Yes, more crimes are committed by black people, per capita, in the USA, than by whites, but no thinking person can deny that if the majority of white people lived in the same desperate circumstances that the majority of black people live in today, the same skewed percentages would exist. Solve the root causes which make it more difficult for people of one race or culture to succeed in a system which is geared to benefit a different race or culture.We can and will eradicate these injustices, but only if we keep trying to recognize our own biases. Keep our minds on the goal, keep striving for that which is just beyond our reach.But we have not been raised to think like this and changing this attitude won’t happen quickly. It truly should not matter to us what the colour of a person’s skin is what God they pray to or whether they pray at all or what gender they are. And it is! But this is precisely the problem – to eradicate racism we have to stop using it to differentiate people. She was pointing out the white people in the crowd who had joined the march in solidarity for the cause. ![]() The newscast I watched last night contained a clip of a protester in an American city, a young black woman, being interviewed by a journalist. And the second example resonates on a more personal level: In the South Africa of my youth, ruled by the Nationalist Party at a time when many of its supporters felt that South Africa had lost the second world war, I, too, was beaten and arrested for the crime of being Jewish.īut both of these cases are appealing against racism by being racist themselves. In the first example, I get it: it’s time to support black people who have had to work harder to get where they are now than the average white person may have had to. ![]() It was a rant about how yes, Black Lives Matter, but how some of the rioters and looters had targeted Jewish businesses in LA, and how the movement is obscuring the fact that the Jews remain the most persecuted race in the world (her words…). And then an email forwarded by a friend with a link to a post penned by a site dedicated to Jewish affairs. I don’t pretend to know what the next steps are on our journey to eradicate racial, ethnic, cultural and gender bias, but I do know that humans are capable of the most astonishing feats of cognitive dissonance: we all are capable of holding two conflicting ideas in our heads, accepting them both as valid without acknowledging that one of them must be wrong.įor example, I received three unsolicited emails this week from people urging me to support local stores because they are owned by black people. As more and more people compete for the slowly dwindling resources of our planet, this can only become more of an issue. It’s a part of our DNA and dates back to cave dweller days when you trusted the folks who shared your campfire and mistrusted anyone who didn’t. Studies show that the first thing people use to evaluate people they have just met is their gender. We’re trying to change the way people think about other people. But the next steps are much more difficult. And yes, if a journey well begun is half done, this first step, taken by millions of people simultaneously, is a great start. The first step in the process to change a person’s point of view is the most important: you don’t begin to change your mind until you acknowledge that you need to do so. The protests are just the first step on this long-overdue journey. ![]() We stand poised to change the world for the better. We have arrived at a moment in time when injustice, racial discrimination and prejudice have been elevated to public debate with enough people joining in to compel our leaders to take a knee and listen. Like most of us, the events of the past two weeks have horrified and shocked me, and then distressed and depressed me, and then given me hope and uplifted me. “We have evolved as a species to pay the utmost attention to that which is just beyond our reach.”
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