Pure and Unmitigated Evil

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Race?  I blame the invention of the idea of "race" on the basic selfish desire to survive.

Everyone has this instinct.  Some folk are able to overcome it in one or more ways, and can demonstrate genuine altruism (as opposed to the fake kind, the one with strings attached... )  Other folks have strong mental issues that overcome it as well, (depression, etc) but that's another thing.

Now, having a base instinct to survive is not automatically a Bad Thing-- just the reverse.  If we didn't have this, long ago our species would've been wiped out the first time they spotted an active volcano:

"What in the stars is that thing?" *pointing to the newly erupting volcano*
"I dunno.  Looks pretty cool." *begins walking towards it*
*Second caveman follows first one*
"Sure is hot-- do you think we ought to stay back?"
"Naaah.  What's the worst that could hap--"

Factor in the base instinct of self preservation, the conversation is a bit different:

"What in the stars is that thing?" *pointing to the newly erupting volcano*
"I dunno.  Looks pretty cool.  Why don't you go and look closer?"
"What, are you kidding? No Way!"
*both continue to watch from a distance*

Kidding aside, my point is that as long as resources are plentiful, the self-preservation is not obvious.

Just as soon as ANY resource becomes scarce, it kicks in.   Whomever has control of the resource will seek ways to justify retaining that control

For there is ANOTHER base instinct at work, too:  that of social cooperation.   Humans are pretty good at it, too.

Once a resource is scarce (or perceived to be scarce), the two often come into conflict.

How to resolve?   Easy:  declare some of the humans involved in the conflict as 'not-human' or 'not-people'.  Now, the instinct to cooperate with your fellow human is circumvented.  And basic self-preservation can dominate:  "these are 'not-people'.  We can deny them access to the resources."

Of course, once the leap to 'not-people' is made, all sorts of consequences follow....

If you factor in things like religious belief, which cannot be based on rational or real-world evidence, it becomes even more intense.   Who can argue with "God Said So" except with "Did Not!"   The one with the bigger "spear" will win that one every time.  (Be the "spear" physical dominance or political persuasive power.)

The concept of "race" is just another way of saying "not-people".

[anthrobabe]

and that is why I defer to those among us who are more eloquent than myself--- Thanks  Bob, very nicely put.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

... and most of 'em have better food.

Last time I check the French were considered white...
/
Race is used as a synonym of breed (ie: dog breeds) in fact in Spanish we use the same word (raza*) in both cases.

*some Mexican chicanos have been using it in a conflicting way and while I don't think pride in your own culture is necessarily a bad thing, it is the beginning of the classic 'us vs them' complex. 

[Bluenose]

We humans are very good at identifying fine differences in things. It is IMO an innate part of the way our brains work.  Some racial characteristics are very obvious, such as skin colour and facial conformation, so this makes it easy for our brain to automatically classify someone as "other".  Fear of the other is a well documented behaviour in us humans and I suspect that it is a way of looking at the world that many of us inherit from our parents as very small children.  In ancient times it probably made a certain amount of sense in that it is likely that "people not like us" are a potential source of danger and so the appropriate position was one of fear and caution.

Now of course we know that these still obvious to our eyes differences are so superficial as to be almost meaningless.  I say almost because most people identify in one way or another with their own racial group.  Yet I think things are improving for many people.  I was brought up in such a way that I never seemed to inherit my parents (well, actually my mother's) prejudice against Australian aboriginal people.  In fact it was a bit of a shock to me to find out as an adult that my mother, although only mild compared to many others, was nevertheless prejudiced against these people.  I understand where her POV comes from, in the town where she grew up, and in which I have lived for a fair proportion of my life (not now), the only aboriginal people you are likely to see are those lying drunk outside on the pavement next to one of the town's pubs.  I guess when I saw those people as a young person I just saw drunks, whereas mum saw "abbos".

To me this phenomena is exactly the same as that known as "garrison town syndrome".  In the case where you have a large military base near a town, the soldiers (or sailor, or airmen) are a readily identifiable bunch because of their short hair and the fact that they often socialise in groups.  Now in any large group of men and women, there are bound to be a few troublemakers, just by the law of averages.  What happens is that these ones get into trouble and because they are readily identifiable as soldier the locals often brand all the soldiers as being trouble makers.  It is not right but it often happens.

