Race Issue Not Always Black And White
It’s complicated. The issue, that is. Basically, it’s real simple, we’re all God’s children. Period. We all share the same planet, breathe the same air. Why rock the boat? We have bigger fish to fry.
It’s certainly not about statues. Statues are symbols only to those who worship them or fear them. To the rest of us they are just works of art for pigeons to sit on.
So, let’s not take the high road and just love and respect one another as fellow human beings. No, this is the new FUBAR America, so let’s take the complicated, politically correct and incorrect route and pick one another apart for all we’re worth.
Follow the money. People are making money off the race issue. Just like they are making money off religion, the NFL and selling automobiles. The human inclination to chose sides and our passion for heros, leadership, direction and hope is reciprocated by our need to survive and a desire to capitalize on these same things.
But race, skin color, is worthy of deeper discussion because it’s personal.
A black person in America may, on face value, be offended by, or actually fear, a statue of a confederate general because of the implications therein, whereas a white person may be offended by or fear a black person’s skin color because of some unsympathetic misinterpretation therein. The truth of the matter is these are learned, generational, reflexive reactions to a stimulus playing on our worst instinct. Fear. Fear is our one great motivator. Not hate, not love, but fear.
Many young black Americans don’t know or understand their history, they just perceive that they are an oppressed people and act accordingly. Many other blacks rise above it and hold their own. Many young white people don’t know or understand their history either, they just feel privileged, superior, and leave it at that. Therein are the makings of a “white supremacist.” Conversely, many other white people act as sensible, reasoning human beings.
Yes, bad things happen in the world. Why? I don’t know. Chalk it up to evil and the dark angel. Maybe it’s a test. We point to people like Hitler, Mussolini, Pol Pot and their like and ask WTF? We witnessed the World Trade Center tragedy on out TV screens and shuddered with fear and emotion. As out “greatest generation” dies off leaving the horrors of WW II and their honorable duty to country behind as a job well done, had to be done ..someone had to do it so we did it ..we now look upon our modern wars in Vietnam and Iraq with shame or indifference.
We Americans, we humans, can be a complicated tangled mess of emotions, prejudices, fears and desires. And then there’s politics.
Many of the confederate generals memorialized in statues went to the same West Point as their northern counterparts before the Civil War. They roomed together, ate together, learned together, took the same oaths together. They had the same intellect. They had the same love of country. Then, they had a choice to make ...stand for the national anthem, or take a knee in protest.
I don’t often agree with Donald Trump. I don’t even like him, I think he’s nuts. In fact, I don’t believe he will last as president through this year let alone his first term. But if we are going to start erasing our American history, “sanitizing” it, because certain groups of people are, and correctly so, offended by symbols that denote important parts of our history as a nation, and allow them to have their way, then let’s get rid of every statue, memorial, battle field and national cemetery because they will offend someone who will unite a cause, incorporate, elect a board, hire a director and form a committee to promote their ideas. Follow the money.
Let’s get rid of the Vietnam Memorial because it reminds people of an ill conceived, costly war we couldn’t win. Let’s get rid of the Gettysburg battlefield memorial because it hurts to think of the pain and suffering of a nation divided over race. Let’s take down the Empire State Building because if offends short buildings.
Or ..let’s keep the confederate statues as a reminder of how hatred and race once divided our country and as a symbol of how, as a united, intelligent people, we overcame that issue and will never let it happen again. Let’s keep the Gettysburg battlefield memorial as a reminder of the death and destruction a conflicted people can impose upon itself, and as a reminder to never, ever let that happen again. And let’s let the Empire State Building stand tall as a symbol of the American desire to rise above all the petty issues that constantly present themselves and divide us, too high even for pigeons on which to, sit.
If I were an Indian, an indigenous person of the North American continent, I wouldn’t be so happy about the symbolism of say the American flag, Statue of Liberty or Mount Rushmore. These wouldn’t appeal to me as symbols of truth justice and freedom. The Indians I know don’t even like to be called “Native Americans” as our white, politically correct society has ordained them. It would be more insulting to me to be called a Native “American” than it would be to call the Washington Redskins, “Redskins”, or the Cleveland Indians, “Indians.” Personally, I would prefer to be referred to by my native tribe and heritage.
It’s complex, and it's not all black and white.
So, lets leave the statues and the fear and the symbolism, and lets take the history lesson and learn from it, teach our kids from it.
“Leave the gun, take the cannoli.”
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
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