Hate has shaped America from its inception. Strong statement, but I believe essentially true.
Hate caused the new colony in Massachusetts to deny property rights to Catholics, Jews, Quakers, and anyone else who weren’t the “right” faith denomination. They were also prevented from seeking office, and many were thrown out of the state and not a few hung.This was repeated in most of the other new colonies as well.
Indifference which turned to hate, led America to push out and then virtually exterminate indigenous people in the growing country.
That same sentiment led to the 3/5 clause in the US Constitution and ultimately to a thriving slave-owning business throughout both the North and South. Many of our first presidents and other founding fathers owned other people.
As each wave of immigrants came into the country from, they were mistreated and segregated for a generation or more.
Now we have turned out animus upon those of Latino and Arab descent. Oh, I know, we’ve looked down upon them for decades at least, as we have Asians. Anything not-white was not quite right, not as good. But for the most part, except for the Japanese internment, we have been happy to eat their cooking, and walk on the lawns they mowed, and buy from their convenience stores without anything overt.
That changed with 9/11. At least insofar as Arabs were concerned. And as the economy began to sink, Latinos, in the guise of “illegals” became a convenient target.
It seems that everywhere we look we see utterly crazy people doing utterly crazy things. Legislatures being inundated with idiotic laws meant to limit the rights of parts of our population. Of course the answer is not that there are more crazies today than before, but that the Internet has allowed crazies to connect and validate each other, and to speak in a forum that reaches to the ends of the earth.
These once secluded loonies now bay at the moon all their hatred of “other.” And the vast majority of us who are rational beings, well, we worry.
Having spent a couple of weeks thumbing through the comments at The Blaze, I’ve learned a few things. More than a few actually. It’s important to understand the code, for it tells you much of what is actually going on.
I’m reading a book featuring Thomas Merton’s letters. Merton was a Trappist monk and kept up a huge correspondence with something in excess of 2,000 people over his life. In a letter to James Baldwin, the writer, he noted:
“. . .there is not one of us, individually,racially, socially, who is fully complete in the sense of having in himself all the excellence of all humanity. . . .I am therefore not completely human until I have found myself in my African and Asian and Indonesian brother because he has the part of humanity which I lack.”
Truer words were never more eloquently spoken. And yet, there are people who are aghast at such sentiments.
Over at The Blaze, one of the things I’ve learned is that white people, themselves specifically, are NOT racist. They adore and revere Martin Luther King, Jr. However, you might not be familiar with Dr. King, for he was for Equality of Opportunity. He was NOT for social justice. He was NOT for redistribution of wealth. He was NOT for actions that attempted to undo past wrongs, and level the playing field. No, Dr. King would be appalled at such things. He wanted only an equal chance.
I learned that Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton, and ANY black (they never use the term African-American) person who espouses institutional racism as still evil in this country, ARE in fact the racists of the day. The NAACP is a Marxist organization, or mob controlled. They are also purveyors of racism. Always “playing the race card.”
Because Jackson, Sharpton and the NAACP are racists, they can be heaped with the ugliest epitaphs imaginable. It’s okay to call them even such things as nappy head, because they are the racists, and therefore deserve these terms. You see, when you are not a racist, and you identify the victim of racism as yourself, then why by definition you can’t say anything racist!
Indeed, the loudest cry from these demented haters is that there is no racism in America, anyone who says different is a racist. All that is behind us. Why can’t white people form into organizations like the NAACP? Why can’t they call themselves “white Americans?
Racism is done, ala Michele Bachmann, and her vapid rewrite of history wherein the Founding Fathers ended slavery.
Ain’t it just so neat?
This redefining allows these same folks to decry Latinos and Arabs to their heart’s content. Because it’s got nothing to do with them as them. It’s got to do with them–acting as Them. You know, being Illegals and flying planes into buildings. It’s a free ticket to call all the names you wish, because it ain’t racism.
Can’t you see that?
It allows the final insult. We can call the President vile names and his wife equally vile ones. Why? Just because he’s defined as a racist (ala Mr. Beck) and we ALL know he’s nothing but a dirty Muslim/socialist, communist. It’s not because we still secretly hate B L A C K. Have you heard that word said, with the acid dripping. No mistaking it. It’s the big N, but pronounced BLECK.