I find that when I meet people of other backgrounds to myself, whether that be racial difference or simply that they come from somewhere else to me, I am much more interested in exploring the differences together with those people than somehow feeling "superior".  How can I feel superior on the basis of someone's skin colour?  It seems ridiculous, especially when I look at some of the African people that have settled recently in Melbourne - some of those have the most beautiful skin tone that it almost takes my breath away, but I do not feel inferior to them, nor do I feel better than them.  It is obvious when you look at it that we all the same underneath and that the differences that seem so obvious to our ancient animal brains are really superficial in the extreme and not reason to put others down at all.  Rather I think these differences should be celebrated as part of the wonderful tapestry that is humanity.  In my way of looking at it these minor differences are part of what makes us human.  I love it that I work with people from different parts of the globe.  I love going to perts of my city that are dominated by one group or another, it makes me feel really alive and I think "Wow!  What a wonderful thing it is to be a human!"

Let us hope that as time goes by future generations will become more comfortable with people from other racial groups.  I know when my kids were young many of their best friends were of Chinese, Indian and middle eastern background.  They didn't seem to see any difference, they were much more interested in playing with each other.  We should take a lesson from the children.

[pieces o nine]

a-men, Bluenose, preach it to the Toadfish choir! Very well said.

I now live in a major city. Some neighbors in this complex are new immigrants who speak Russian. There are many Latinos, so Spanish and fiesta music are commonly heard. There are Somalis wearing hijabs and women in saris or salwar kameez, speaking softly to each other in their own languages. There are dreadlocks and nose rings, ipods and briefcases. But it's friendly; we all nod and smile in passing. I like this very much.

For my Mom, this would be very disturbing, even frightening. She ignores that we grew up hearing her speaking a language with her parents which her husband and children didn't understand and were not taught. Now that she is the one who doesn't understand, she suspects that they are plotting against or laughing at her, and should be 'made' to speak English. We ate home-processed farm produce and animals, as well as some truly creepy medieval-serf festival foods , but she is suspicious of many 'foreign' foods. She has forgotten the open anti-Catholic prejudice when my parents moved, stair-stepped small children in tow, or that we dutifully attended all the saint's days and ethnic holidays her family observed (dressed appropriately). But she mocks or disapproves of Quinceanera, Kwanzaa, observances of Ramadan, Pchum Ben, etc. If they don't look like the altar guild at her church, they're probably up to no good. I try to be patient with her, but man! she is missing out on a lot of good stuff.

She feels safer sticking to a mythologized 1940s anglo culture, even though there was crime, misunderstanding and suffering back in her rural hometown. She prefers to think social problems exist only because of 'them' who 'arrive uninvited, don't know their place, won't learn the language, and refuse to blend in with the existing customs'. erm, I think that's how the US started out...    Everywhere else in the world, too, for that matter...

Race, gender, age; all are categories beyond our control. It requires different thinking to identify people without using those definitions, but I like doing it.
*sharing photos on a visit home*
"Which one did you say you work with?"
"The one in the yellow shirt."
...*pause*... "The...black...woman?"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah...yeah, I guess so."

None of us is a pure-bred anything. It's ignorant, at best, to insist otherwise.
Knoxville Knocks Nazis & Klan on Their Can

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

Lol, yeah. This eight-shades-of-Gringo has Indian in her. Wouldn't know it by looking at me (I look very Germanic--light eyes, light hair), but it's there.

My parents aren't as bad as previous generations. My paternal grandfather was rather fond of the N-word, and distrustful of anyone remotely brown (which I think is hilarious, since we may or may not have Cherroke on that side, as "Avoca" is an Indian name and the name of his great, great grandmother). My parents aren't like that. I have 'brown' relatives, and most of my family doesn't give a care (although my uncle threw a fit when my cousin went to prom with a Mexican kid). The only 'brown' people my parents dislike are Muslims, as I've indicated before.

And my uncle, for example, wouldn't deal well with my city (My family lives near you, actually, PoN, so I don't know how he deals with Denver, now that it's more colorful, as it were. God knows my father would barely manage it, if we still lived there). If there's an ethnicity in the world, we have them here. The group I hung out with in high school consisted of a Persian, a Mexican, a Japanese kid, a Chinese kid, a Hmong, a Palestinian, and me, the lone Gringo. Some of my relatives would have thrown a snit fit. As it was, my mother was reluctant to ok me spending time with the Persian and the Palestinian (as they are both nominally Muslim). She did, in the end, of course, but she didn't like it.

Race doesn't mean very much at all. And anything it really does mean probably deals with health stuff anyways.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

We humans ....

Hey, Blue, I heard on BBC radio the other day, that the Aussie prime minister (I think?) issued a formal apology from the Australian government to the indigenous peoples.

Pretty cool, at least the BBC's version of events made it seem so.

