President Obama is right—sympathy is not enough! The necessity to really change things, not only in terms of racial injustice, but also in terms of the racial terrorism suffered by African Americans, has tragically now been fully demonstrated. The murder of nine upright citizens while praying in a church in Charleston, South Carolina not only stands as a heinous event—it should also stand as a wake-up call to all of us to defeat once and for all, this poisonous racial injustice that still surrounds us, and too many other countries around the world as well.
Taking down Confederate flags wherever they are found, and placing them in museums where they can serve to remind us of previous times of racial injustice should be a no-brainer—but it’s certainly not enough. Nor will forgiveness—by those with the capacity to muster that emotion—be sufficient to root out this deeply entrenched toxicity. But President Obama gave us a clue as to what it will take when he stated: “Racism—we’re not cured of it……Societies don’t, over night, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior”. What happened two to three hundred years—and even earlier—was the initial introduction of racism as an organizing principle for numerous societies. We are all aware of the democratic aspects of Western and Euro-American history, and are justifiably proud. But there is also a toxic underside, to which the circumstances of racial injustice and terrorism, now require that we become better aware. The fallacy of ‘race’ itself is a good place to start. The well known scholar and historian, Martin Bernal, explains some of the cultural and pseudo-scientific roots of racism in his book Black Athena. French revolutions as far back as 1789, for instance, were partially based on the idea that the nobility was descended from the Germanic Franks, while the Third Estate or commoners were native Gallo-Romans from the South. In other words, it was believed the classes of society were descendants of different (and unequal) races. According to Bernal. the fallacy of race—with its accompanying racial injustice—was further strengthened in the late 17th century Germany. Here, for the first time, “academic” work was undertaken on racial classifications’—with ‘whites’ or ‘Caucasians’ placed at the top of these new hierarchies. This new pseudo-scientific assertion was then further supported and inter-woven with the enticing concepts of ‘progress’ and ‘romanticism’. It is no accident that ‘race’ was then utilized to rationalize the burgeoning slave trade—providing yet another reason for the continuing acceptance and success of race and racism[2]. Bernal further outlines “the development of racism based on skin color in late 17th century England, alongside the increasing importance of the American colonies, with their twin policies of extermination of the Native Americans and enslavement of American Blacks”. Bernal later illustrates how “this racism pervaded the thought of Locke, Hume, and other English thinkers”. As a result, “the paradigm of ‘races’ that were intrinsically unequal in physical and mental endowment was applied to all human studies, but especially to history” (emphasis added).[3] So, there is no way around it—racism and racial injustice is deeply embedded in our history—and as a result portions of our ‘thought worlds’ or ‘guiding social institutions’, as described in a previous blog (#4) necessitate the “reinvention” that is potentially possible with deep participation. There are six elements that make up this reinvention through deep participation. So, the deep participation path to reinvention of underlying guiding social institutions or ‘thought worlds’ which create racial injustice is obviously complex and not particularly easy. But it is compelling, and the creation of social energy with its solidarity keeps everyone going. Each situation will be different, and yet the essence is the same; it is the challenge of social reinvention. Reports following the Mother Emmanuel tragedy in South Carolina tell us that more than half of the U.S. white population calls the assault “the actions of a lone gunman in an isolated incident”. But a third of white Americans say “it reflects a larger problem of racism in America”. They join the three of four African Americans who say “it reflects a larger problem of racism”. This means there is a large and sizeable minority that recognizes this intolerable situation of racial injustice, and a majority of citizens, mostly well meaning, that can be engaged around this issue.(USA Today, July 1) And here’s the thing. We are living in an age or cycle where all of old stabilizing belief systems are being challenged. That may leave us feeling uncomfortable and maybe even anxious; but this period of destabilization opens the door wide to the possibility of massive social change—for the better or for the worse. The process of deep participation works in tandem with the relatively new, ongoing scientific insights of complexity theory and non-linearity. While this is a double-edged sword—there are no guarantees of success; it also opens the door to small initiatives making big differences. As Immanuel Wallerstein tells us, when a historical system is operating normally it operates as something that is determined—almost immoveable. But when this same system enters a period of crisis and transition, “a slight push can lead to a large deviation”.[5] We’ll talk more about that the next time. [1] President’s podcast taped after the Charleston killings, as reported in the Arizona Republic, p. 2B [2] See Martin Bernal (1987) Black Athena,Vol.1, pp 303-307; and pp.27-28. [3] Bernal, op cit, pp. 27-29, and pp201-206 [4] Paula Donnelly Roark (2015) Social Justice and Deep Participation, Palgrave-Macmillan, UK, pp 28-29 [5] Immanuel Wallerstein& Etienne Balibar (1991) Race, Nation, and Class, Verso, UK, p,231,
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