don't confuse Racism with its opposite, Nationalism

One of the more interesting articles published last year:

Q: You, a black man, sat in on a white-separatist retreat. How did that go over?

A: They were curious and shocked they had found a black man on their premises. A lot of the members of the church took pains to explain to me the difference between white supremacy and white separatism. They said, "We don't think we're better than you; we just want to be separate from you."

TIME

Racism is wanting to make definitions about which races are superior, and which are inferior.

Nationalism is wanting to be with people like you: culture, heritage, values, language and customs.

Underlying all of these is (a) similar raw ability and (b) similar parallel evolution, meaning that your people have similar tastes, tendencies and inclinations. Instinct is shaped by evolution and is the cornerstone of culture and values.

I use "race" for ethnicity in the above because it's how we speak of it. While I think both race and ethnicity/ethny are valid concepts, I think ethnicity is the more precise term.

Racism is caused by diversity, or ethnic competition where ethnic segregation is disallowed. The response is reactionary and violent.

Nationalism is the opposite of racism -- it is tolerance, in parallel, for all ethnic groups, including the right to preserve themselves by segregating. After all, if we force other groups upon them, they'll be bred into a hybrid, and the original group will be destroyed. That's racism and genocide.

If we do not suppress the urge to segregate, whether by Black Panthers or White Wolves, I think we'll all be OK.

Comments

  1. Let me see if I understand you correctly. You say "Racism is wanting to make definitions about which races are superior, and which are inferior".

    In other words, racism = (definitions of) racial superiority.

    You also say that "Nationalism is wanting to be with people like you: culture, heritage, values, language and customs".

    For one thing, "nationalism", according to political theory/history is a modern concept. For another thing, I think you are saying nationalism = seperatism. I have no problem with seperatism per se, I say "do whatever you want to do, as long as you don't bother anybody."

    But what I think you're saying is that people who want to be nationalist seperatists believe that their culture, heritage, values, language, customs, race, and religion are superior to all others.

    But, as I said at the beginning, according to your own definition of racism, racial superiority = racism.

    I'm a bit confused about your use of the term ethnicity because I hadn't seen you use it above. I think you mean a people's culture, race, religion, etc...

    You say "Racism is caused by diversity, or ethnic competition where ethnic segregation is disallowed. The response is reactionary and violent." But the response isn't always reactionary and violent.

    "Xenophobia" is the "fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign" ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/xenophobia)

    This is why seperatist groups want to seperate: they are afraid. Fear will never help to solve the world's problems, only love can do that. God's love.

    You say: "Nationalism is the opposite of racism -- it is tolerance, in parallel, for all ethnic groups, including the right to preserve themselves by segregating. After all, if we force other groups upon them, they'll be bred into a hybrid, and the original group will be destroyed. That's racism and genocide."

    Wow, that's quite a statement. Racism = tolerance? So then, if I'm a nationalist/seperatist, my tolerance is supposed to extend to the point where I hate and fear all races, religion, and cultures other than my own own equally?

    You're paranoid. Which means your fear is unreasonable.

    The bottom line is, yes, people are balkanizing, they are becoming seperatists. All tribes, all clans, all cultures, all religions, etc. all want their own space. And a forced tolerance, like the U. S. federal government has used, or that the U. N. tries to use, is often counterproductive. Why?

    BECAUSE PEOPLE NEED TO LEARN HOW TO LOVE EACH OTHER.

    And only God can teach us that. Christ's Church breaks down every tribal, clannish, seperatist, barrier. our allegiance is ultimately to him and to his Church. All races, cultures, nationalities are welcomed into his kingdom, but his kingdom only comes about through love. Love always conquers hate and fear brother.

    Peace

    Alex

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  2. I don't care whether we're all OK.

    I care whether Whites are OK.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous9:35 AM

    Supposing we tried your universalist approach with booze, Alex? Mix all types in a huge open air roomtemp never-stirred cauldron, then I shove your face right in it as the chants of "chug!" boom louder and louder. What, you don't want to? "Pussy!"

    If you did do this of course, you wouldn't be able to smell or taste or savor the liquors or appreciate them for what they are, admire them from a respectful distance, or develop any kind of sensitivity or moderation, you'd either die in your stupor asphixiating in your own sickness, survive with brain damage, or wander around so drunk you wouldn't care, until the 21st Century, whoops, I meant, "hangover", hits you tommorow...

    It is a matter of taste, but to claim it is such one must have a sense of taste, some idea of what "good" as well as "better" is. Claims of superiority are of course relative, and relatively-relative, but not absolutely-relative.

    That being said, on a personal level, can we really say that a complex and nuanced piece of chamber music played by a quintet of trained musicians in an intimate quiet setting that allows for things like involved and intelligent listening and an actual attention-span, is really NOT any more a work of art than a former felon's new label-hyped single, blaring at angina-inducing levels (which incidently also destroys any free choice for you not to hear it) from the trunk of a passing hummer?

    On a social level, how many beatings, stabbings, gropings, shootings, gang showdowns, rapes, overdoses, are likely to occur at a classical music gathering as compared to the "live-event" of the rapper mentioned? How often has Romanian folk-music or Celtic pipes been the soundtrack to a PCP deal in a filthy and sweltering alley? "Oh, Honkey, please..." (I don't assume you are white, and its ok if you aren't, I have mentioned all of the above to show that for me the question is less about pigment than culture and behavior... and as I said before, having a higher content focus than "Pussy, Money, Weed" and your own vaunted ego)

    But here's your basic "reasoning", going back to the admittedly unexact booze analogy:

    "How un-Jeezizzy to not love all liqours equally for the alcohol that is within them, a gift from its creator, how dare you prefer Scotch to Tequila, and well-aged pure Scotch to mass-produced Caramel-heavy sulfite-swill? I will continue to pray for you, you poor, poor unenlightened soul."

    Fear? Fear also helps keep us alive,and as fear is a part of life, I doubt you know very much of either. You might however, if you decide to spread some of those love-vibes in a part of town where not getting a bank loan is not as painful as running until the icey wave of shock drops you, mercifully numbing with ebbing adrenalin the burning of a knife wound in one kidney. Or will you lie there fetal by the ATM machine, praying for their innocent souls fleeing with your worthless money, as your eyes search frantically for your "heaven" and see instead only "Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard" and then total darkness?

    ReplyDelete

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