How Do We Change This?
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Genesis 1:26-27
Two overarching themes embedded in every film, play, or TV show ever made for consumption by Western audiences:
The inherent superiority of white people;
AND
The existence of God
These concepts are so deeply ingrained in Western Civilization, or ‘baked in’ as it were, that the people who write books, scripts and screenplays for movies and TV do little more than reinforce and reaffirm these “immutable” truths that function as ‘conditions precedent’ to human existence and contemporary life in Western societies and cultures.
Dramatic conflict consists of:
Man v Man
Man v Nature
Man v Self
Man v Society
Every literary device: metaphor, allegory, simile, etc is employed to intricately weave plot lines around, or within, the deep backdrops of these overarching concepts without bringing the concepts to the forefront of any ‘story’ that is being told.
All of the dramatic conflicts that move the stories from beginning to end are resolved within the framework and context of these overarching themes as ‘man’, usually the central character, or hero/heroine, emerges triumphant and victorious.
The message that is repeatedly transmitted by the images and imagery re the relationship between the two overarching themes is that the ‘inherent superiority of white people’ is an element of a ‘divine plan’ or scheme of creation which echoes in the battle cry of Pope Urban II in 1095 upon his initiation of the Crusades:
This ‘message’ has been, and is, encoded and embedded in virtually every aspect of mass communication, not as a ‘dog whistle’, but the underlying assumption upon which human interaction in Western Civilization is predicated…
From genesis to the nightly news, and all the commercials in between, the message that white people are superior and entitled is repeated incessantly….
It’s been going on for more than 900 years….
If we are to achieve a more perfect union, predicated on a multicultural and multiracial egalitarian democracy, how do we change this?
07/22/2020 @ 5:23 pm
Your implication is pretty clear here. You’re tying faith to racism, or at least attempting to. If that were the case, neither the civil rights movement nor the abolitionist movement would have been driven by people of faith, in many cases profound faith, but both were. Not just Christian faith; as a prime example, Malcolm X. The man who spoke just before Dr. King at the Lincoln Memorial was a rabbi, and that was neither an accident nor an anomaly. The overwhelming Jewish presence in the Freedom Riders should show that. And yes, the formation of this ideology among the Jewish population was religiously driven and in many cases continues to be. In the last survey I heard about before gay marriage became the law of the land, a slightly higher percentage of Jews favored legalizing gay marriage than of atheists.
But for some reason you have a bug up your ass about faith. I’m not exactly sure where this comes from, but it’s awfully pronounced. If your opposition to faith has to do with some contention that those with faith are intrinsically anti-science, that’s not the case – plenty of scientists have had and continue to have faith. Even the Catholic Church has stated that evolution doesn’t contradict their reading of the Bible. Nor does the Big Bang Theory.
I assume you’re aware of the freedom of religion provision in the First Amendment. I intend to exercise it and I object highly when anyone attempts to interfere with it. It’s there for a reason. I do not intend to evangelize anyone about my faith; including you. I never have. Whether anyone else has faith is irrelevant to me. However, I do not appreciate being evangelized. I don’t appreciate it when fundamentalist Christians do it, I really don’t appreciate it when Jews for Jesus do it, and I don’t appreciate it when atheists do it. Make no mistake about it – atheists are highly evangelistic while Jews are not.
If someone were in here telling me all about how I had to accept Jesus, I’d object to it. If it persisted, I might investigate whether it was a TOS violation. I don’t want to be told I am evil because of my faith, substandard because of my faith, irresponsible because of my faith, uncompassionate because of my faith. All of those allegations are bullshit, and some of them amount to antisemitism. This is true no matter where on the spectrum it comes from. If I were evangelizing anyone I might understand why someone felt compelled to attack my faith out of self-defense, but I’m not.
Every time you write one of these you attack me personally. You may tell me that you don’t intend to include me. If I were to make nasty generalizations about Black people but tell you that I did not mean to include you, would you buy it?
You’re also making unsubstantiated accusations. I’ve said that before too, and your answer has been that you’re not trying to do anything but express an opinion or perhaps make an observation. The same can be said, and probably is said, by a whole lot of racists.
