[GCFL-discuss] of racism and sorts

[gcfl-discuss at gcfl.net]

Racism exists, but we are not going to end it be wallowing in it, we are
going to end, or at least diminish it, by letting go of the myths on
which it is based.

A few cases in point:

There is only one coloring agent in human skin: it is not black, white,
red or yellow, it is brown. Its called melanin. Some of us have more,
some have less. In the words of Bob Marley, it is of no more signficance
than the color of your eyes.

Any significance is artificial and socially created, especially when you
consider that most people with ancestors in America dating before the
Civil War are in truth mixed. Most "colored" or "African American" people
are part European, most "white" people from back that far are part
African, especially in the South, and half of us are part Native
American. There are no pure bloodlines, just a lot of paranoia about
pretending that we are distinct.

Of course all that is hard to explain when one group of children raised
to think a certain way is making fun of another child for being something
else or not acting according to a common stereotype for what they look
like.

Incidentally, "black" people did not become Christians in the galleries
of "white" churches, the Great Awakening was a very multi-racial affair,
and the existence of spearate "black" and "white" Baptist and Methodist
churches dates to 50 years later, when formal organization of church
bodies coincided with an increase in racism in the secular world. During
the initial revivals, nobody cared, except the established state churches
(mostly Anglican) patronized by the wealthiest landowners.

Siarlys


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