| Freedom is on the march, we hear. Yet, across the globe, what seems to be on the march is the sort of hateful attitudes associated with racism. Rarely do we address the complicity of one ethnic group in its acceptance of racial stereotypes and distorted knowledge about another ethnic group. Let's back up. History is supposed to teach us not to repeat the mistakes of the past, not to uphold attitudes and actions against another group that diminishes all of humanity. Peaceful co-existence might be a better way of being in the world. But have most of us learned this lesson? Conflict seems to be the activity of choice these days. Private conflicts mirror public conflicts. The private co-opts racial images generated by the dominant cultural production complex, which, in turn, fosters complicity in the proliferation of racism. Institutionalized racism, as an expression of hatred and fear of designated groups, establishes the way in which humans relate to each other by promoting the systematic exclusion and dehumanization of groups. We cannot study history or read the current world conflicts without understanding the insidious nature of racism and how it feeds on the complicity and collaboration of everyone in order to function. Racism is on the march? No, the spin masters tell us. Fighting terrorists, violent people, out to destroy "our way of life," is not about cultural or ethnic differences. Our country battles "violent" people here and there in the interest of what group? I recall a conversation I had with a colleague in Ethiopia. It was October 2002 and the world was talking about Iraq, Saddam Hussein, and WMDs. My colleague, a Nigerian educated in Christian educational institutions, had been sent by her government to teach English skills to Ethiopian students at Alemaya University, near the border of Somalia. Already witnessing the treatment of Somali refugees along that border, we also heard about the heated battle against the very tall, very dark-skinned tribes of Ethiopians by brown-skinned Ethiopians. Conflict between the Ethiopians and Eritrea continued along the northern border. Sitting among other international teachers, my Nigerian colleague and I had been talking about the possible war in Iraq. My international colleagues spoke about the potential war against Iraq as one of aggression against an already economical victimized Arab country by the leading G8 country. I spoke about the need to continue negotiations, to continue UN inspections, to avoid yet another costly war that will funnel money away from U.S. domestic services for the poor and working class while surely requiring poor and working class young men and women to serve as frontline soldiers. It was like a sudden slap in the face. I did not see it coming! "Why are you people so violent?" It was my Nigerian colleague. We had become friends quickly because we were the only two expatriate women on a staff of conservative Ethiopian, Indian, and Nigerian men. What? "Why are you people so violent?" I was talking about the poor and working class in the U.S. The poor and working class are not all Black. But I was sure she meant Black -- Why are you BLACK people so violent! Is that what she meant? But I did not say this out loud. What do you mean? I asked. "Why are you Blacks violent?" I was stunned again, but I had the presence of mind to ask her where did she hear this business of violent Black Americans. "From CNN," she said. CNN! Well, there you go, I said. CNN, the International version she and the others at the table absorbed as the oracle of truth, CNN is the educational institution, even for the "educated" African and Indian, indeed, for the world's majority, people of color. I can imagine what the Indian, Chinese, and Arab world thought of Black Americans. So I have to answer for the narrative campaign against racial difference that in itself a form of violence. How do I talk about this historical narrative campaign that discredits what is most feared, difference, while legitimizing the necessity for violence against the discredited? Isn't that what we were discussing earlier? Africa had gold and other minerals deemed valuable by the Europeans. A New World was in the making and land there needed development to yield economic gains for the new occupants. The Pope's decree to the Spanish and the Portuguese permitted the enslavement of kidnapped Africans Where do I begin in order to address this question from my colleague? The decree from the Pope declared Africans infidels, subhuman. As an African, my colleague is implicated in this decree, but she has been "educated" to forget, to see the teachings of CNN and other similar sources of information" as truth if it is on CNN. I am left to think about freedom from the insidiousness of racism. |
| Voices/ Dr. Jean Daniels Freedom is on the march |
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