What Is Racism?

Racism is more widely spread or the word more widely used than it ever has been before. So the question I am looking to fully understand is this word racism we throw about so quickly and with such ease that I fear the word will lose its power, not that the true sting of racism will lose any of its actual power. So why is it that this generation relies so heavily on the use of this word? I for one agree I do not ever want to lose the advances we as a species have made in the way of relations between, races, religions and cultures. I have no doubt in how much we have advanced in our basic understanding as humans coexisting with other humans.

Issues I have with the term racism is when someone who has not thought out their opinion on the subject properly or uses the word as an escape from a one sided debate in which they have engaged. Am I a racist, as those on the weak end of an argument claim? Seeing it happen to others I know that I have a hard time believing they are racist as well. Is this word just some loaded nuke ready to lob on to the battlefield of discourse? To stop all dialogue and cease the interaction that those with lesser thought out views to use when in danger of having their ideals challenged? Has the definition of this word that holds nasty and evil overtones become simply this?

I see both sides filled with dirty rats that use racism as a tool to further their own agenda. This program is no longer an advancement for those people in our society that have been marginalized. The ax I have to grind is that I am not for the profit that is being gained on the backs of hatred and intolerance not because they exist but because they are crafted in some diabolical think tank to keep the division between us all instead of creating unity. Unfortunate times to be alive, unlike the 60’s when people were getting together to stand up to real issues of the day. Now we create them to keep those in power, right where they want to be.

The modern family is built around a nucleus of different backgrounds, races and religious ideas. When I am told that I am racist in any number of discussions that my opponent has found themselves at the foot of the table in our exchange of ideas, I usually shut it down as I look at those in my family and circle and know what I am truly made of and how I treasure those people regardless of their skin color or differing viewpoints. I know that if this word, trivialized as it is used against me, is thrown about without concern of it losing its true meaning and potency.

When we compare a group of kids waving LGBTQ flags with those of “Hitler Youth” displaying Nazi swastika flags. I fear for the lack of education about history and how it will sorely be to the detriment of our world. The former group wants to be accepted, no matter what wild story the right tries to concoct, if the facts do not support the claim all you have left is a group of American citizens that are looking even more demeaned. While this has nothing to do with race it does serve as an example how off the rails the information train has derailed.

No, race relations in this country are at a good place at least where I go, where I work and play. I don't experience the same situation that is so widespread as the left/right media makes it out to be. To those that only know the fabrics of our culture and community here in America by way of the television or news stories devised, dreamed up in a backroom think tank somewhere to conjure up ratings and advertising dollars. This is where the masses of average American voters get their information, or disinformation. They are ignorant to what is really going on out here in the rural backroads and the concrete jungles where life is raw and real.

This leads to the ultimate predicament we find ourselves in, as journalism morphs into just another corporate entity bent on the bottom lines, it forgets the bylines that are tragically left as casualties in the world of ethical reporting. So again a favorite catch phrase of mine must be inserted here: “Where do we go from here?” Why is the psychology of the modern newsroom about shock value and not about bringing the people together. Why is all news geared towards the bad and not the good? Are we as humans becoming such degenerates that we only care to see people in their misfortunes, pain, do we revel at our brothers and sisters as they go through their darkest hour, ready to video document it?

Late August in Detroit, Michigan and still it is not the humidity but the humanity that causes all my apprehension. As I watch all these reels and TikToks capturing the human condition at its very lowest points, I do not see the entertainment value. What I observe is the unknown low grade, third-rate humanoid looking for some fleeting recognition in the way of social media reactions. Instead of holding out a helping hand, the substandard cretin of the day hit’s record with that same steady hand. With this complete lack of concern and regard for another struggling human, I am not able to have faith in this same humanity as to truly be troubled by any real racism they may have actually witnessed.

The dictionary states:

Racism

noun

• prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.

When we see this word in its natural habitat of the modern world in which it is frequently invoked but seldom for any real injustice. Now we are depleting the meaning of this word and suppressing its importance when we need it to actually call out the vile and venomous act that is in its purest form RACISM. We have torn down statues that some in our society hold dear, those of our Confederate uprising. I do not wish these relics of a bygone past to be destroyed. I feel they belong in our museums and not in our public square. However, we have those that fight to hold on to the glory of their history. These are the people that create the racial problems in our leadership.

Those that want to hold onto the past of racism in some high esteem, are all protected by the rights and freedoms that we Americans hold so dear. What one forgets in their emotional outburst, screaming for some type of social justice. The social justice part was done, it was paid for by the blood of uncounted slaves and soldiers, black and white alike. These issues are scapegoating at best, boredom at the worst, slavery is a non-issue. With so many important issues of the day, why worry about something that was handled so long ago? Critical thinking, the lack thereof is problematic indeed. We have such a divide. How do we muster up the youth and get them to get together again? This is the truest issue of the day in this simple journalist and metaphysician mind.

So stop and ask yourself what is racism? Have I seen racism? If the answer my white bred friend is no, then it is no longer part of your daily worries. Stop using everything you ever felt guilty about because our parents perhaps, or for sure most grandparents were racist. Different times create different people, stop trying to lock someone from 1835 into the values and principles of one from 2023, it can not happen and we are a fool for even trying. I was never raised with direct prejudice in my home, my great grandparents came from Europe in the early part of the 20 Century, not only did they come to America they settled in the Black Bottom and probably never in their life seen a black human being and now daily they went on with this new form of being and somehow coexisted with them. Because how we are alike is vast in comparison to how we are different. Never forget that fact.

What we need in this modern era is someone to bring us together. We can all disagree, but we have no room for more hate. We battled the division, disassembled the walls, worked on and achieved a new day. But now that the battlefields have been abandoned and it seems we have a lost generation, or several now that have a fight within them with no enemy to combat. Fight with me to bring us all together and stop always finding ways to divide, this should be the motto and theme in generation Alpha.