"The History of White People" by Nell Irvin Painter, Princeton University

I have spent a great deal of time thinking about things of this nature and how it related to me and my world. Here again, I posted this comment a year or two ago but I feel it is line with this posting or article so I am going to post it again as well.

I hope to invoke your thoughts and positions on the following subjects: religion, racism, mankind, and how they all intertwine. I want you to reflect on who you are and why you feel the way you do. I ask you: are your thoughts your thoughts or are they someone else's that you have been taught to think and believe?

I asked my self those same questions and tried to analyze what I have thought, felt and why I have acted in less than desirable ways to people of other races. Where did such behaviors stem from or evolve for me? I decided to reflect back on various moments in my life and see what I could find.

I grew up in a small town in Montana where my exposure to other races was actually non-existent. I have no memory of ever meeting an African American until I was in my twenties. I just remember the disdain my dad had for them. Once exposed to their race, I acquired a whole new perspective so distant from the perspectives handed down to me during my adolescent years.

My main experiences with racism involved the religion that I was born into. While growing up, I had been told many negative things about other races. This was aimed more specifically at African Americans. In the church, we were taught that Cain committed the first murder. Thus, God marked him with a dark skin and his lineage would also be marked in the same way through out time. To further define this concept, we were taught of a spiritual war in Heaven. The blacks were so called, “fence sitters;” they either couldn’t make up their minds as to which side to support or later wished they would’ve gone with Satan. They were considered to be, “the lukewarm or non-valiant, which God doth hate.” Due to this mindset, they were to be punished by being funneled down through Cain’s lineage. Talk about racism in its purest form.

Now that this belief is politically incorrect, the church has distanced itself from this teaching. In fact, for the past few years, I have been told that the church has never taught this principle. The trouble I have with this is that I was there when this principal was taught; therefore, I know differently! In the 1970’s, the blacks were finally allowed to hold the priesthood. I feel this was due to the inevitable political and legal repercussions that would follow if this were not changed. They claim it was a new revelation from God. I have to admit, something always felt wrong with these earlier teachings of the church regarding blacks and the priesthood. I eventually came to a major crossroad or turning point in my life and was forced to re-evaluate not only my view on religion, but racism, and the world as a whole.

I believe there is a God or at least a higher power; however, it is only man that has established segregation between races, religion, sexes, and nationalities. Sadly enough, most of mankind claims to be fulfilling God's will in whatever cause we choose. In addition, we invoke God in all of our agendas; therefore, we can justify the means and thus justify the end. Think about it with an open, logical mind. Throw away for a moment, all of the things that you have been told to say and think. Look at history, not only your own but others down through the ages.

What do you truly see? For me, that is what I see. Since my journey through that crossroad, I have found far greater happiness and peace in my life. I could never go back; God is not a racist! If we are all God's children, how could he be? Could you be if you were God and all the people in the world were your children? Think of your loved ones before you settle on an answer. Pause for a moment and envision your children spread out all over the world, some black, some white, and all the colors in between. Which of your children would you single out to be treated any less than the rest?

I would hate to have been born in those times. Hopefully in 200 years things will have improved by as much or greater as things have over the past 200 years.

I have posted this before but I think it fits, so here it is:

In Rereading America, President Andrew Jackson eludes to the position he and many of the whites in that time period held on their supremacy and the inferior nature of the “black man.” This is only a portion of his proposed revisions to the legal code of Virginia:

“To these objections, which are political, may be added others, which are physical and moral. The first difference which strikes us is that of color. Whether the black of the negro resides in the reticular membrane between the skin and scarf-skin, or in the scarf-skin itself; whether it proceeds from the color of the blood, the color of the bile, or from that of some other secretion, the difference is fixed in nature, and is as real as if its seat and cause were better known to us. And is this difference of no importance? Is it not the foundation of a greater or less share of beauty in the two races? Are not the fine mixtures of red and white, the expressions of every passion by greater or less suffusions of color in the one, preferable to that eternal monotony, which reigns in the countenances, that immovable veil of black which covers the emotions of the other race? Add to these, flowing hair, a more elegant symmetry of form, their own judgment in favor of the whites, declared by their preference of them, as uniformly as is the preference of the “Oranootan” (Orangutan) for the black woman over those of his own species. The circumstance of superior beauty, is thought worthy of attention in the propagation of our horses, dogs, and other domestic animals; why not in man? Besides those of color, figure, and hair, there are other physical distinctions proving a difference of race. They have less hair on the face and body. They secrete less by the kidneys, and more by the glands of the skin, which gives them a very strong and disagreeable odor,” (552).

This quote illustrates the mentality of many white people at the time (and even some today) regarding non-whites. Classifying black people as ugly and less desirable than their white counterparts and comparing them to animals was a common philosophy amongst thinkers in America even up to 50 years ago. Dehumanization was/is a very common tactic.