[Neurons] 2021 Neurons #39 NO SYSTEM CAN BE RACIST

Thu Jul 1 18:30:03 EDT 2021

From: L. Michael Hall

2021 Neurons #39

July 2, 2021

How Self-Actualization 

Can Save Politics #4

NO SYSTEM CAN BE RACIST

Given that politics requires good ideas, then if we operate from bad ideas
then politics will suffer.  Obviously, this means it's essential that we
make sure that we operate with, and from, good ideas- even great ideas.  Now
today there's a really bad idea floating around, an idea that is actually
toxic and completely dysfunctional for political well-being and health.  It
is the idea of "systemic racism."  

Previously I have written that here is a term ('race') that has no
reference.  It is actually a pseudo-word.  Because there is only one race on
Planet Earth, the human race, and there's no such things as multiple races,
then there is no thing about being prejudiced against other "races."  What
we're usually talking about are people from different families of the human
family, and if we would use that terminology instead of "race," we would
find it easier to have a friendly and more compassionate attitude toward
those who are part of the human family. (Neurons #13, March 29, 2021).

Now to be "racist" is to be prejudged against certain people that you have
come to dislike.  There could be a reason for the dislike (e.g.,
mistreatment), although such dislike and prejudice is usually taught.  What
is this experience and state of "racism?"  It is a personal human thought
that is an attitude and an emotion.  It is a psychological state wherein one
person takes an oppositional stance against other people.  Coming from
inside a person, it is then what a person does.  Inside the person develops
a negative attitude and outside the person insults or talks disrespectfully.
Worse yet, the person becomes externally physically abusive, tries to harm
the others, sets up conditions so that it disadvantages the other person.

But what if you have is an entity such as an organization, you do not have a
real person.  It does not think or feel.  It does not have a brain to think
or a body to emote.  It is a legal entity.  It exists on paper and the
articles of incorporation which describe how people come together for some
purpose or business.  As a legal entity it does not eat or breath; it does
not love or hate.  It is a construct of law that lawyers, politicians, and
tax accountants invent to tax.  In this, it cannot be "racist."  This is why
the phrase "systemic racist" is non-sense.

Yes, an organization can have unjust rules.  It can have laws that favor
some people over others and privilege some over others, or put some at a
disadvantage.  If that is what we're referring to, then what we have is not
"systemic racism," we have bad ideas in the legal paperwork and organization
structure.  That is not "racist" thinking-and-feeling, that is a policy, a
set of rules.  And it can be changed, and should be changed.

You may be wondering, as I did, why would anyone invent this different kind
of racism?  For what purpose?  The answer is simple- the Civil Rights
Movement of the 1960s and 1970s succeeded!   By the 1990s and 2000s, old
type "racism" was pretty much done and over with.  The largest majority of
people in the USA had moved on and King's idea of a colorless society was
beginning to emerge.  A great manifestation of that was the election of our
first Black President?  And he was elected twice.  With the idea of equality
spreading throughout the country, with the idea of judging people "not by
the color of their skin, but by the content of their character" -the focus
shifted from Affirmative Action to education, training, development,
personal responsibility, competency, meritocracy, etc.  All good stuff.

That's when some on the left decided that they needed a new "racism" to
fight.  Since people of color from all ethnic groups were being elected to
every position possible in politics and succeeding in the marketplace in
every possible industry, it was obvious that the old "racism" was slowly but
surely dying out.  Therefore having nothing to protest, they needed
something new, so they invented "systemic racism."  They invented critical
race theory which announced, "racism is everywhere and it is permanent."

This explains why is it a very bad idea- it is presented as everywhere and
forever.  If that's the case, then you cannot solve it.  Ah, now you have an
invisible enemy to fight.  It is an enemy you cannot see, hear, or feel- its
incorporated into the hidden assumptions of the organization.  Because it is
everywhere and forever- it can never be solved as actual racism was solved.
There are also many more reasons why "systemic racism" is a terrible idea -
which I'll present in the next post. 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Neuro-Semantics

P.O. Box 8

Clifton CO. 81520 USA

www.neurosemantics.com 

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