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I was curious to see if anyone had a similar experience…
While having a heated talk about racism a short while ago and reading Paul Rosenberg’s article about racism, it finally occurred to me that I was raised to be racist while being told I wasn’t a racist. I’ve grown past this since I left high school, but it never occurred to me the reason why I had to make an active change in the first place.
Racist remarks were rarely scolded (even in school) in our town (there were virtually no minorities) and we always heard rumors about an active KKK; but we were always taught that America stood for equality- for everyone. So, our little spongish child brains soaked up both sides of the coin and we equated it to equality (because we weren’t racists). And this is just the cycle, how it goes; the same shit regurgitated from the mouth of the beast to the cherubish hyena fawn, ever so slightly diluted, but with enough concentration to see it til the end.
And as my generation steps up to fill the shoes of power- congressmen, school board members, bus drivers, alike; many will be composed of the same synthetic creed created dually for the reasons of divisiveness and diversion. Which is the ultimate diversion. To keep us from realizing we’re all the same size; we are all ‘David’s', we just have to remember how to use our slingshots.
3 Comments
It’s really good to hear that you’ve come to those realizations, Alyosha. Your experience echoes the sentiment, “They aren’t born hating others.”
I’d have to say, though, that racism can be taught also by what’s *not* said, or by what’s *done* or *not done*, too, as in not following the Golden Rule, or simply treating fellow humans as *others*. I grew up with that sort of hypocrisy, and when I realized that my parents essentially fooled themselves with their casual racism, while pretending not to own any, it crashed my world.
Good night,
wd
What a wonder post, Alyosha
I’m one of those people who realized I as prejudice at a young age and never disavowed the notion for my whole life. Not that I harbored ill will, but that I felt a definite sense of wariness around people “not my own” and it always seemed strange. Unnatural, to have an automatic flag go up. I don’t have that sense of wariness in a social situation, just a street/public wariness.
I used to state openly that I was prejudiced in polite company and no one wanted to talk about it.
I always wanted to figure out why that would be a learned response.
Because it is a learned response.
A learned response that trumps rational reaction; heart rate increase, fight-or-flight.
I think it’s like the learned response the crows teach their young.