Race Gone... Right Along With Racism And Racist(s).

[Oscar Carter]

Ah, I know most people believe it's not possible. 

To the extent people feel that way, they are 100% correct.

Believing we can't be done with it, at least in a social context, is the only factor preventing the possibility of ridding society's ills related to "race," "racism" and "racists." (Notice the quotes.  I will explain below.)

So what's the solution Mr. smarty boy Oscar Carter.  You think you know so much!

Well, actually there is little I know, particularly when it comes to the subject of "race."  Therein hints at how I propose to achieve a society free of "racial" bias and any and all other biases in our societies for that matter.

Three factors limit progress and resolve regarding issues of "race."

1. When people speak about "race" they do so from the circumstances they personally experience.  NO PROBLEM WITH THAT.  However, what most do not recognize or are willing to accept, and in fact respect, is that when others speak about "race," and everything else for that matter, they are doing so from their circumstances which may be different and from their personal experiences which most always is different, however subtle those differences may be.
   
   
2. Related to #1, and based on their personal experiences, people speak about "racial" conditions and experiences from their personal "knowing," unwilling" to question their knowing" from others' points of view.
   
   
3. The word race is a social construct that has no agreed upon meaning in society.  Further, it cannot be observed or described in any consistent manner.  You know, like 2 + 2 = 4.  Black, Negro, Colored, White and even African-American are all unevenly defined when applied to people.  There very well may be biological distinctions.  Even so, they serve no purpose in a social context.  We seem to enjoy labeling folks in those and in all kinds of categories.  You've heard the stories of people who have been labeled handicapped and they find it belittling because in their mind, they can do, be and achieve anything anybody else can although they may go about it differently.
   
   

Go head line um up!
 

100 people with narrow gradients of color or non color among each.  Line them up from the person with the darkest skin, thick lips, brown eyes and black hair on one end to the lightest or person with hardly any color except from the redness that glows from the blood underneath one's skin, thin lips, blue eyes and blonde or black hair.

Can you determine without fail the "racial" or any other category or label you want to give to each person among the 100 and be 100% correct each time?   Perhaps, you can do it with sex.  Really?  You can.  Be careful, you may offend someone.

I make one exception for continuing to use the term race. I am OK with folks who wish to hold onto their own "racial" and whatever other identities as defined by them.  In fact I am entirely OK with people individually choosing however they wish to define themselves.  However, for people who want to label or put others in some category they think they belong, be it race or otherwise, that does not work.

Speaking for myself, I am an American or even better a World Citizen; actually a World Class Citizen. :)   It has always been interesting to me when President Obama was asked the question sometime before his first election did he consider himself an African-American.  His response was, I GUESS you can consider me an African-American in as much as my father was African and my mother American.  However, his use of the term "guess" left room for him to define himself in some other way.

I want to make one more point before moving on to suggest my solution to it all.

I do not seek an "homogenized" society. I seek maintaining the widely diverse society we have now however, one where our differences are respected, and in fact honored, and we live harmoniously among one another.

OK here is how you get there.

We engage in a conversation to resolve the biases we ALL have no matter their nature, source or expression and in doing so the word race and its counterparts, racism and racists are eliminated from the discussion as we pursue a society that houses Respect For All. 

 Pretty simple don't you think?  I think so.

Oscar Carter
World Transformer