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Unconscious
Attitudes, Really?
I read with intensity the article prepared by Rev. Donald
Perryman in the February 18, 2015 edition of The Truth,
Profiles in Black and White. While I think that I am
extremely liberal relating to the freedom to rethink social
policy or social ills, I am more of a realist than I
sometimes like to admit when it comes to the politics of
RACISM. While thinking and rethinking the state of Cultural
Recidivism, as I term it in this hour of re-arranging the
political conundrum, we have slid back. In the church
world that is called backsliding.
I could be totally wrong about this one, but it looks to me
that there is something about the faces of authority
changing that seems to upset the network. Political cronies
don’t seem to take too well to the changing of the guard
when they are not part of the change or the change. It is no
doubt in my mind that “Change” means just that, Change! It
rarely means less if you think about it, because the
safeguards are so stacked that less is generally quickly
noticed.
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Marjorie Holt, Ph.D. |
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Perryman is right about these facts. Media does seem to be
able to set a precedent in how one places value or no value
on a person, place or thing. Recent police shootings are a
prime example of this. All of this, as I see it, is deduced
to mean race or races of people, who, regardless of their
qualifications, are perceived to be less valuable than their
counterparts. We can see in the shift of what I call
Polinomics, i.e. politics mixed with a flair of a
self-created, grandiose crafted science with the intent to
promote a particular group’s likes vs. dislikes, that homage
paid to the network is priority, primary and secondary, by
any means necessary.
While I believe that the Civil Rights Movement had a
definitive purpose for its role in birthing equal
opportunity, I do believe that the Movement in no way
anticipated that we would slide back instead of moving
forward in continuing to advance us as human beings,
culturally and holistically.
Seemingly, it had no idea that a day, this day, would come
when a party affiliation would usurp power and
become unabashedly paramount to people affiliation.
And we now find people taking sides, promoting disunity
instead of unity, because of the color of one’s skin with no
or little thought as to the content of their character,
capabilities, and or aptitude.
Anna Deavere Smith quotes this saying that “We are a country
of strangers, and we are having a great deal of difficulty
with our differences, because ultimately, we lack the
ability to look at specific human beings.”
While I totally respect that viewpoint, I believe Ms. Smith
that “ we have been conditioned to act as strangers on
purpose, to further create the divide whereby we would
instill, perpetuate, and maintain the inability to respect,
honor, and bridge gaps that would widen the margin of
disunity instead of bringing us together”. IJS.
I do not believe that in the matter of racism and cultural
divides that attitudes are unconscious. I believe that
people are products of their environment, experiences and
exposure. Choosing to be racist in our attitudes is a
conscious choice, especially when one has been acculturated
into society’s norms and racial acuity, at least this is
what I believe.
Stereotypes are real and I define it as preconceived
notions, prejudging, labeling a person, place, or thing
without facts or merit. However, each group and race must
take full responsibility for implementing change at the root
and foundation from where suspicious betrayal of human
dignity lost its original meaning.
Racial reconciliation is possible and I conclude that if
this nation is to continue to be the strong nation that our
forefathers purported, then meaningful dialogue, on purpose,
must be initiated, sustained, and maintained in every facet
of our lives. Let’s begin by committing to Racial
Affirmation, believing that all are truly intended
to be equal and should certainly be treated fairly by any
means necessary!
Optimistically Surrendered,
Marjorie Holt, Ph.D.
© 2/2015
Drmholt@att.net
Toledo, Oh.
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