We can claim we aren’t racist because we listen to Juan Williams and we support Alan Keyes and we think we have a good house Negro in that fool from Florida. We loves us some a dos Negroes. They talk like us, the Clarence Thomas’s. They don’t want a “free” ride. They don’t want welfare and free homes, and all that stuff that comes out of my taxes. They DON’T THREATEN OUR PLACE AT THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN!
It’s good to know the language.
**I found a picture I almost used today. But then I thought it might be taken the wrong way. I’ll describe it. I’d really like your reaction. It was about 5 little tiny black chicks on a stone wall, and a single yellow chick just below them, with its little wings spread and saying “N * * *ERS. I thought it was a powerful statement of the reality of our time, but again, was afraid it would be seen as humorous and therefore wrong. Let me know.
Justice and social progress blossom when people realize that their own flourishing is linked to the flourishing of others. Empathy is a vital prerequisite of justice.
Agree, Ahab. Sadly, this isn’t the message we hear from talk radio fools and many, many of our elected officials. Even from the religious righteous. We are living in an age of fear driving cognition. And, it appears to work – it gets votes, it gets listeners, it gets crazy people doing horrific things. Until the dialogue from our noisiest in society changes, it’s difficult for empathy to establish itself.
I don’t know how to solve that problem SDS. I care too much about freedom of speech to shut them up, but I sure wish they would at least listen to others, but Fox has them so brainwashed they think everything else is some enemy of “patriotic” citizens like themselves.
I agree, the trick is to get them to see that. We are raising it seems generations that are too self-involved to feel empathy.
I really don’t hate at all…. well maybe broccoli or prunes. Oh, and flat beer. Possibly beef liver, too. Otherwise I don’t hate.
Oh, anchovies.. I do hate anchovies.
Yeah, and I hate it when I cut myself shaving… oh gees… I am full of hate. Probably going to hell now. Better I should go to Oblios, first.
okjimm, we always admired you, until NOW, you reveal how Biased you are. Anybody who doesn’t like Prunes is Racist!
But we won’t tell….(yet)
You are definitely on your way Jimmy. All that hate! broccoli? it’s the best, and prunes…love them. and anchovies are fine if they are in something, hate em on pizza., shaving my legs, I hate nicks. flat beer is gross. I’d be doing a lot of penance if I were you..
Well, Tony, when prunes are outlawed only geriatrics will have prunes… Wait…that ain’t right…. Lemme check my NRA handbook again.
Hey Sherry….Big Game Today. Make sure you have the Contrarian’s seat belt buckled before kick off. Oh, and next week I promise to visit and say something sane and sensible …. next week.
Jesus said “Hate is the shadow of fear.” And mankind has been demonstrating that since the original dispersion of the colored races. Only ethical consciousness can unmask the immorality of intolerance towards others. Only a moral conscience will condemn the evils of national envy and racial jealousy. And only moral beings will ever seek for the spiritual insight which is essential to living the golden rule. We have so far to go.
Amen! Well said.
thank you Tony
I so agree. All fear is at the bottom of all hate. Sadly almost no hater realizes it or is prepared to accept that if they are told. We indeed have very far to go. One hopes, that generation by generation, the minority of us who understand, grows.
I don’t know. Socially, it’s a real time-saver to have everyone all assigned to their little slots so we don’t have to go to the trouble of getting to know them.
Several of us categorized Sherry to a TV/Radio slot, opposite to Glenn Beck, by trying to win a Lotto. And several of us think the Comments to her as as good as her Blog is, as are the Commentors. Welcome to the club; no membership fee.
I agree with that. This blog is worth something to the extent that it has some awfully fine readers and commenters who make me think again.
Isnt’ that just the truth though? It’s does save a lot of time, and leaves us morally bankrupt too. Oh the wonders we miss because we reject this one or that one out of hand.
Whew…. Packers Win! Packers Win! Now I really doan hate nobodyz! But Brewster’s comment is making me thinK…..& I hate that on monday morning…..;)
They made it harder than it needed to be! I was really scared about mid 4th quarter. But they sucked it up and did it. Thinking, such a tiresome business!
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