BLM is a muddled concept, in a puzzling tribe, that puts into action another bewildering pseudo-intellectual notion, CRT. Are there any lives that do not matter? Does using outdated Nietzschean philosophy (thinly veiled in CRT) fight racism? Someone should tell them that fighting fire with fire is, by in large, a failed metaphor that does not work most of the time; water usually works better! The actions of BLM have given the impression that Black Lives Matter believes that it has an entitlement that allows them special license to act out and not be held accountable for behavior to which the rest of us must conform. The justification for this is the presumed oppression the white supremacists have exerted for centuries. Is BLM superior to the rest of us? Are not all of us, at times, subject to discrimination for a variety of reasons? Jews, Catholics, Mormons, Asians, Mexicans, and many groups in the not too distant past have experienced it, like the Irish, the Italians, and more offensively the Krauts, the slant eyes, the Degos, the wetbacks, and I could go on forever with names and ethnic slurs that would stun you, some of which have been lobbed my way. And others, you would be surprised, never to have heard before.
Individuals, too, have been singled out from English royalty to the homeless. Almost all of us are subject to discrimination of one kind or another. Most of us look at the source and suck it up. In past experiences, I have considered it below my dignity to respond. Responding seemed to me like giving them some legitimacy. Blacks are not the only group to feel that sting, and slavery is a bit too far away historically to dredge it up now. Besides, modern slavery needs to be addressed more urgently than ancient history. Hominids tend to separate themselves from other hominids based on their differences, appearance, belief systems, social status, wealth, religion, jobs, and a whole host of subtler divisions. That is unlikely to ever change as long as there are differences, real or perceived. Being white will not give me the standing to become the social equal of a Morgan Freeman, a black human, or a Bill Gates, a multi-billionaire human. That too is discrimination, but it is not racism, and it is equitable because that is how it is among chimpanzee tribes, lion prides, Canadian geese, bees, and even humans. It is how nature is set up. It may not be fair and not right, but it is.
Homo sapiens are hominids that migrated out of Africa some 200,000 years ago, and in that process, migrated north into Europe. In that sense, we are all African American, African Asian, and African Europen. We came into contact with the Hominids that preceded us in our migration, the Neanderthals, 40 to 80 thousand years ago, and inevitably crossbred with them. When exactly some of us lost the African pigment is not certain and NOT IMPORTANT, but the northern latitudes got less sun, and we needed more of those photons to convert 7-dehydro-cholesterol to pro-vitamin D3, which then isomerizes to active vitamin D3. The pigment melanin absorbs light, preventing that step. Those of us that make less melanin broke fewer bones, and Vitamin D3 makes our bones more fracture-resistant. If a Neolithic man or woman broke a femur, they became sabertooth tiger food. According to Jane Goodal, civilization started when Homo was able to care for an individual that broke a femur. It takes months for that bone to allow weight-bearing. It took compassion to provide the help and nurturing to enable a human to heal a femur.
It is the melanin content of our skin that assigns race to us rightly or wrongly. There are other traits of homo sapiens that are different in our species. Some of us have lost muscles in our forearms that gave us better grasping abilities, muscles that control our ear to catch sound better, or digestive enzymes that can process cow’s milk. Why those criteria are not used to separate us instead of skin color remains an arbitrary conundrum. Skin color is a very superficial (as in skin deep) reason to separate races. Black lives, as it turns out, are one genetic locus different from white lives! It comes down to the MC1R gene that provides the instructions for making the melanocortin 1 receptor. That is not enough to separate us! Nor is it enough to cause a riot, loot, and burn down businesses in protest of a concept that is not based on any meaningful concept. Those humans that self-identify as the oppressed blacks fail to consider the history and are just a touch too fragile. Yes, slavery existed and still does. There are more human slaves now than there ever were in all of history. Some estimates put that number at 45,000,000. They are of all colors and on all continents. As many black slaves work in Africa’s diamond mines in abject horrifying conditions as do yellow slaves in Southeast Asia’s clothing industries and rice paddies, many of them children sold into slavery by their parents, as do white slaves sold by sex traffickers all over the world. The discrimination with which we deal, whether it is based on skin pigment or social status or level of education or income or religion or ethnicity or whatever in America is minuscule at this time compared to what Southeast Asian children suffer in sweatshops in which they are forced to work, or blacks in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) diamond mines who live and die in squalor and desperation. WHERE ARE THE ANTI-RACISTS THAT SHOULD BE FIGHTING THAT INJUSTICE? It is a lot easier to buy another pair of Nikes or a De Beers blood diamond for their girlfriends.
Nevertheless, America is the most liberated of all countries in the world. If you have the drive, the smarts, the persistence, you can achieve more in this country than in any other, regardless of color, ethnicity, or religion. That is why people risk their lives to come here. I came to this country (legally, I might add) with literally nothing to my or my family’s name. Because of my parent’s drive to succeed and instilling this in me, I achieved whatever I wanted to achieve. It cost sweat, some tears, and sacrifice, but it was worth it. If you do not have what you want, you need to look within yourself for the reasons and not blame society, the law, your skin color, the constitution, systemic racism, or whatever, for your self-perceived failures.
I recognize that some homo sapiens exist who consider themselves superior to others for a variety of reasons, including their skin pigmentation. You are not obligated to believe them! In fact there is no scientific or any other basis for their belief. It is a mistake they make, just as the belief that their God is the right God, and everyone else’s God is the wrong God. Not so long ago, we believed so strongly in the wrong ideology that we burned people alive because they claimed that we revolved around the sun. It took science, education, patience, and the age of enlightenment to change that mistaken human belief, and it could not have been done any other way. It was not until 1983 that the Catholic church apologized for prosecuting Galileo for suggesting such blasphemy, even though he was right 350 years before.
Reasoning with people who have wrong concepts ingrained in their souls is almost impossible, but nevertheless needs to be pursued, even if they wind up carrying their belief to their grave. That does not, however, mean the entire country is to blame for the minority that has mistaken ideas. Most of us have slowly evolved out of those ideas. Even Kamala Harris admitted that this is not a racist country (I have it on video)! Our society does not allow those mistaken concepts to guide their behavior, and we have recourse against those Homo sapiens that use their mistaken ideas to harm us. We have come a long way from the Emancipation Proclamation! I do not deny that we need to continue to evolve and grow to become better Homo sapiens because there are things that could improve, be more enlightened, and just. It will, however, not be achieved by burning down buildings, smashing windows, destroying public works, art, and history. Those activities actually make things worse, reinforce and give strength and perhaps lend validation to the bigots and their mistaken ideas. It is Prophets like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King who have hit upon the successful formula to reverse unjust history. We have established acceptable means to change those concepts that are mistakes and have civilized methods to right those wrongs, and most of us recognize that we have evolved into cultivated, thinking Homo sapiens. As long as there are people on earth, there will be societal problems and people who have mistaken beliefs. It is for that reason society needs to remind us that there is a right way and a wrong way to solve our problems. These reminders are the laws and those that are charged to enforce those laws. Defunding the police is like taking the muzzle off the vicious dog. That just makes for more dog bites. In our case, more gunshot deaths. Unlike, as in arithmetic, two wrongs do not make a right!