Only one answer to this is acceptable.
07/22/2020 @ 7:19 pm
“But for some reason you have a bug up your ass about faith.”
I don’t have a ‘bug up my ass’ about faith nor is what I write about you or a personal attack on you…
“The message that is repeatedly transmitted by the images and imagery re the relationship between the two overarching themes is that the ‘inherent superiority of white people’ is an element of a ‘divine plan’ or scheme of creation….”
I see and hold that there is a distinction between an individual’s ‘faith’ and the practice of, or adherence to, ‘religion’…
I have great respect and admiration for persons of faith, including you my friend…I do, however, take issue with the hypocrisy that is manifest in the religiosity that is used to cloak the platitudes, and euphemisms, of avoidance and denial.
My problem is and always has been the use of religion as a means of perpetrating and perpetuating the notion that religion somehow provides a framework in which human interaction must occur, or one of the foundations upon which society is built or must rest…
I was raised Catholic. Spent several years attending catechism classes and serving the church as an altar boy…
I went to a Catholic high school for 2 1/2 years before transferring to a public high school…A separate post for another time…
One of the tenets of Catholicism is that the soul is not imbued with the higher qualities of humanity until the individual is baptized….
Thus providing a ‘religious’ rationale for viewing and treating unbaptized African slaves as subhuman creatures…
If I had any bugs up my ass about RELIGION, that most assuredly would be one of them…The legacy of viewing black people as somehow subhuman persists to this day…
Jewish people are a special and unique group in that their ethnic, social, cultural, and political identity emanates from a singular historical experience…
I may be wrong but my understanding is that in many respects your ‘faith’ is who you are…
When I write posts such as this, it is neither my intention nor my desire to cast aspersions on any persons faith…
My assertion and hence my question are quite simple:
Can the ages old insidious and deleterious uses of religion be separated from the ways in which we, as individuals, self identify in order to pursue and achieve the goals of social justice and a multicultural, multiracial, egalitarian democracy?
07/22/2020 @ 10:15 pm
There is much ado about bugs and asses here, but you’re limiting your definition of religion to messianic religion. It may be that the concept of the messiah is the source of all that you dislike about religion.
In my view, the concept of the messiah is nihilism. It removes all accountability from the individual, and makes everything that you decry possible. Maybe that is an accident. I do not believe that to be the case. It is too efficient and powerful as a control mechanism to be invested in a messiah.
On the other hand, personal accountability can lead incrementally to justice in the same way that a large structure can be built block by block. When the science is right, the structure will hold. If you’re counting on magic, your structure will fail in the spot where magic is principally involved. I say, remove the magic (messiah), and use the collective wisdom of eons, and achieve justice. A religion (philosophy) without a messiah can’t be used to promote injustice unless its fundamental principles are for that purpose.
07/23/2020 @ 1:57 am
@Bitey;
“…you’re limiting your definition of religion to messianic religion…”
Not ‘religion’ per se, but ‘religiosity’ and or ‘institutional religiosity’: “excessively, obtrusively, or sentimentally religious” (see Webster’s)
Which would apply to any religion across the board…messianic or otherwise…
07/23/2020 @ 5:34 am
True, but if we are talking about “excessively, obtrusively…”, etc, then the answer is within your question. Unless the philosophy asks for excess, sentimentality, etc, then the answer is without.
My thoughts on this may not be persuasive, but I have settled on a particular notion. There are certain rational, discoverable laws which guide everything in the universe. Some we have become aware of, and most we have not, but there is order. I believe that the universe is rational. Any moral philosophy which has one foot in our rational universe, and another on some ethereal plain where all the laws of human existence must collapse in order for that plain to exist, cannot function as a guide for human existence in our rational universe. Even if it could be constructed, the information gleaned from any judgement made from that process would be unfair to anyone restricted by natural life. Any result would be meaningless. It would be like arranging a game of volleyball and judging it by the game of chess. It would make no sense.
