We hold these truths to be self evident...that all men are created equal. A statement of fact it would seem that every human could be in agreement with...self evident truths...If only they were.
Civil War and the South. Four years of war, hundreds of thousands dead, the South in ruins, they took their punishment; but they did not change their hearts and minds. They created their own insular world: blacks on one side of the tracks, in different schools, not allowed to eat in the same restaurants or drink from the same fountains or use the same restrooms, Jim Crow laws, the KKK lynching people with impunity, blacks weren’t going to sit on juries, and no white man in the South would convict them. They preserved their vision of reality and refused to change their perceptions in spite of losing a long, bloody war. Perceptions and attitudes, prejudices, are the hardest thing in the world to change. Maybe it is in our nature to fear, resist, to feel threatened by change.
But, there is hope. These perceptions have been breaking down. As even the hardest rock is eroded by time, wind and rain, so are preconceived prejudices by human discourse, connection and interaction worn down, slowly but surely. Change doesn’t come easy, as George Harrison wrote in his song, “I don’t ask for much, I only want your trust, and you know it don’t come easy.” Heart by heart, that is how change happens.
Much of the North did not feel they were fighting to free slaves, but to save the Union. The Emancipation Proclamation did not free all the slaves, it took the 13th Amendment to do that.
Near the end of the war, abolitionists were concerned that while the Proclamation had freed most slaves as a war measure, it had not made slavery illegal. Several former slave states had already passed legislation prohibiting slavery; however, in a few states, slavery continued to be legal, and to exist, until December 18, 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment was enacted.
...although the proclamation freed slaves in the south it did not in the north.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
http://www.archives.gov/...
A hundred years later, Martin Luther King Jr. comes along, and once again violence erupts in the streets of the South. Not just because of a non-violent peaceful movement, but because, just like the Civil War, when people are threatened by change, they react violently trying to preserve their perception of reality. And, even though, the laws changed in the South, outwardly making them appear more equal; since we elected Barak Obama, we can see, once again, many hearts and minds have remained the same. They are still proudly flying and defending their rebel flags, just as they cling to their Bibles and guns. Outwardly they have had to adjust, but inwardly their perceptions and hearts have not changed.
But here’s the thing, not all, and not always. It is all too easy to blame or see people as a group, and that is what is getting us in trouble. For one thing, it’s not just the South. And actually much has changed, even though these attitudes do persist. African Americans are affecting change in the attitudes and perceptions of many hearts by going about their lives and interacting with others. An article in the Christian Science Monitor titled Beyond Racism: lessons from the South on racial discrimination and prejudice by Patrik Jonsson talks about how interaction can change people.
http://www.csmonitor.com/...
Most Northern whites do not know blacks, so when you don't know a group and you're segregated like, say, Detroit, you can project all kinds of things onto the other group, how dangerous they are, how crime-ridden," says Pettigrew a sociologist. "I remember going to a Harvard grad school seminar and hearing scholars and intellectuals talking about black people in a way that it was obvious they didn't actually know any black people. It wasn't particularly prejudiced, just ignorant. That's not likely to happen in the South."
Pettigrew goes on to talk about the “friendship quotient” being present in the South for the opportunity that can make change in hearts possible. We all have images burned into our brains of white police confronting Civil Rights marchers with batons and dogs. The laws were changed, guaranteeing voting and civil rights; and now you have people like James Young, who was elected the first black mayor in Philadelphia, Miss by 47 votes in a town of 8,000, a town where a gang of White Supremacists killed three Civil Rights workers in 1964, inspiring the movie Mississippi Burning:
But despite his well-known face and pro-business outlook, Mr. Young admits he still bears the burden of his race in the eyes of many townspeople.
So how did he overcome the racial odds? "My philosophy is that I refuse to stop the truck and get out to fight you," he says. "I'm going to keep moving forward.
No, all racism hasn’t ended in the South, but hearts are changing. Here is a recounting of an experience David Hooker had from the same article:
David Hooker, a black community-builder, had visiting Oxford, Miss., another iconic civil rights town steeped in Confederate history. Mr. Hooker, who lives in Atlanta and teaches at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va., stepped into the Ajax bar to order some food. A white Mississippian sitting at the bar said to no one in particular, but within Hooker's earshot, "I remember when they didn't let niggers in here."
Recounting the episode, Hooker says he replied, "That was crazy, wasn't it? I remember that, too."
Hooker adds: "He kind of looked at me, like, 'What do you mean? You're not going to be offended?' "
The two ended up having a 45-minute chat that spanned the election of Obama, the Ole Miss football team, and hopes for their kids. "He was asking to have a conversation about race – he just didn't quite know how," says Hooker. "The reason I could hear that as an invitation is because I constantly remind myself that hurt people hurt people – they're exposing you to a place of their own pain."
"Hurt people hurt people." The lesson we all need to learn from this is that contact increases tolerance, says the article. As much as we wish it, change doesn’t come overnight, and the human interaction component to making it happen is a vital ingredient for affecting change. Change isn’t easy or instant, but it can happen.
Meet Marshall Blanton, the prototypical white Southerner. Perambulating the streets of Selma, Ala., in a pair of overalls, he says he had five forefathers who fought for the Confederacy. His own daddy, he says, "taught me to be prejudiced.".
"The Vietnam War changed it for me," explains Blanton. "When I came back I told my wife, 'We're not raising our son [to be prejudiced].' "
"People think the only [ones] negatively impacted by Jim Crow's official and unofficial policies were African-Americans in the South," says Hooker. "But [prejudice] was taught by violence and coercion – deeply wounding ways of enforcing an unnatural behavior. Over time, that's as painful for the people who have had to maintain the system as it is for the people who were intentionally marginalized.
