#in every situation. I want everyone here to examine their biases which cannot necessarily be done if biases are written into the | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cherokeesunrise · 4 years

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Shadows of Humanity

Nationalism

Genocide

Infanticide

Child Abuse

R a c i s m

Sexism

Colorism

Human Trafficking (The New Slavery)

Forced Sterilization

Rape

Harassment

Theft

Thomas Jefferson on slavery in America:

"But as it is, we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other."

We are at a pivotal time in human history in more ways than one. It is time for each of us to embrace our personal power and speak out against injustice. We are out of excuses because our shadow is crouching at our door.

Taking pride in your culture is not wrong. Each culture has accomplishments they should be proud of but racism goes beyond pride and seeks to destroy the lives of other people. It takes many forms. It looks like calling police on black people who are not doing anything you would call the police on if a white person were doing. It looks like denying a black child the right to the same level of education because you don’t think they possess enough intelligence or because you don’t want them to get ahead. (The intelligence one is a big one). It also looks like sitting by allowing other people to discriminate while you make ‘Now you know better’ faces at the other person. Acquiescing. Allowing. Still feeling you are the good one because you didn’t actually do the crime.

Racism in America translates into: “I am entitled to a happy life, and you are not.”

A Simple Truth Free Black People represent a Loss of power, a Loss of control. The persecution of black people seeks to regain that back.

There are 3 reasons for the level of racism in America that we have.

1. Fear.

*Fear of retaliation for all the evil things done to them.

2. Insecurity.

*Insecurity makes them believe they will lose Power if blacks gain power.

White power is Defined by black persecution. This is why black persecution persists.

3. Jealousy.

*When we are jealous of what other people have, we are not happy for them. Instead, we seek to remove it from them and retain it exclusively for ourselves.

This is a problem, not only in the white community, but of all humanity as we are ALL affected by it.

If we ignore it, no it will Not go away. Has it ever gone away?!? It will Not go away because people’s freedoms are attacked. Pretending it doesn’t exist or that only a few people are actually racist does not convince the people on the receiving end nor does it make you unaccountable.

It is important to view this as a human problem, a problem for ALL of us. Why? Because it is fear, insecurity and jealousy of white people that causes them to persecute and hunt black people. It is a cycle and until the cycle is broken, it will not go away.

I’ll spare you the details of how this planet runs in cycles but in relation to the human spirit, we can simply look at history. Pick a History, Any History. Anywhere in the World. At Any Given Time when people are oppressed, what happens? There is a revolt. It is the inevitable outcome that oppression of the Human Spirit Will Not Be Contained. Nature cannot be suppressed. It is not Human (or animal) to Want to Remain In Confinement. Every revolution in history is a testament to this, including the American Revolution.

We are human beings trying to survive on this planet so we are all in this together.

the Importance of Integration

"For here we are not afraid to follow truth, wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error, so long as reason is left free to combat it."- Thomas Jefferson

Integration can occur when we let go of the idea of different “races”. To help you understand what different races look like, think about the animal kingdom. We have mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects.

The genetic makeup is different.

The mode of reproduction is different.

Some lay eggs, some have life births.

Some are warm blooded, some cold blooded.

Some can breathe underwater, others cannot, while some can do both.

You get the idea. The Animal Kingdom has different “Races”.

Among humans, any blood can be shared with another human, a heart can be transplanted into another, any two humans can procreate and create another human. We all give birth the same way. We all require air to breathe – no human can live underwater or underground without having oxygen piped in. These are known truths obvious to most people.

A human cannot receive blood from a hippo, nor can a human get a heart transplant from a penguin. But a white person can receive a heart from a black person. A white person can receive a kidney from a black person. A white person can receive blood from a black person. All these things will save your life. If this happens are you now “black” ? Are you still human? Are you now less human?

This means race is a Social Construct. Someone made it up. It is a socially accepted norm. So is the persecution of black people.

There are many social constructs that are detrimental to our very existence. The problem with all of them, including racism, is a bully versus victim mentality. In the case of American racism: White people are the bullies. Black people are the victims.

These elementary concepts are at the breaking point for release and the reality of the situation will set in. Remember Rodney King.

The question is often asked and averted: How can a black person protest in a way that white people will Not object to?

The question is never answered; nor will it be.

The reason is: There is none.

