Dear George...I selected 'Bias' In America Mr. Washington instead of Racism In America because bias offers me a broad brush for rambling thoughts a-n-d I'm all about leeway when it comes to scope in order to make a point...However, America's [focus on] racism shall be a component.
Just as a reminder in case you're a new reader, I'm a registered Independent who has voted for political candidates from both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party as it's clear that ethical-quality varies a great deal.
So, I have no 'bias' with either liberal or conservative views unless they're extreme. And the extremes that have hatched of late [more openly in the last five years] are not healthy for any cause. I am therefore [for the record] a liberal-conservative or conservative-liberal - a Republocrat - perhaps. I am also a dual citizen - born in the U.S. to an American mother who married a Canadian. Then at the age of five my American mother and Canadian dad decided we should move from Washington State to the Province of Alberta - where I proceeded to be educated [somewhat].
My entire background then from birth has been to consider and embrace more than one team or consider more than one side of a viewpoint. And it's from having lived through specific experiences that 'all' of us are aided to develop a broader frame of reference from which to make evaluations - age/maturity helps a great deal too.
Okay - so wake up - cause now we're getting to some of the good stuff.
BIAS through the centuries of human history has taken on varied significance depending on the evolution of each culture. Was there bias in the Declaration of Independence and framing the U.S. Constitution? Yes..."All men are created equal." Did the Founding Fathers mean 'mankind' or 'men' literally? Clearly understanding the times - they meant 'men' in the literal sense. If they had been more enlightened or progressive, they would have written "All people are created equal." But they did not because - even though females have always been and are 50% of the global population - in 1776 as much as the Founding Fathers loved their aunts, nieces, sisters, mothers, wives and daughters--females were not even a consideration.
When I moved back to the United States in 1990, I was struck by the phrase "women and minorities" because growing up in Canada I had never heard women separated out by gender or anyone else described as a minority. In Canada people were either Canadians or applying for citizenship or just visiting before winter hit. And amazingly those two designations have not altered much since 1990...NB to readers...Having lived in three countries and traveled a fair amount for work--America truly needs to catch up to the rest of the world. [The stubborn attitude toward little change in the design of their currency translates to other areas too.]
Moving on...Canada's First Nations and America's Native Americans far from being 'savages' were highly evolved. They lived in harmony with nature neither taking more than they needed nor wasting what they did take. The same can be said for the Aboriginal Australians - but that's about where any remarkable human evolution ends. Why do I say that, well looking at the indigenous social structure - everyone pitched in men and women - everyone was respected regardless of age [children and elderly] and there was cooperation, functional standards and fair rules applied to everyone. There were leaders/chiefs, but that leader was part of a council. There were wise women and men - medicine women and men.
Having been all warm and fuzzy about indigenous people - I can hear you screaming! What about the Indian tribes that attacked other Indian tribes? I have touched on aggression, arrogance and greed in other blogs and that too existed among some of the various tribes. But the consequences of those hostile tribes were never translated to a global scale as it was with the Roman Empire [morphed to the Roman Catholic Church] or the disruptive consequences of the British Empire or leadership extremes like that of Napoleon or Hitler...
Historically beings from another galaxy might think that the creatures on Earth with the most testosterone have been the cause of this planet's greatest upsets. However, there's plenty of historical and current evidence to prove that creatures with the most estrogen are also capable of ruthless cruelty...Males have just been leading more charges more often for more years...
RACISM is in the news everyday - seemingly all day. Because of that our untried - untested younger generations can be forgiven for only looking at race through a narrow prism of citizens whose ancestors originated somewhere on the vast continent of Africa. Sadly, they are viewed that way because it is presented through a narrow prism by print and network news. [Shame on the Press...Jan 15 blog: JOURNALISM IN AMERICA]
But Africa is huge. Of the world's seven continents Africa is the second largest with a land mass of 11.73 million square miles. The ancestors of Americans with an African heritage would have come from one of 54 separate countries.
African heritage like the continent is varied, every bit as varied as Americans with a Hispanic heritage or a European heritage. There are 21 Hispanic countries scattered over three continents with some overlap of Spanish speaking countries included in with the 44 European countries. The Asian Continent is made up of 48 countries including India and Pakistan. And - where is this geography sprint heading? It's heading - fellow travelers - to racism in all its present confusion and historical mess.
The latest snappy phrase media now uses to spice up headlines is White Privilege, but white-privilege does not exist. Privilege is complicated. Is someone privileged because they hold a public office? Is someone privileged because they weren't abused as a child and grew up in a home with both parents instead of foster care or with a single parent? Is someone privileged because they own their own business or because they have a college degree? Privilege has many, many, many layers and compressing Americans of European ancestry into a corner labelled 'advantaged' does a huge disservice to the thousands of indentured servants [like my Irish great grandfather] and disadvantaged poor [like my Norwegian great grandfather] of frightened men and women who arrived with only the clothes they wore, little or no education and often no English.
BULLYING doesn't necessarily show itself in the form of a threat on a playground or as a workplace manager. Bullying can be as subtle as requiring people to; 'go to confession' every week or to 'see something say something' or scare your citizens to stay indoors following the lock-down lead of a communist country... My theory is that a shadow form of bullying is at the root of how the momentum that Martin Luther King began, has deteriorated from so much promise in the 1960s [Guess Who's Coming To Dinner - Julia - Mary Tyler Moore - I Spy] and 1970s [Sanford & Son - Moving On Up - All In The Family - Shaft] and 1980s [Running Scared -The Cosby Show - Golden Girls]. For three decades movies and weekly television entertainment actually mirrored the strides Main Street was attempting by teaching with some humor and thoughtful plots.
But harmony does not sell as many newspapers, fear does. And contented-productive voters aren't as easy to control. Worried-anxious voters - become convinced via daily media that government [run by people no better than you or I] must step in to--correct: a terrorist attack by going to war -or- correct a financial crisis by bailing out the banks -or- correct a pandemic by a shutdown of all social and democratic function...
By the 1990s the social growing pains of the 60s, 70s and 80s had begun to send much of America well on its way to correction territory. Fair housing and lending laws forced companies and banking to hire, to rent and to loan to women and minorities. Leveling the social playing field had to be legislated - but bias and racism and bullying persisted in the places where there were 'holes' in the legislation.
Take heart - because in one tiny corner of America - where one small logical thread may begin to unravel bias and racism and bullying--we find the city of Evanston, Illinois. In Evanston, the town council developed a well thought out proposal for implementing a plan of Reparations. The Reparations has 'not' been tied to slavery, but to the unfair lending and business practices of the early 20th Century. From there who knows, maybe equal pay for women, maybe an end to workplace and sexual harassment. Maybe males and females stop competing and work in partnership. Maybe people finally discover that when we 'share' we actually have more. Maybe...
https://medium.com/@BraveNewFilms.org/heres-how-to-contact-all-535-members-of-united-states-congress-call-email-tweet-20b8a1c54195
*Sherrie Todd-Beshore is now a mystery-suspense novelist and former journalist...
Suspense-Thriller: "Come Sit In My Kitchen"
Suspense-Thriller: "Woodrow And Wren" The Rule Of Three
