Free Racism for All - It's Easy If You Try

Racism? Doesn't that have something to do with treating
people like they are less than human? (Burundi)

In my morning reading I came across a bizarre statement. It's not the first time I've seen it, but it is no less bizarre for being repeated. The writer made the astonishing claim that black persons, in fact, all persons of color cannot be "racists". 

I weep for the children. As C.S. Lewis' Professor Digory once said, "What ARE they teaching in schools these days?" It's certainly not logic and history by all accounts.

The whole idea that a particular brand of human beings categorically cannot be racist is preposterous both in terms of its logical foundation as well as its historical accuracy. Logically, the concept that a person cannot be racist if they possess a certain skin color is, in and of itself a racist idea. Such an idea posits that there is a fundamental difference between persons of color and persons of another color which exists because of the person's race (white by the way is a color - check your crayon box). You cannot claim there is no fundamental difference between persons based on their skin color and then turn right around and claim that there actually is a fundamental difference in that persons of a certain color are congenitally unable to be racists. The ability to be or not to be a racist is a pretty fundamental difference. As to the Marxist theory that certain classes of oppressed people cannot be oppressors themselves has been shown to be a flying load of hoodoo, or would be if anyone bothered to read a non-sanitized history book anymore. Stalin's communist workers party did rather a lot of oppressing in their day as did Chairman Mao's People's Party. Several hundred million folks could tell you that if they were alive to do so (which they are not).

Hitler wasn't the only one to bury
folks in ditches (Rwanda).

The idea that black people can't be racist is a logical fallacy. For proof one need only visit the recent history of racist violence between Hutus and Tutsis in in Africa in which the protagonists took as an unquestioned truth that one tribe was racially inferior to the other and possessed of inherent evil tendencies - essentially racist beliefs.

The only problem with taking the time to explain all of this is that the Twitter generation quit reading this post back at about 140 characters. Too bad. They will miss my favorite Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quote.  The good Doctor, whose holiday we celebrated just a few weeks ago, famously said, "I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

Me too, Doc.  Me too.

Tom King
© 2016