There is never a way for black people to protest that will ever be acceptable because black protests:

§ Deny the illusion that everything is fine.

§ Represent uncomfortable truths about white culture that white people do not want to accept. (e.g. white people are aggressive and violent, which is the opposite of black people are aggressive and violent)

§ Represent a threat against white power (e.g. white superiority and white privilege)

In order to deal with the dark side of humanity, behaviors that work against our own best interests, we need to address them one by one. The dark side has value but if wielded unbridled it will not serve our best interest and will work against us. (The same is also true of the good side.)

Racism – the good – taking pride in your culture and your way of life is a good thing. It gives us confidence and is empowering. Each individual should appreciate their own divine nature and what their particular culture has accomplished in the way of positive change that works together for the greater humanity. Individual and Together.

Racism – the bad – at the point where My pride in My culture requires that You cannot have pride in Your culture - this is where racism does a disservice to you and to the people around you because it creates tension, wars and you could be on the receiving end of justice served. Is this the kind of environment that you want to live in? Individual and Separate.

So How do we examine this? Individually. And then, each one, teach one. Individually, we need to be the change that we want to see in the world. Individually. We cannot wait for “everyone else” to change because WE ARE EVERYONE ELSE. Everyone else makes up “us”. Individual but we are part of a whole society. I bear the responsibility of checking my own self and reconditioning any behavior that I do not want other people to enact on me. That way I am not part of the problem; I am part of the solution.

And Enough parts make up a Whole.

We are all divine in our own rite. We are individually all unique and no one else has the power that you alone have. The problem is you have not embraced it yet.

This is a Time to move forward, to mature, to step into your personal power and accept yourself, your abilities and your humanity – without the suffering of black people to reaffirm that power. Because that’s what ALL biases stem from – the feeling of a lack of power.

If you embrace the power within yourself, you will not need to externalize your power to black people, or anyone else for that matter, and then constantly need to reaffirm that you are powerful by “proving” it – Calling the police on regular people sitting quietly by themselves or going about their daily lives or hunting black people for sport.

Not integrating turns people who do not think they are racist into tools of wickedness. The officer who killed Philando Castile - after watching the video footage, there is no doubt the murderer was in distress over the murder. Why did this happen? The officer murdered an innocent man in front of a 4-year-old little girl. Usually young children think the police are there to protect them and look up to the police, but what do you think happens when a child witnesses something like that? Who was the aggressor and who was the victim?

The callousness, the fear, the denial, that ensued afterward turned someone who, based on his reaction, was shocked by his own behavior. This is how subtle our shadows can be. It is not always so obvious to us. The officer did not necessarily set out to shoot an innocent man, As Some Do, but racist ideology played into his own psyche and caused him to murder an innocent man and then to have no regard for the remaining family that was with him. They sat them outside on the ground and handcuffed the woman, as if she had done something wrong.

Why Integration is Important for the White Majority:

Your identity and sense of self is implicitly wrapped up in the identity of black people. The slave mentality you wish on them, enslaves YOU as well.

Embracing your personal power will eliminate the NEED to overly concern yourself with what black people are doing every moment of their lives.

If you embrace the power within yourself:

You will not NEED to sabotage their progress because you are scared you cannot succeed if you don’t.

You will not NEED to pick apart their appearance, because you will appreciate your own.

You will not NEED to harass black men because you will have Confidence in yourself.

You will not NEED to diminish black women because you will have confidence in your own divine feminine.

You will not NEED to oppress black children because you are worried you children will not have opportunities.

You will have Nothing to Prove if you embrace your own personal power because you will Know that you are divine and no one can take that away.

You have to prove this to yourself because the only thing you prove to blacks is your perceived inferiority.

When you Embrace Your Personal Power, you will Not need to Fear, Be Jealous Of or Feel Disempowered by Black People.

You will not have to worry about why they wear their hair that way. You will not have to worry why they are jogging down the street. You will not have to worry about why they are sitting in the park. You will not have to worry about why they are barbequeing with their families. You will not have to worry about why they are working outdoors. You will not have to worry about why they are living their lives. When you do this, you are externalizing your power and represent the fear, the jealousy and the disempowerment that exists in you at this time.

Stop and ask yourself: In this moment, if a white person were doing the exact same thing, would I be on alert?

