Black and white

Black and white [PART 1]

Subsequent to the incident of the murder of George Floyd on one hand and a police complaint lodged by Amy Cooper against an ornithologist Christian Cooper, an African-American allegedly trying to ruin her life while he asked her not to let her pet loose in a public place, I started going into the root of the problem. I started my research on what the actual challenge is; why is it that even after hundreds of years, the disparity between the two sets of people have not moved one inch towards peaceful coexistence, despite the filming of Mississippi burning in 1988, and The Central Park in 2017.

I told myself that I had to begin from somewhere to get into the root, and I was surprised at my own revelation! Should I call it a white paper? Why not! Everything that is good has to be white, like the White House, isn’t it? So, I can call this a white paper. Before I begin, let me very clear at the outset on the future of this research; it has no future because it might appear that this article is primarily against the whites. Then why am I writing it at all? It is because I am also hopeful; I know for a fact that good whites – those who are philanthropic, educated, those who want to be of some meaningful service to humanity far outnumber the unfortunate whites – those who don’t know why they are doing what they are doing. That is why, out on the streets of the US of A, you see many whites merging with the blacks to show the picture of injustice to the world. This is one reason. The second reason is America itself. I have great faith in the land; it has offered great life to my fellow citizens for decades. So, therefore, I think if any change in the way we think has to come, it will come from America. This doesn’t mean I am underestimating Europe, Russia, Australia, and New Zealand, but it has to begin from America because it has allegations of the nursing many racist groups in its soil for centuries.

No violence, no punishments, no justice can work

We cannot solve anything. Certainly, not through violence, not even by demanding justice, or by giving punishment to one particular Police, who is also a victim of horrible education received through nexus.
We cannot expect justice either from the government, it’s like begging money from a pauper, or asking an illiterate person to read an article and make sense out of it. It is not that the government is incompetent, it is because they are confused, it’s like trying to understand which side the sun belongs to by looking at a photograph that could be that of a sunrise or a sunset. So, let’s try to understand where this skin confusion is coming from, if at all.

Religion is not the problem, color is

Many books reveal that the difference in religion is the root of all problems, as many bloody battles, ‘holy wars’ have been fought whose root cause was religion. I think the problem is far deeper; it is not a religion, the problem is the whites fighting against the non-whites to maintain their supremacy, their aristocracy, their mastery. Please read on.

Dictionary

Many pedagogues, litterateurs, and men of letters have said that we are nothing but words. It was this belief that prompted me to start from the dictionary, and here’s what I found.

Synonyms for black

1.      Sad, depressing, somber, doleful, mournful, funeral

2.      Sinful, inhuman, fiendish, devilish, infernal, monstrous, atrocious, horrible

3.      Nefarious, treacherous, traitorous, villainous, unfair

Besides these, there are expressions like black choice, black humor, black day, black image, blackout, blackguard, black money, black market, blacklist, black sheep black tie, and so on. That black also represents solemnity and authority, that has the ability to absorb all colors or is the absence of all colors (hence impartial) is not often highlighted.

Synonyms for white

1.      Clear, clean, bright, fair

2.      Innocence, purity, goodness

3.      Integrity, honesty, loyalty, enlightenment

In essence, a white guy means a good guy and a black guy means a bad guy. We become what we are repeatedly told.

Now, what if Amy Cooper and the white police have learned and internalized these meanings right from their childhood days? Can you really blame Amy if she tries to take advantage of a black man jumping out of the bush and trying to teach her that she should not unleash her dog in a park? And what about the black kids who also go to school and learn the synonyms of the color of their skin?

We are words, after all. The damage is when it doesn’t remain restricted to the skin; the blacks know themselves as blacks, it’s a noun here, and all the grim images get automatically imprinted in their brains; this is precisely what is happening in the world now. From these images can the blacks come back? From this, it is not difficult to understand the narrative of the world that belonged essentially to two major groups, the whites, and the non-whites. History also tells us loud and clear that whites were the masters, the non-whites, slaves.

Slaves

Much has been said about this throughout history. To cut a long story short, the non-whites were the slaves of the whites for centuries. Through generations, the whites have learned to be the masters, the oppressors, the torturers, and the non-whites have learned to accept atrocities from the whites. Hence the Police, Amy Cooper on one side, and George Floyd, Christian Cooper on the other.

The origin of the whites

If we look at the whites of North America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, we seem to understand that their origin was Europe. We all know of the Civil War and Louis XIV’s generous contributions towards America’s independence. However, if you thought they left America, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, you might be deluded; they left, only physically, but they left their snobbery, their intolerances in the soils of the mentioned countries and continents. In this article, therefore, Whites are mostly referred to as Europeans. Intolerance is discussed in detail later in this article.

