What is Racism?

Racially insensitive statements made by Donald Sterling, owner of the LA Clippers basketball team, have, for the time being, captured the attention of pundits and talking heads throughout the United States. There is broad agreement that his comments are outrageous, unacceptable, disgusting, and, you get the point. We agree.

But what about those statements made by Sterling? What exactly did he say that was racist? What is racism anyway? For some persons, the topic of racism is uncomfortable as it brings to mind troubling, historic facts about the mistreatment of slaves at the hands of their oppressors. Some have experienced racism first-hand and know the peculiar feel and taste of being caught in a cloud of racist energy. And then there are those who approach the discussion of racism from a purely academic standpoint, as if it were no more than a definition to be memorized. Racism means different things to different people.

In The Middle Theory, a small section of Chapter Seven ("The Age of Balance") discusses the topic of racism. Interestingly enough, what many of us understand as "racism" is a relatively modern phenomenon. In his book Images of Race, M. Biddis points out that "before the 1800s race was used generally as a rough synonym for lineage. But over the first half of the 19th Century race (and its equivalence in a number of European languages) assumed an additional sense that seemed initially tighter and more scientific". He goes on to say that this new usage "...was evident, at its simplest, in the growing conviction that there was a finite number of basic human types, each embodying a package of fixed physical and mental traits whose permanence could only be eroded by mixture with other stocks". Essentially then, as written in The Middle Theory, "modern racism is propagated, sustained, and institutionalized by an irrational fear about the contamination of a supposedly pure, superior race."

OK, so we are now all accomplished race historians. What does any of this have to do with life today? Plenty. Today, in more "enlightened" societies the world over, democratically elected governments are guided by Constitutions that proclaim the fundamental equality of all human beings. In polite conversation, intelligent people know better than to say anything disparaging about someone of another race. And yet today, more than ever, we are aware of the ongoing economic and social disparities that have for centuries been undergirded by divisive racial attitudes that remain prevalent today in virtually every society on earth. Our simplistic color-coding system of "black", "white," and "brown" is losing meaning as more and more persons of diverse ethnic heritage assert their ethnically diverse identity. We would do well to realize that our entire conception of race as it stands is outdated and must change; race as it is currently defined is itself racist (i.e. divisive).

Isn't it interesting, for example, that a white woman can have either a black child or a white child depending on the race of the father. But a black woman can only have a black child. How can it be right and just for there to be only one version of whiteness (pure white) and a gazillion versions of blackness? It is evident that race based primarily on skin color is an over simplified description that does not say anything of substance about a person. It is time to consider an entirely new language for describing the ethnic identity of a human being. All of us are first and foremost a part of the same human race. Further descriptions of value may point to our culture, the land of our birth and rearing or to qualities of our character (e.g. " she's an honest woman with piercing eyes" or "he's a kind man with bright eyes"). As we evolve socially and spiritually, it will become more apparent that racist perceptions, if they are to be rooted out of our subconscious mind, must be viewed as an ingrained societal misconception, and not just as absurd perceptions held by the few who are caught red-handed so to speak.

Donald Sterling did not suddenly become racist when he was caught saying hurtful things about black people. His mindset was molded by his environment over many years. All of us living in modern societies have been shaped, to some degree, by pervasive subliminal messages that color-codes human beings into stereo-typical ethnic boxes.

Racism is fundamentally a negation of our spiritual oneness. In the coming Age of Balance, as envisioned in The Middle Theory, "we will no longer be defined by race based on skin color, but by the colorless, odorless, and formless spiritual qualities inherent within every human being. We will finally realize that human beings of all complexions are members of one human race. Racism in all its ugly forms will end.