Questions that reveal your intention:

1. How can a black person protest in a way that I will not find offensive?

2. If a black person gets angry, is it the same as a when a white person gets angry?

3. Would I ever trade places with a black person, even an accomplished one?

#Blackpeoplearehumanbeings integration shadowwork partswork rodneyking philandocastile AhmaudArbory GeorgeFloyd weainthavingit Youwillnothave

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archivallyfound · 7 years

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“How” formerly knowns as: “Millennials, Politics, Hate-Groups, Baby Boomers: How many buzz words can I fit in a title?”

“How the hell do I even spell it?”

After 3 tries, Google finally understands my jumbled disaster of letters. Millennial, that’s what you want, right? Yes, thank you, oh wonderful technology god that does not demand I know how to spell anything correctly. Now before you scroll past this, I assure you, this is not another millennial-defense piece about how eco-friendly, economically-minded, and amazing they are; nor is it a millennial-bashing piece berating the society-killing nature and socially-spoiled, participation ribbon generation. This is simply me trying to figure out what’s going on.

“How do I want to word this?”

A quick Google search of the word “millennial” brings up 39,900,000 results in .73 seconds. Impressive. Most results begin with definitions, a few stock images of young people doing “young” things (like laughing weirdly and eating ice cream). However, a modified search to “millennials” results in something entirely different. “Millennials Don’t Care About X” fills the news headlines. “The Unluckiest Generation.” “Why Millennials Don’t Work Hard Enough.”

“How is this search so different?”

The addition of a single letter skews the results. The pluralization of a single word, mass-scale search shows an ugly side of reality. The single millennial is not a threat. There is a certain curiosity about them. Almost like a newborn animal at a zoo where all information is gathered from scientific-evidence (height, weight, age, coloring, blood pressure, etc.). But more than one millennial is a threat. Once groups start forming generationally, changes begin to occur.

“How do they not remember that?”

Alright, Baby-Boomers, I’m looking at you here. I guarantee that at some point in life, you have been called the “greatest generation” and also condemned at the “worst generation” as well. These generalizations are just that- generalizations that are applied by those outside the group via their personal perspective. Are all of you “the worst”? No. Are all of you “the greatest”? No. Do most people fall in the middle of two such extremes? Absolutely. Remember when your parents told you that you were changing too much? News reports about cultural norms being “ruined” essentially by a young generation? Let me jog your memory if not: Civil Rights. That was a pretty big doozy.

“How can they blame us?”

Millennials find themselves in the same place that all generations have been: the transition. The change. The “ruining” of the last generation. Altering the course of history. You get it. But this generation faces a slightly different angle to the change: the rapid growth of communication and technology has forced these changes to occur at lightning-speed that has never been seen before. Within .7 seconds anyone can connect with someone around the world. We are glued to our phones, laptops, tablets, smart devices. Why? Because they’re awesome. I don’t say that facetiously. The power to compute, communicate, research, and enjoy is easier now than ever before.

“How did we get here?”

Millennials are often referred to, at least recently, as the generation that kills things. Millennials kill the fast food industry. Millennials versus Walmart, Millennials opting to go organic. Why are millennials making these changes? Perhaps, and just perhaps, it has to do with the mass amount of information and commentary we carry in our back pockets and our purses. We have found other people like us. We’ve formed entirely online communities. We type our hearts out to strangers who in turn share theirs. We are creating a shared experience globally.

“How is that bad?”

I’m glad you asked, other me typing the questions. Interaction is not necessarily bad or good, it’s an interaction depending on multiple circumstances. However, with the growth of communication and the demand for immediacy in everything surrounding millennials lives, destination of news, events, politics, and culture, is not always great. Oftentimes, accuracy is sacrificed for speed and sources are cited only due to their proximity. This means the reality of the situation isn’t fully realized until much later and it is sometimes contradictory to the initial reports. Quick news is generally not wholly accurate news.

“How do we combat that?”

No idea. No really, I have no explanation for that. But I do want to circle back as to why this rant is continuing. A.) I wanted to used the word “rant” so a google search for “millennial rant” will pull my writing. B.) The growth of the “millennial” global community is a reflection of a much larger issue at hand. Politics. Yup, we’re going there. Buckle up and get on the Magic School Bus kids, it’s gonna be bumpy.

“How does politics relate to any of this?”