The Whites and their treaties

They have fought many bloody battles against each other; the list of their treaties and their deviations is endless, be it the Treaty of Paris in 1303, the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, or the Treaty of Warsaw and Treaties of Tartu in 1920. Although the first ever recorded treaty was the Treaty of Lagash and Umma of Mesopotamia in 2100 BC, later treaties came to be associated more with Europe than with any other continent, in my opinion.

Interestingly, just before they set out to ‘conquer’ the world, it seems they made an unwritten agreement not to fight against each other. Perhaps it could be because they learned, from History, how wars were counter-productive! Therefore, the Dutch and the French went back from India and set foot in parts of Africa, and elsewhere, the Portuguese were still there in Goa but left after a while. Likewise, they would have mutually agreed to share the wealth they wrongly snatched from different parts of the world. But in what capacity?

Unwanted guests?

Maybe that’s a very polite way of putting it, they were plunderers, looters, invaders, intruders. The whites came and looted the wealth from countries that belonged to the non-whites for centuries. Their brutality is well recorded in the wailing pages of history, some examples of which we still see in the soils of America, Australia, South Africa from the way they treat the immigrants and refugees, and ‘natives’ even today. Hence, Amy Cooper and Christian Cooper may carry the same surname, but the baggage they carry is not the same. They may not even enjoy the same privileges because the whites were notoriously famous for being partial (unfair) in their laws, acts, bills, and what have you.

Whites were rulers, non-whites are immigrants

It might seem very strange, but it’s true that during their periods of stay, they did not require any papers; they were the rulers who were in control of our economy and administration, but the non-whites are constantly and continuously treated as second graded citizens, the whites call the non-whites as immigrants.

Whiteman’s burden

We are much too familiar with this term. For years and years, the whites tried to help countries of Africa and Asia. Did anyone question as to why African countries are still poor, why their children still do not have one square meal while the white children have food in excess. Are the whites so incapable that they could not improve the situation of those countries despite trying so hard? Or was it by design? The intention was never to eradicate poverty; if it was truly so, it would have been possible by the blacks, by growing crops, plants, trees, livestock, and some such empowering devices which I, with my limited visibility and understanding cannot figure. As it stands, the whites proved to be the burden of the non-whites. Whites suffered from an undetected disease called ethnocentrism.

Ethnocentrism

By definition, ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s culture is superior to all other cultures. It is a term mostly used in social sciences in reference to the act of believing that one’s culture is superior to all other cultures. Since the whites suffer from this syndrome, they have taken it upon them to ‘civilize’ people all around the globe. This syndrome also makes one intolerant towards other cultures. In order to understand how it had created havoc in the world as the most notoriously imperceptible virus, thousand times harmful and deadly than the coronavirus, let us understand what intolerance means.

Intolerance

The dictionary definition of the word ‘intolerance’ is ‘unwillingness to accept views, beliefs, or behavior that differ from their own’. No matter how hard we try to label an ‘outfit’ as intolerant, the truth is somewhat different. Sadly, the race that was known for its manners (tehzeeb) has become the prime suspect in many countries, they are regarded as being intolerant par excellence. But the truth is that whites are the most intolerant in the world. I will try to substantiate my point of view through some examples.

How does one evaluate tolerance level; it is evaluated on the basis of behaviors like food, shelter, clothing, language, values, and ethics.

Whites have a problem with anything that is non-white, if they are intolerant about the heat and dust of the APAC regions, about the poverty they witness in African and Asian countries, they are also intolerant about the opulence they witness in the UAE, as if such wealth should not legitimately belong to them.

I will not get into detail. I want everyone to understand why whites throughout the world are the most intolerant ones. Look at the way the non-whites dress, eat, talk for them to be considered ‘cultured’ and ‘civilized’ and you will understand what I am trying to explain. You will rarely see a white who knows more than one or two languages, hardly find a white dressing up as a non-white in offices and parties, and would perhaps never ever find whites cooking like a non-white. I would like to be proven wrong, but only after you have gone from door to door and taken statistics of whites who know any language other than their mother tongue, who would dress up, eat like a non-white. For the African-American ladies, even the hair matters.