Takes a large sense of Strength to admit Wrong Doing.   Takes an even larger sense, to admit it publicly, and On The Record.

I'd be interested in your take on the issue (if you have one, of course ) 

[Bluenose]

Well, a great deal of wrong things have been done in the past to aboriginal people.  The so-called Stolen Generations (a term coined by an inquiry into removal of aboriginal children from their parents during the first seven decades of the 20th century) are entitle IMO to feel a bit aggrieved.  That the removals were often, but certainly by no means always, done by people who thought they were doing the best thing for the children concerned does not diminish the harm that was done.  On the other hand there certainly were cases where the removals almost certainly did result in lives being saved, so it is no simple thing.

In a sense I feel that the pendulum has swung a bit too far in the current direction, but as an act of national reconciliation I think that it can be overlooked.

On the whole I feel Kevin did a good job of the apology, what happens next will however prove just how much of a turning point this proves to be.  As a country we have poured litterally billions of dollars into well intentioned but usually ineffective programs to help aboriginals.  As is often the case, all this has done is to institutionalise welfare dependency among large numbers of the target group.  Welfare/aid that is solely from outside usually does not work and I fear that we may end up wasting time effort and money unless we manage to get engagement from the aboriginal community themselves.

Fortunately we have a shining example of how things can be done, Noel Pearson is an aboriginal elder from the Cape York area of Queensland and he is largely responsible with his fellow elders for changing the whole outlook for aborigines in his area.  Up there (as I understand it) grog is banned in the townships, programs have been developed so that people have to work to earn their "welfare payments". As I once heard Noel explain (and I paraphrase), if the government just gives you money for doing nothing, then nothing is what you are likely to do.  There is no self respect in that.

We need somehow to get aboriginal people to take ownership of the solutions to their problems.  Certainly I think we should be ready to provide the resources to help and make sure that things like education, health services and housing are provided in a way that is accessible to these people, but it cannot all be driven from Canberra.

The apology has stirred up considerable feelings of hope amongst many aboriginal people and I hope that this can be used a a lever to get real benefits happening to these people.  I am terribly afraid that instead we may see a similar thing to what has happenned in South Africa where people there thought everything would be OK once apartheid was abolished, and in that case I feel expectations were set too high so the reality that it takes time to fix things has meant a considerable disillusionment with the process.  How we can avoid that here I am not sure, but I think one way is to make sure people understand it is a long process.

I am encouraged to hear the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition talk about a new bipartisan approach to indigenous affairs and of new incentives.  It seems that one of the first things to be tackled is to provide preschool education to all aboriginal settlements.  This is a big ask and I hope that the government can actually deliver on it.  But it is a good start and a good signal of intent.

I hope that we can keep party politics out of this and that we this time do manage to address the considerable disadvantage that aboriginal people experience.  We are off to a good start, but it is early days yet...

[Aphos]

Off to another incident of evil...we have had another college massacre.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/14/university.shooting/index.html

Not sure this link will continue to work.  CNN keeps updating the story.  As of 11 pm Central Time, the report says 22 shot, 5 dead.  The shooter then killed himself.

Haven't seen any details of who the shooter is, or what his motivation might have been.

Very, very sad.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

Six dead as of 9:30pm US Pacific time. 

[Aphos]

Six dead as of 9:30pm US Pacific time. 

Is that including the gunman?  CNN is still reporting 5 victims plus the gunman dead.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

 
Yes, that tally is including the gunman.
Sorry. No sleep leaves me scatter brained.

[Aphos]

Yes, that tally is including the gunman.
Sorry. No sleep leaves me scatter brained.

's OK.  What I wrote was a bit vague.

[anthrobabe]

Ok I've missed it-- did not listen to radio/TV this am-- first I've heard.
Oh help-- it's just too much.....



(note to Bluenose and other Aussies-- the US gov't did a similar thing to our native children- the worst example I can think of would be the Carlisle Industrial Indian School--- pure and unmitigated evil here)

[Bruder Cuzzen]

Well, a great deal of wrong things have been done in the past to aboriginal people.  The so-called Stolen Generations (a term coined by an inquiry into removal of aboriginal children from their parents during the first seven decades of the 20th century) are entitle IMO to feel a bit aggrieved.  That the removals were often, but certainly by no means always, done by people who thought they were do....

Argh ! Bluenose , your post can be applied verbatim here in Canada , we have seen parents with their children wrenched from them , some never to return , a mini genocide of sorts , languages lost , cultures lost . The horrific damnable abuse of children inflicted by members of the clergy backed by a government of ignorant simpletons is heart breaking . History teaches but many will never learn a single thing .