Therefore, as it is obvious that our rational world exists, and the observation of nature and the laws of physics are ongoing, the magical world is the contamination. Having been raised a Christian, I can see where Christian teaching asks that we ignore reality and choose magical thinking. The big answer in living an ethical life and building a moral society is to apply reason to our thoughts and actions and keep them in line with our moral principles. Ultimately, reason rejects racial, or gender hierarchies, and empathy implores us to deal with one another ethically, as well as ethics imploring us to value empathy and fairness. From there, society is what we make it, and not the edict or will of some magical face on a totem pole.
07/23/2020 @ 10:39 am
@Bitey; I believe that you’ve described both the origins and causes of hypocrisy…
07/23/2020 @ 10:50 am
Kosh, I assume you are more than 25 years old. Am I correct in that assumption? If so perhaps you would like to email me copies of your letters to Congress and the Senate demanding that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act be passed so that NATIVE AMERICANS have those “First Amendment Rights” to religious freedom that everyone EXCEPT Native Americans had prior to 1995 or so… Interestingly, the Supreme Court stated that Native Americans are specifically EXCLUDED from First Amendment protections regarding religion in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s – and, while we had been citizens for almost 50 years at that point we had been LEGALLY DENIED our religion, our families, our language and our culture for more than 100 years by that point and based entirely on the color of our skin.
The US is BUILT on a foundation of racism… the Doctrine of Discovery and Manifest Destiny. The former is RELIGIOUS DOCTRINE from the Catholic Church and has been quoted in Supreme Court rulings related to RACE as recently as 2005. Why is the Supreme Court citing RELIGIOUS DOCTRINE as an excuse for racism AT ALL?
07/23/2020 @ 11:22 am
Mrs. Raptor,
A mile from my home, on a seldom used trail that winds through trees known currently as Red Cedar and Sitka Spruce which surround the estuary formed by a river and creek emptying into the ocean, is a granite pillar with a brass plaque honoring Reuben Snake Jr. ( https://www.firstnations.org/staff/reuben-a-snake-jr/ )There is a quote of his at the bottom of the plaque ” If we don’t change direction soon, we’re going to end up where we’re headed.”
The wisdom in that circumlocution is even more salient today than when it was spoken.
07/24/2020 @ 1:15 am
Of course religion can be used to persecute. Lecturing a Jew about that is beyond ludicrous; we’ve experienced that for far longer than anyone. We were being burned at the stake when Columbus sailed, and in terms of persecution that’s relatively recent in our history. That’s not the issue here. The issue is the implication that such persecution is inherent in religion. Don’t ask me why Congress would base persecution on religion. My people have almost universally supported separation of Church and State for most of our history here.
Bitey,
The nature of the Messiah is different in Christianity and Judaism, though the concept originated in Judaism. In Judaism the Messiah is a human agent of God who rules over a thousand years of peace. However, though he’s supposed to save us from persecution, his coming has to be earned. And by earned, we do not mean earned through faith.
Is the question what is to be done about the misuse of religion? I have a problem with the answer being “eliminate it.” If you want a guideline as to how to tell when you’re about to be in trouble, that I can help you with. There are two sometimes conflicting priorities in any given religion: vigilance and compassion. Whenever vigilance takes priority, worry.
07/24/2020 @ 9:23 am
@Koshersalaami;
“Your implication is pretty clear here. You’re tying faith to racism, or at least attempting to.”
Your ‘take’ or interpretation of the essence of this post is as wrong as two left shoes…
Time and time again I have suggested that you cease and desist from your habit of replacing what is actually written with your interpretations of what is written, and then proceeding with your commentary as though your perspective is what the author wrote when it is not…
The essence of the post is stated in the final sentence before the “question” is posited:
“From genesis to the nightly news, and all the commercials in between, the message that white people are superior and entitled is repeated incessantly….”
The post is an effort to establish the validity and veracity of the assertion…
There are no “unsubstantiated accusations” or accusatory fingers pointed at you or any other individual here or anywhere else…
At the end of the day here, as in so many other instances, you don’t attempt to craft a response to the question posed.