The hair

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of the novel Americanah, in conversation with Synne Rifbjerg said that if Michelle Obama wouldn’t straighten her hair, Barack Obama wouldn’t have won the election. African-Americans ladies who don’t straighten their hair are either considered as radicals or as difficult. So African ladies, who want to conform, have to put chemicals in their hair in order to look professional. According to her, African-Americans are those who were brought to American as slaves. She went on to say that ‘Racism is America’s original sin’. Although she said that smilingly in the interview, but in the present context, we can understand the depth of her statement.  She recounts how surprised some of her American friends were when they found her laughing when they called her fried chicken or watermelon. She said their surprise was because they were expecting her to be angry. She said racism still existed in America, but people acted as if it belonged to the past. They don’t want to talk about it.
I am sure the police who beat George Floyd to death would have also used the same adjectives to hundreds of non-whites. It is only under these extreme circumstances that we get to understand the extent of damage racism can do.

The language

Sadly, I thought myself to be superior (for a long time I was, before being aware) to my folks because I could relatively read and write well in English and in French. This is like a two-edged saw; on one hand, I feel inferior and inadequate, and, on the other, whites feel adequate and superior. As a consequence, the non-whites feel subdued and intimidated by the sheer presence of the whites; receiving punishment, therefore, is regarded as getting attention from the whites. If you availed a metro in especially the European countries, you will find whites, even octogenarians, who prefer to stand, but they wouldn't sit beside a non-white. And, if you had the fortune of listening to their conversation, the way whites talk about the non-whites, you can definitely get a clue as to where the beatings and tortures are coming from. Very slowly, the world was divided into three parts, viz. first world, second world, and the third world. Since the second world was Russia which got fragmented in the latter half of the last century, we will talk about the two worlds and the dynamics they have with each other.

 

The first world

This also comes under the topic of my research because all white countries, except Russia, belong to the first world. The countries are North America, Australia, New Zealand, Western Europe. They are all interconnected through NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).

The European population has literally stopped working now, some of the countries in Europe have transformed as cities of museums, and parks thanks to the wealth from the non-white countries they are sitting on because of which, they belong to the first world and we, to the third world. Let me clarify why this is also considered as one of the important factors of racism. You see the right to hit an African to death in broad daylight doesn’t come overnight. The condescending attitude the whites have towards the non-whites does have a history. Non-whites are negros, niggers, bloody niggers and they cannot have the same treatment. They deserve to be treated; NOT as equals. They are considered as garbage, as wastes. As dirt. Their lands are also the first world’s dumping ground which can be regarded as toxic colonialism.

Toxic colonialism

Toxic colonialism, defined as the process by which “underdeveloped states are used as inexpensive alternatives for the export or disposal of hazardous waste pollution by developed states,” is the core critique against the global waste trade.[15] Toxic colonialism represents the neo-colonial policy which continues to maintain global inequality today through unfair trade systems. Toxic colonialism uses the term colonialism because “the characteristics of colonialism, involving economic dependence, exploitation of labor, and cultural inequality is intimately associated with the new realm of toxic waste colonialism.”

No violence, no-nonsense, please

Anything that is worthwhile cannot come from violence. The purpose of this article is only to show the variables that are causing the problem. All headings may be regarded as variables. I must also quickly add that I have very limited understanding and visibility of the actual situation. That is why, the purpose is to share my views with people who are in power, people who are selfless and sincerely want our beloved America to heal, and not take advantage of the pain this great land of opportunities is going through.

Problem map

Who is going to help? How? So, it demands an engaging and a collective effort to get into the root. We can do that if we understand the problem map from a holistic perspective. Without understanding, nothing works, shortcut methods are only temporary, that does not help. If we have the problem map in front of us, we can understand where, why, and how we need to change by putting all the headings (variables) mentioned here and by seeing as to how they are interconnected.

Conclusion

Sometimes I wonder if the whites need more healing than the non-whites, for their unspeakable tortures, for their injustices, for being so openly unfair. I am sure their inability to openly admit their flaws puts them more in a fragile position, it’s as if they are in a cage, or in a cul-de-sac from where they are not able to come out. But will they ever admit I wonder! They have to come out in the open, consider the world as their confession box and throw away, once and for all, all the sins they have been carrying from their ancestors.

Before they do, let us not go by the gimmicks, that of white police hugging a black citizen; both, whites and the non-whites need patience for any change to happen. Those in power and position can very easily draw a road-map, the ‘how’ is no rocket science, the major shift, if at all, has to come from the willingness to change.

If they do not admit, no change is possible. No matter how desperately Pink Floyd sings, ‘we don’t need no [horrible] education’, the same age-old education will continue, despite Michael Jackson’s attempts of dancing hard on the floor, ‘It don't matter if you're black or white’, it will continue to matter. And even after a hundred years from now, we cannot sing we have overcome, we will still demand justice from the government, and sing the song of Martin Luther King Junior, ‘we shall overcome’.

#blacklivesmatter