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Passing as a POC. Rewarding people and groups because they are slightly or completely non-white is just as unacceptable as the previous wrong of punishing people and groups for having exactly that physical trait. Both are blatantly racist, and have no place either in our hearts or in our country.
This 10 minute episode will help us in our lives, and help us to think through the issues surrounding us.
N.B. This blog acts as a transcript and a signpost, pointing you to this episode on both the new Revolution 2.0™ YouTube channel, and where you enjoy your podcasts, e.g., Apple, Google and Spotify.
Continuing
In the earlier, ugly days of racist America, if a person was in any way noticeably black, they were treated as all black. And especially in the slave and Jim Crow states, that was done to create an unfair and undeserved advantage for the whites; they even had names indicating your fraction of offending blackness. Someone who was half black would have been called a mulatto. A quadroon was ¼ black, and an octoroon ⅛ black. I would have been a hexadecaroon. It was terrible, cruel and is a remaining stain on our nation. On the other hand if you had any portion of black blood but looked white, you were said to be able to “pass,” pass as being white–a huge advantage. Appearances were all. And for those many continuing to seek advantage today, still are.
Today, if you have the slightest amount of non-white features, you can pass as a POC, a person of color. And today this is the advantage. This is just as unfair and wrong, and is done to give unfair advantage to people who look in any way non-white. Today’s color preference flip is still wrong, unfair and needs to be stopped now. All we have done is flip the evil.
Story: In 1969, a Star Trek episode showed the hatred and unfairness that existed between two differently colored peoples on the planet Cheron. Each group had half black and half white faces, with a vertical dividing line down the middle of their faces. The group whose faces were black on the right side felt justifiably and completely superior to the group whose faces were white on the right side. This developed into a race hatred that completely baffled the crew of the Starship Enterprise. As it should have. It made no sense at all. Insane and damaging. Flipping the colors side-to-side makes all the difference? Takes an evil and makes it into a good? And it’s exactly what we are doing today. Black or POC used to be bad and white good, and now black is good and white is bad. Insane and damaging.
This kind of insanity breeds absurdities that underscore the wrongness. For example, taking calculated advantage of the race flip, Rachel Dolezal, a white woman born to white parents, faked being black to the point where she became an NAACP chapter president. Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, gained advantage in her work and in politics by pretending to be Native American.
And stranger things yet fall out of this insanity. George Zimmerman, a man of mixed race, was accused–and acquitted–of murdering Treyvon Martin, a black youth. The identity politics crowd felt the need to invent a new term, “White Mexican,” to describe Zimmerman, who is clearly a POC. Lots of twisting and shouting needs to be done to make everything black and white–with the white at fault.
President Biden said loud and clear that he was going to select a black female as his running mate in 2020. Seems that being half-black and all female helped qualify Ms. Harris to be our Vice President. Despite having paltry support even from her home state of California in her quickly failed presidential run.
Identity politics, and that’s what we are talking about here, have been with us for a very long time. Only the identity preference stack has changed. The inherently pernicious nature of identity politics remains. Male/female. White/POC. Straight/gay. Preferences in these areas are deeply wrong, and remain wrong when the groups in the stack are flipped.
Instead of ranking groups, vigorously preferring one over the other, then flipping them with equal vigor, we must understand, honor and benefit from the different strengths of the various groups. Yes, we are different. Different. And that is key to making the world work. Our world.
Only if we recognize–honor–the various differences can we use the strengths to shore up the weaknesses. Only when we do that will the whole be greater than the sum of its parts. Only then can 1+1+1=15–or more.
Let’s all see and honor the wonderful differences that we have not only as individuals, but, in general, as members of certain groups. See those differences, and use them as intended, using strengths over here to shore up weaknesses over there.
Here’s a fun, closing thought. Seven Native American Tribes, including the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina, see you as qualified for membership if you are a 1/16th blood match. Twenty-three tribes, including the Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma, Peoria Tribe of Indians and the Seminole Nation, will consider you if you have any sort of Native American lineage. Using their criteria, I am a POC, being over 1/14 black.
We all have the personal responsibility to turn our backs on identity politics, and embrace and employ the useful differences that exist between and among all groups. Speaking of personal responsibility, this principle does not stand alone; the two main and interdependent principles at Revolution 2.0 are:
1. Personal Responsibility; take it, teach it and,
2. Be Your Brother’s Keeper. The answer to the biblical question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is a ringing, unequivocal “Yes.” There is no other answer.
Where do you stand? What are you going to do? Remember, it does not matter where you stand if you don’t do anything. You can start by subscribing to these episodes, and encouraging others to subscribe with you.
As always, whatever you do, do it in love. Without love, anything we do is empty. 1 Corinthians 16:1.
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As we get ready to wrap up, please do respond in the episodes with comments or questions about this episode or anything that comes to mind, or connect with me on Twitter, @willluden, Facebook, facebook.com/will.luden, and LinkedIn, www.linkedin.com/in/willluden/. And you can subscribe on your favorite device through Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts.
This is Will Luden. We’ll talk again soon.