It’s pervade in everything we as people do. News, online articles, TV interviews, podcasts, Twitter. Instagram. Snapchat. News and information is everywhere. You’d need to be hiding under a rock to miss all this. Even if you only get your news from traditional or “reliable” sources (debatable, by the way), you’re still consuming information in the technologically most advanced age in the course of human history. This means you have the ability to select which news you see, respond instantaneously to the author, link the information to others, which is great. IF. IF. IF. If the information is correct and unbiased.

“How do we get unbiased news?”

We don’t. Everyone ever has had a personal bias that shapes the way they think and act. Experiences, education, culture, trauma, disabilities are all factors in how we process information and determine the lens in which we view the world. None of this is new. The news has always been biased. People have always been biased. History is biased. If you don’t believe me, check out a textbook from the 1950’s, the 1970’s, the 1990’s, and 2017. Look at the index and search for “women” or “race.” I promise you they will all be different in their explanations of events and information. We fight against unbiased news by ourselves bing educated.

“How can you demand that from people when they are so busy?”

Don’t misunderstand. I’m not expecting everyone to read every book and have full knowledge and acceptance of every concept ever. But remember those devices in our pocket or purse or, more likely, in your hand right now? huh. Maybe a search to check out some research before you comment or you post or you discuss. Remember writing papers in high school? Thesis then support and support and support (and every bit of support is cited to a source that is an expert on the facts of the discussion). We should be approaching news and information the same way: thesis+researched sources and background = argument.

How can you expect me to do that?

I know firing off in the comments on youtube or that god-awful article forum is more fun. We as humans like drama. Don’t deny it. We want to get a rise out of the other side because emotions cloud the reality and sustainability of their argument. Facts are not emotional. Facts do, however, sometimes depend on the source. “There’s his side, her side, and the truth.” That applies here. Gathering as much information as possible allows a fuller picture to encapsulate most of the reality of what happened/is happening/will happen. This demands a background on the topic. Sorry history-haters, you’re going to need to brush up a bit here. Disclaimer: I’ve got two degrees in history, I’m a nut. I know it’s not normal, but it is vitally important. I’ll keep my excitement to a minimum.

How does history apply?

More than anyone realizes. History shows us the patterns of humanity when faced with interactions. Good, bad, ugly, we’ve got examples on all of them. None the same, but some very closely related (like identical twins versus you and a cousin who look more like siblings). Same concept, different solutions or different means to an end. Let’s look at the current political atmosphere: Nazis and White Supremacists. These groups are not new, even in the U.S. no matter how much a large group of us would like them to be. they are deeply rooted in our history (cheesy, right?) but there is an element of truth to it.

How do we fight them?

We don’t. Violence isn’t solving anything in this case. It’s causing injuries, injustice, death. Unfortunately, it is also giving those in support of these policies and ideologies a chance to easily blame those standing up to these hate-groups. “There were fine people on both sides.” “There was aggression on both sides.” “The liberal violent agenda…” This is not going to solve anything but draw the line in the sand even deeper. You cannot change their minds. They will not change yours. That point is at an impasse. However, we can fight them by not indulging them, by knowing historically where we’ve been, by taking realistic, rational steps towards educating those around us so they know that hate is not how the U.S. operates.

How do you know what to do?

I don’t. And you shouldn’t listen to me. Or anyone, for that matter. The more educated you are and the more you think for yourself, the more dangerous you are. You’re not sheep, you’re not dumb, you have an 8 pound brain in your head (according to that cute kid in Jerry McGuire); USE IT. The mob mentality is lazy. Let one person push their thoughts out to a mass and the mass responds with “yeah, that works.” We aren’t just fighting black/Jew/Middle Eastern/Asian/Mexican/name your minority haters, we are fighting ignorance. We. Not a person. Not an individual. Individuals. That’s right, add that ’s’ on there. Changes the meaning. We need to examine our education on these matters and then add to the collective knowledge of humanity and join together.

How?

Any way we can. Read a book. Share and article. Have a discussion. Get into it with Aunt Liza and Grandpa at Thanksgiving. Ask them why they feel the way they do. Understand their perspectives, look historically when and where they lived. Place yourself in their circumstances. Then fight the prejudices that they are facing. Find information. Fight ignorance. And take care of yourself. We make this world better collectively by taking care of ourselves individually first.

#Milennials #USA #Trump #Ignorance #Hategroups #Politics #Republicans #Democrats

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