all work together.

Actually, no matter how you cut it, nothing of real lasting value will result if people don’t work together. This can clearly be seen even if we look at the behavior of members of peo­ple within our own group. The biggest “boogie man” facing Americans as a whole, is xenopho­bia, which tends to generate division among all types of people.

The previous concept can be illustrated by the following: White people are notoriously known as bigots among many Black people. This is based on pre-conceived notions that arise in our minds the minute we interact with others. As stated earlier, historically White peo­ple are the key bigots when Blacks and Whites come together. But wait! It doesn’t stop there. If all of the White people disappeared from the face of the Earth, there would still be other is­sues to face.

Within the Black community, therefore, prob­lems would not be totally resolved if Whites should disappear. Once that boogie man is no longer available, the specter of misogy­ny would become very apparent. Black men, many of whom already exhibit misogynistic be­havior, would be free to exercise their prejudic­es as they relate to gender. Women would then be put on the defense.

But it doesn’t even stop there; some of the Black women victimized by misogyny might be seen turning their noses up at LGTBTQ indi­viduals. Sometimes, victims will take out their angst on others that they, in turn, have been guilty of victimizing. But it still doesn’t stop at that point; some LGBTQ individuals might be tempted to express disdain regarding people who dress, or don’t dress, a certain way!

And it doesn’t even stop at this point. There are a number of other ways that can have a community turn on itself. Most people dislike violent behavior as demonstrated in what is fa­mously called “Black-on-Black” crime. So, crim­inals are usually psychologically isolated from certain groups of Black people.

Continuing; Black teenagers might be seen showing disdain toward younger people; light-skinned Blacks and darker skinned Blacks have been known to have issues. There are, in fact, certain Black people who would not date or marry outside of their particular skin shade group! Moreover, some college graduates turn their noses up at people who have less educa­tion than they have…

And it doesn’t even stop there; some Black folks don’t like people with handicaps. And, be­lieve it or not, there are people with handicaps who have their own biases…the beat goes on!

Because of the human propensity to bigotry, it wouldn’t be a surprise if space aliens turn out to exist and reveal themselves to us, and we all, i.e., Blacks, Whites, men, women, and oth­ers, quickly find a way to justify bigotry against our cosmic visitors.

Ultimately, it is obvious that all humanity, thrown on this little planet with each other, are the pawns in some giant experiment, either planned or un-planned, to figure out how to co-exist. Diversity generates a richness of ex­perience, but it also has an innate capacity to generate stress and strife.

The foregoing illustrates the difficulty in­volved in trying to get people to come togeth­er. Things usually don’t work out when we don’t find a centerpiece of balance in our per­sonal and professional relationships, and un­fortunately, it is certain that this balance won’t become evident until we figure this out! Aluta continua.

(Reprinted from the Chicago Crusader)