What you’ve done here is give a dissertation on what you perceive as a personal attack against you and your faith….
Nothing could be further from the truth….
I have not the time, temperament, or inclination to continuously engage in such counterproductive nonsense….Unless provoked to do so as a matter of self defense…
07/23/2020 @ 11:28 am
I have tried to post a comment but it requires “moderation”. Perhaps it’s because it had a link to another site honoring the Native American it quotes.
Here it is without the link. I meant to place it at the bottom of the thread but my knowledge of this site’s limits are also limited:
Mrs. Raptor,
A mile from my home, on a seldom used trail that winds through trees known currently as Red Cedar and Sitka Spruce which surround the estuary formed by a river and creek emptying into the ocean, is a granite pillar with a brass plaque honoring Reuben Snake Jr. There is a quote of his at the bottom of the plaque ” If we don’t change direction soon, we’re going to end up where we’re headed.”
The wisdom in that circumlocution is even more salient today than when it was spoken.
07/25/2020 @ 8:17 am
Then what exactly is the point in linking
The inherent superiority of White people
AND
The existence of God?
07/25/2020 @ 1:53 pm
@Koshersalaami;
“The message that is repeatedly transmitted by the images and imagery re the relationship between the two overarching themes is that the ‘inherent superiority of white people’ is an element of a ‘divine plan’ or scheme of creation….”
Western European white people have linked their “inherent superiority” to the existence of God since the time of the Crusades…
This post is my observation and articulation of that phenomenon as a primary foundation of what we commonly refer to and understand as racism…
White people believe that they are inherently superior and that people of dark complexion are inherently inferior because, “GOD made it that way and decreed it to be so…..”
07/25/2020 @ 6:41 pm
Religion was certainly used to support whatever rulers wanted, but I think it’s a stretch to think that in most cases on this issue it was the cause, any more than German troops in WWI saying Gott Mit Uns (God is with us) indicated that religion caused the war. There isn’t a clear Biblical statement that I know of adding up to a belief in racial inferiority. If such a statement exists, which I doubt, it would be neither unambiguous nor supported by a lot of other statements. I could make a far better case that Christianity is inherently antisemitic given that Jews are accused of killing Christ and given that Jews were killed in the name of Christ frequently. However, at this point in its history I don’t believe Christianity in general is antisemitic. In fact, for perhaps the first time in its history, I don’t believe Catholicism is.
If you’re going to look to the Middle Ages, the main thing you’re going to find is that the doctrine is about religion, not race. The issue back then with Black people would not have been that they were Black but that they were infidels. Aside from which, how did the Crusades affect Africans? Jews, sure, thousands and thousands of us murdered in Europe, but Africans? Black people weren’t eventually enslaved because of religion so much as because of money.
Rulers and elites use whatever is at hand for their own purposes. Originally it was religion if that was useful; later it was ideology. I don’t see racism as primarily sourced in religion.
07/27/2020 @ 10:23 am
@Koshersalaami;
Religion is not the cause of racism but has evolved as a rationale or justification for racism….
The Catholic Church has officially apologized for its complicity in slavery….
The other shoe has yet to fall re the Church’s complicity in the perpetration and perpetuation of racism….
My thesis here is that white people believe that they are inherently superior and entitled…
And that the images and imagery employed in all forms of mass communication reaffirms and reinforces that notion…
The idea that whites are the “chosen people” which justifies this underlying and insidious belief has become imbued and embedded so deeply in the psyche of white folks that it is an unconscious or subconscious element of self-identification…
The fact is that this has evolved with centuries of demonization and dehumanization of people of color, particularly, if not specifically, black people…
Religion may be an element of why this is so but it remains that whites have nurtured themselves with a false sense of superiority and entitlement for ages…Including the Middle Ages…
My question remains and stands:
“How do we change this?”
Why are you so reticent re crafting a response to the question as posited?
07/27/2020 @ 12:49 pm
I am reticent about crafting a response to the question as posted because I do not accept the premise of the question. This is a little like asking me why I’d refuse to answer a question like When will you stop beating your wife?
