I Hate RACE

I just turned 45 and this has been on my mind for some time.  One day I'll post the details of the most interesting conversation I had about race.  I'm still chewing on it.  What you'll read below are my real thoughts as a black man.  No hyperbole. My personal ethos is to always look for solutions, best practices, and solid strategy. So read with an open mind.

A couple summers ago I read “Between the world and me” a book written by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Great book that I wish with all my being was fiction. Unfortunately it was a crystallized snapshot of race relations in America. While reading I was introduced to this quote “Race is the child of racism not the father.” When I read this something moved me. Something I knew spiritually was unveiled through words.

 Racism created race. Think about it. Race is an unnecessary bundle. Race is basically color and color is only important aesthetically. If you're buying a car the color is important but not as important as the cost, make, model, reliability, durability. The color is a function of what one likes, not what one needs.

In our world the color of a person has been conflated to mean the make of a person. For example whites are the Mercedes Benz of the world while blacks are the Ford, when in all actually a Benz comes in white and black. The quality of the product is not in its color. ANYONE being proud of their color has fallen for the proverbial banana in the tailpipe.

There is no scientific research that links the color of any animal to divergent behavior patterns. So to form an opinion about a person... a human being...the top shelf of ALL animals... doesn't even rise to the level of conjecture. It is indefatigable heresy. It's a binary myth...people like me are good, people not like me are bad. Race is nothing more than a social construct, and the only reason it survives is because people on both sides buy-in to it, then pass it down through words, actions and most importantly inaction.

What humans in this world have done to fellow humans, in the name, of color is an atrocity. The first “hate crime” ever committed was when a person classified another person by color. Some classification/descriptions I get. Classifying people by gender, or nationality I get. There is a functional logic to it. The human race is predicated on the relationship between male and female, and if the world becomes divided into continents and then further divided into countries then citizenship and law become relative concepts.

Bundling people by color has no functional logic other than to create derision and strife. It is very useful in creating an easily formed caste system. The easiest way to code people and create barriers to their existence , ambition, dreams, and pursuit of happiness is to tell them that they were born a defect...inferior based on something they themselves can never change.

Then if you can reinforce this lie with real life restrictions on commerce, finance, and upward-mobility you've built an institution. The invisible chains graduate from nuisance to hindrance to full blown impediment. The building of a great society on the back of equals that you categorize as inferior was the greatest trick ever performed, and is only rivaled by then giving yourself a 400 year head start and blaming the runners pulling up the rear for their diminished station in life.

It's all a game. Once you agree to play it by the creators rules you lose. The creator of racism wants you to give up, wants you to feel inferior, and wants you to embrace their creation as a reason to be less, do less, contribute less. They want you to emotionally connect to their creation. They want you to eat it, breathe it, and live in it. That is how they win. Stop allowing ignorant constructs to rent space in your head. Protesting doesn't change ANYTHING. It only creates money for the media, and then makes the black person more emotional and less cerebral during the game. If you are thinking emotionally then the logic of it all gets missed. You cease to use optimum strategy.

Game theory dictates that you NOT do what your opponent wants. When you do what your opponent wants, you lose before you've lost. MLK understood this and used a non-violent approach in the 60's to achieve legal rights that should have been god-given. The 2017 version of non-violence is indifference. Do yourself a favor...stop commenting on race for a while. Stop identifying with racism for a spell. Concentrate on being your best self daily. This is how you win. Racism is another persons disease. Why would we want to stay in contact with it? Stop giving it oxygen and it will die.

Stop speaking out... Why? Because when you do...you only entertain racists. The people that aren't racist are tired of hearing about racism, but the people that are racists love when you play the victim. Victim talk is not attractive, because victims will always speak from a position of weakness. Think about it...when is the last time you changed a persons mind about something significant? Stop trying!!!

I love that a person of color was elected to America's highest office in 2008. My flesh rejoiced, and many were quick to espouse that very act as the ushering in of the post-race period in our history. Took about 100 days or so to dis-spell that theory, however I do see a different landmark in that act. That act proved that racism CAN be beat at every level. It's still a very worthy adversary but it can be usurped. Although I have said in private that a truer sign of real change would be  Chief Justice, Fed Chairman, or Speaker of the House.

Finally...

Thoughts are the last bastion of privacy, and as long as you can't be condemned for thought we're always going to have some degree of racism. Racism can't be defeated because it's not illegal. Only when a persons racist activity infringes on commerce has a law been broken, but racism in and of itself is not illegal. Racism can't be taken from an individual it must be surrendered. It will diminish only when it has lost its utility as a construct.

As soon as people of color realize that color is irrelevant and this entire trick is just an elaborate house of cards the sooner we all can concentrate on the things that really matters, Life is too important to be concentrating on slights of hand and illusion when there are pressing real issues that challenge our very existence. The make of a person...the guts...quality of parts... the craftsmanship are all that really matter. Everyone should keep their eyes on their own luggage and don't carry any baggage that doesn't belong to them.