U.S. Poll: Racism Goes Stealth

[Lex]

According to A Course In Miracles, all that is not love is an illusion. Racism is an illusion. We created it. It isn't real.

At the beginning of my gargantuan post, my first point was that we don't know racism until we are taught. ...

I will need to look into that. What a great way of viewing the world and the pain we live.

You're right Stephen, racism isn't something that can be "fixed." As part of the human condition, we're all prejudiced. We all have irrational fears. This is not something we CHANGE. Rather, it is something we learn from and learn to deal with.

I, for one, find prissy little club-trash, twinky party boys to be the bane of my existence. All of them, collectively. Only, i have some prissy little club-trash, twinky party boys as friends. When I consider the group as a whole, they're deplorable... but when i look at the individual people within the group, i find that they couldn't be more diverse. I allow myself to detest the prissy little club-trash, twinky party boy GROUP because i've come to realise that the group has no real boundaries, and so, i'm not really hating much of anything.

It's when you starting hating individual people because of their involvement in a group that you have problems. If you don't know me, but you know that i'm gay, and you decide you hate me just because i'm gay, you have a problem. And it's a problem that can be fixed by simply getting to know me. If you KNOW me, and hate me because i grate on your nerves or offend your sensibilites, then i don't blame you for hating me. It's my responsibility to not accuse those who DO know me, of disliking me because i'm gay. If they know me, they have many other reasons to dislike me... it's vain of me to think it's just about me being gay.

JBT--you continue to amaze me with your insight and experiences. Nicely stated.

 

[DC_DEEP]

Yes, it is absolutely perfectly normal to prefer the company of people with whom you share some common ground, whether it is appearance, or beliefs, or language, or whatever. But any type of bigotry (including racism and homophobia) or xenophobia is absolutely learned.

There are solutions to these problems, but there are too few people willing to employ them. Parents, in general, are simply unwilling to teach their children properly. Those with the "victim" mentality are unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives. People in general are unwilling to let go of old, unfounded hatreds.

 

[D_Elijah_MorganWood]

I will need to look into that. What a great way of viewing the world and the pain we live.

You're actually in exactly the right spot in your journey of self-discovery to really benefit from this.
A Return To Love
by Marianne Williamson
is a good place to start. It's been out for years, you can get it everywhere.