Heritage and Culture vs. Racism – What’s the Difference?
The thing is, we call it heritage and culture when we like it and racism when we don’t. Either way, we do the same thing.
Hello to all my scores and hordes of non-existent readers! Ok, there are a couple of you out there. Sorry for not writing in a while – life’s just been a little stressed for me as of late. Anyway, enough with the excuses, on with the blogging.
So, I got into a mild argument online regarding the topic of racism vs. heritage and culture. The topic spawned out of a picture of a person who was flying the Confederate Battle Flag in his workplace – a place that he owned. The discussion ensued over whether flying the CBF was a question of “heritage and culture”, or because of “racism”.
I’m not going to get into the controversy of the Confederate Battle Flag, but I do offer this Well-written report if you want to read more:
Webster, Gerald R. and Leib, Jonathan I. (2002) Political culture, religion, and the Confederate Battle Flag debate in Alabama. Retrieved from http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-3412184_ITM
So after shooting it out for awhile with some people I never met (my wife wonders why I waste the time, but alas) I got to thinking:
I find that the line between the monikers of “heritage and culture” and “racism” really aren’t divided by as wide a line as we make it out to be. I say this because, first, what is “racism”? It’s the delineation of creeds of people within the human race, thinking that these divisions are racial in nature.
It is my belief that black, white, brown, asian, latino, doesn’t matter – we are all of the human race. The minute that we do things to create subsets of the human race based on anything to be used as a seperator, we begin the path to racism, because we create those differences that are later exploited for racial means.
People today divide themselves around some sort of physical quality or social boundary. They have tiny flags of a foreign origin hanging from their rear-view mirrors because they have some sort of affinity to that country. We come up with names like, “Chinese-American” so as not to rain on that person’s heritage and origins by just implying that person as an “American”. The plain simple truth is that we’re all human beings, creations of God. When we continue to promulgate these differences as a means of socio-cultural distinction, we let the camel’s nose in the tent, allowing for racism to enter.
I look at the “heritage and culture” reasoning for why hispanic folks refuse to integrate into American society by leaving their Mexican flags in Mexico, but then I also see the same political persuasion criticize another group of people for flying the CBF as a representation of “heritage and culture”. In other words, I get called a racist because I criticize Americans of Mexican origin for flying the Mexican flag and again a racist when whites in the south want to fly the CBF for the same reasons!
Why? Is it inconsistency on the part of the left (since it’s the left wing from which most of these racial outrages come)? No, the issue is larger than that. It’s because we continue to divide the human race along heritage/culture/race boundaries.
The thing is, we call it heritage and culture when we like it and racism when we don’t. Either way, we do the same thing.
What we need to do as humans is stop looking at each other and seeing “black”, “white”, “brown”, ignore those differences and just be humans. That is the only way we’ll ever solve the problem of racism.
Unfortunately, those who cry racism are oftentimes, more racist then they would care to admit. And so the cycle continues.
[...] We’re angry about your attempts at Social Justice, meanwhile the ethnic group having to make all the reparations and fixes are Caucasian males. (see my post on racism) [...]
To a Far-Left Liberal, Almost Anyone Else Is a Rabid Conservative « The Rabid Conservative
August 5, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Hello I agree with you to a point but the solution is not to ignore but to understand. It is because we ignore that we also create a bigger gap between the races. Let’s face it we all have a background and not all of it is American. Because of these differences we have so many different personalities and beliefs. It’s not just about our culture but our ancestry and the things they did to pave the way for us to be considered American. For many placing Mexican, African, or whatever in front of American is to say we did not forget what you have fought, died and slaves for.
We need to be more understanding of all people and even though we may not agree or sympathize with them we could definitely empathize. As you stated we all do the same thing but for what reason. The CBF flag use to bother me but I realized that to some it’s just saying I’m proud to be an American or from the South or a Cowboy or whatever. I don’t take it as a sign of racism unless given a reason by the one who’s flying it. And even if it is standing for a racist reason that their problem not mines and unfortunately they may not get to see how awesome of a person I am because of their ignorance. So I say a pray and say God Bless them anyway.
Tennelle
September 16, 2011 at 2:24 am
I think you’re missing the point of my post. The problem is not about understanding and acceptance, but rather, it’s this annoying and incessant NEED to be different and divisive and the cry foul when someone treats them differently. That is utter nonsensical insanity and only serves to divide what God created as one race.A man with black skin is not of a different race than I am; we are both human. That’s where the argument needs end. I resent it when people with a different heritage demand that I accept that heritage as equivalent to my own in the interests of tolerance when they themselves refuse to do so. We all can agree that so-called racism needs to end and we need to stop being judgemental because someone has a different skin color. But hiding our racism behind the moniker of “cultural diversity” is the exact same problem, except we’re being prejudiced on heritage and not some physical attribute.We are Americans. It’s high time we start acting like Americans, not Mexican-Americans, African-Americans, Klingon-Americans and start being Americans. End of story.
Rick
September 17, 2011 at 10:56 am
I see your point in that we as Americans should be americans,,but who are the true Americans…All day i sit in an environment where racism is prevelent but ignored on the basis of “the race card” , well I can’t see a white person telling a black person not to play the “race card” , when the whites put the deck on the table..to me race is a distinction of the people wanting to be better than another person and judges that person by his/her nationality, or sex…If we’re all of the Human Race then who wins the race in Racism..I mean let’s face it we all originated from Africa from a little black lady named lucy..in ethiopia..Wow imagine that.
willie w.
September 22, 2011 at 5:08 pm