You’re asserting that religion is a strong basis for justifying racism. I’m not sure I see anything like the role of religion that you do. You talk about a statement made in the Middle Ages but European interaction with Africa wasn’t that kind of extensive.
You also don’t acknowledge at all that religion is a two way street. Religion has also been used extensively in anti-racism. It was a major factor in ending American slavery. It was also used to justify slavery but its roles on opposite sides were very different. In justifying slavery it had a secondary role as slavery was mainly driven by money. In opposing slavery it was pretty much used to make a purely moral argument, meaning the opposition was more actually religious.
If you want to know what to do about religion being used for bigoted causes, my answer would be to fight religion with religion. If you don’t, you fall into a typical trap that liberals fall into all the time: equating opposition to bigotry with opposition to God, the Bigots vs. the Godless Atheists, or how to insure that bigots feel morally comfortable in their view. This is a typical liberal tactical error. Liberal economics are better for business but because liberals tend to be uncomfortable looking too materialistic, business interests typically side with conservatives to their own detriment without liberals helping them know better. Liberals are way better at looking after the interests of enlisted military personnel but because liberals don’t want to appear militaristic, conservatives get credit for being pro-military. Liberals look out for American interests better than conservatives do but because liberals don’t want to appear jingoistic, conservatives get credit for being patriotic, which in this election in particular is a complete joke.
Does that come closer to addressing your question?
07/30/2020 @ 10:29 am
@Koshersalaami;
“You talk about a statement made in the Middle Ages but European interaction with Africa wasn’t that kind of extensive.”
By the time European interaction with Africa became extensive, the demonization and dehumanization of DARK SKINNED PEOPLE OF COLOR
was more than 500 years old in its evolutionary development as an underpinning of the concept of the inherent superiority of white people and the inherent inferiority of black people.
Slavery continued apace firmly ensconced an buttressed by the racism which was enabled and condoned by The Christian Religious Establishment.
“…whites have nurtured themselves with a false sense of superiority and entitlement for ages…” this includes, but is not limited to, the use of religion to justify, rationalize, and excuse racism.
You make a good point re religion v religion. However, religion as a force for anti-racism is a much more recent phenomenon than religion as a progenitor of racism…
The Catholic Church did not apologize for its role in the perpetration and perpetuation of racism. The Pope apologized for the Church’s role and complicity in centuries of trading in black AFRICAN slaves….
It’s interesting that John Paul II didn’t apologize for the enrichment the Church received during the period , or offer ‘reparations’ of any kind…
However, at the end of the day, this post is not about faith or religion:
“…whites have nurtured themselves with a false sense of superiority and entitlement for ages…”
The question is and remains:
“HOW DO WE CHANGE THIS?”
08/01/2020 @ 9:50 am
How do we change “this?” It depends what This is. I’m confused as to whether you define This as a sense of White superiority or religious support for a sense of White superiority.
You’re asserting religion as a progenitor of racism but you’re not backing that contention up. At this point I have no way of knowing that religion was a progenitor as opposed to a convenient accomplice. That matters, not because of defending religion but because of understanding the workings of racism. There’s a difference between religion being a tool and being a cause.
If we look at religion used to massacre Jews, there’s a question of whether that was based more on religious differences themselves then on racism. Jews who converted to Christianity were mostly spared. If a Jew about to be burned at the stake in the Spanish Inquisition converted, no burning. I do not believe that Jews who converted to Christianity were considered Christ-killers. Even though there was certainly bigotry, that was mostly religion-driven but the targeting in that case was not about what was perceived as race.
You’re talking about something different. You’re talking about people believing in their own racial superiority because of their religion. Perhaps, but I can’t think of examples that tell me unambiguously that that’s what was going on.
Until you specify the antecedent to your pronoun (which is how “this” is being used in this case), I can’t address the question.
07/26/2020 @ 3:13 am
I don’t know the solution is, but I believe that its a good thing that people are finally having this conversation.
BindleSnitch - this post is not about faith or religion
07/30/2020 @ 2:48 pm
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