Hooker also talks about how whites don’t like to see Blacks or Hispanics doing better than them. This gives evidence to my theory: that the great economic upheaval in this country is contributing to the rise in the anger and lashing out at groups of people the last two years, the demonizing and pitting us against each other that seems to be growing with each further incident, continued economic uncertainty and growing unemployment.
When we feel threatened, we tend to lash out at the perceived things or people that make us feel fearful and insecure. It is human nature. In all times of economic stress or struggle for resources people divide into lines. Us and them. It is no accident that African Americans and Hispanics are suffering worse unemployment than whites. They are bearing the brunt of a nation angry at our economic situation which is putting the blame on them, instead of where it belongs. If MLK's dream is to come true, we need to see each other as humans suffering together, not separately. It is not "self evident" that we are created equal.
Powerful people in industry and politics know full well the strategy of keeping us at each other, dividing and tearing us apart, to keep us from being effective; Nixon and Reagan used it in the famed Southern White Strategy during their elections.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
The strategy has been dusted off and a little polish added to do the same thing again. The Democratic Underground has an article documenting these forces, and the playbook that was written for how to keep us divided right now:
This document provides rare & candid insight into the psychopathology of right wing institutions, which, in the words of their own guiding documents, consciously & explicitly seek to:
- - - "provoke" Americans into "apocalyptic fervor",
- - - use "social intimidation" to silence "the left" during the "intermediate stage",
- - - renounce any attempt "to reform the existing institutions", but rather
- - - use "guerrilla tactics" to "weaken...and eventually destroy them",
- - - by means of "measures that perhaps we would be unwilling to take under different, more ideal circumstances".
"It is not enough to say that conservative philosophy is more sensible than that of the Left. If we leave it at that, we will only attract "sensible" people to our movement. But "sensible" people do not go to the barricades, they do not make great sacrifices for a movement. And the experience of the conservative movement has shown this to be the case. We need more people with fire in the belly, and we need a message that attracts those kinds of people. As Plato said, "madness comes from God, whereas sober sense is merely human." We should keep this in mind if we expect our people to make superhuman sacrifices for the movement. We must reframe this struggle as a moral struggle, as a transcendent struggle, as a struggle between good and evil. And we must be prepared to explain why this is so. We must provide the evidence needed to prove this using images and simple terms. Putting the debate in terms of mere freedom, the "leave us alone" mentality, does not inspire apocalyptic fervor".
- - - - - "The Integration of Theory and Practice: A Program for the New Traditionalist Movement". Section 4J, paragraph 3
http://www.democraticunderground.com...
During every war it is common knowledge to the MIC that it is much easier to get soldiers to kill when the enemy is demonized and made subhuman, not like or as good as us, less than us. Slurs and derogatory language are part of it. Here is a powerful video of an Iraqi War Veteran explaining this principle in action. He talks about how he could no longer see the Iraqis as the enemy, but saw them as people, and could no longer kill them. He tells about how the military uses racism to make war possible.
http://www.youtube.com/...
It’s nice to be able to come here and find kindred spirits, who feel like I do, on this journey we are on. But, unless we get to interact and know people who are not like us on a one to one level, there will not be change. Debating is not winning. If someone can make a personal connection with me and listen to me, and vice versa, then I have a much better chance at changing that person’s mind and perceptions than if we are not speaking or shouting each other down. We do share common concerns in this country; and we have to find common ground and a way to talk without anger, shouting or guns.
The rich and powerful laugh at us while they drink champaign at how easy it is to divide us. People do change, but it starts in the heart and works it’s way to the mind. We need to see each other as individuals and not by the color of our skin, or sexual preference, or gender if Dr. Martin Luther King Jrs. dream is to come true.
I was thinking about all this yesterday when I read Gay in Maine’s article “Speaking Rurally” about living in a rural area; and how his interactions with people, who have never met someone like him, is changing people. I really liked this article, because it was a perfect example of what I was thinking when I read it and am saying here. Here is what I said to Gay in Maine:
I really, really like your article. Waving is ... (11+ / 0-)
very important. I have always lived in rural communities and waving at everyone you meet on a dirt road is part of the customs. It is like saying, "I will help you if you need it. Which is very important when you live in small population areas.
The other part I like is that you are describing what I myself have been writing and thinking about all morning. Reality, perceptions and change. And as you have learned, forming a human connection with others is vital to get people to drop barriers and change attitudes. TY so much for this and keep up the good work. You are affecting change every time you interact with others who are not like you
We make change happen when we can make a personal connection with people who are not like us. When we see each other as individuals, and not groups that we label: tea baggers, libs, the homeless, gay, dirty hippies, the unemployed, Muslims, aliens, illegals, lazy, entitled, and the myriad of names that endlessly keeps us at odds and divides us; then we will become a force that can make change possible and create new perceptions and realities.
Studies by the Pew Research Center have found that the Baby Boomers are more tolerant and less religious than their parents. And, further, our children are more tolerant and less religious than us. Change takes time. But there is hope and positive proof in these studies.
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Millennials: Confident, Connected and Open to Change:
http://pewsocialtrends.org/...
The key to changing peoples minds is to change them in their hearts first. MLK understood this, and that was his legacy. To say: if you get to know me, you can respect me as an individual, change your perceptions, and look past the color of my skin. His dream was that his children would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. LET US ALL TRY TO KEEP GOING FORWARD. CHANGE DOESN’T COME EASY. We need to keep working every day at changing perceptions, so we can all be judged by the content of our character as MLK dreamed for his children, our children, and their children. Perceptions can change. Dreams can become reality.