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PROPOSAL FOR THE ERADICATION OF |
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UNDERSTANDING At the present stage of scientific and social development, there is no excuse to forget, ignore nor tolerate demagogic group confrontation. The consequences of the Chamberlain approach are too well known, too tragic and too recent to be forgotten and risked again. "It's a Black thing, you wouldn't understand", is a barrier to dialogue and a gratuitous negation of non-Blacks' capacity and willingness to relate - while paradoxically demanding "racial sensitivity" from those who "wouldn't understand." Inability or unwillingness to understand, to relate, to empathize, reveals immaturity, puerility (it also accounts for the lack of restraint in the criminal mind). Most Whites (most, not all - "There are a lot of stupid honkeys out there", as Richard Pryor once said with impunity) not only do understand, but also empathize to the point of tears, indeed, even to the point of heroics, as was the case of undeservedly forgotten John Brown. There is no excuse to forget William Lloyd Garrison's intensity and vehemence in his altruistic fight for liberation. Nor Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose understanding and empathy became one of the pillars of liberation. Nor the all-White Supreme Court that abolished separate education by race. Nor the thousands of Whites who marched with Martin Luther King. Nor the all-White jury that acquitted Angela Davis (in contrast to the predominantly Black jury that acquitted O.J. Simpson*). Nor the millions of examples of sincere inter-racial friendliness and affection in day-to-day work, study, sport and love. *Whites abided by the lawful verdicts in the acquittals of Angela Davis ('72), Sagon Penn ('85) and O.J. Simpson ('95) on charges of murder. Blacks savagely rioted (burning, looting and murdering) upon the lawful verdicts in the acquittals of officers Koon, Powell, Wind and Briseno on charges of merely excessive force in subduing a felon - and enthusiastically cheered Simpson's acquittal. Promoting distrust, apprehension and indeed, even hate in these relations is nothing less than a hideous and senseless CRIME, comparable to releasing poisonous bacteria into the air everybody breathes. Who benefits from it? A little-noticed incident may be a good example of White empathy and understanding: On March 25, 1996, in Laurens, S.C., a white man used his van as a battering ram to demolish part of The Redneck Shop, "The World's Only KKK Museum." Two observations make the incident notable: 1) The high degree of empathy that drove a white man to violence against White racism; 2) The negligible attention given to it by the media. Farrakhan's Malcolmexian obsession with the slave-past paranoia "hot button" not only precludes understanding, but is actually retrogressive, insidiously and dementedly increasing racial tension, distrust and antagonism and dimming hopes for a civilized, moral, progressive, peaceful and cohesive American society. Fortunately, not all hope is lost; some objective, analytical minded people, among them Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (another traitor, by Rahim's definition), are beginning to openly denounce Farrakhan as a demagogue. Frederick Douglass, Rosa Parks, Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King, Jr., were the right people, with the right message, the right methods, at the right time. Farrakhan's message and methods, though once acceptable in primitive societies, have always been morally wrong and, given the horrible Hitlerian experience, today they are inexcusably barbaric - and, as history shows, ultimately self-defeating. But in the meantime, they do a great deal of painful, unnecessary and irreparable damage. Quo vadis, Farrakhan? 
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