The breaking news is that five Black Lives Matter protesters have been shot in Minneapolis by Neo-Nazis. Source 1, Source 2
I predict this story makes much less headlines than the Refugee issue or what the Kardashians do. Cue ominous quote from Heath Ledger’s Joker about things going according to plan…
American citizens kill each other by the thousands each year. If one refugee shot five people–which none of the thousands of refugees already here have–it would scare us much more than the usual five or more people being killed each day. And these people have only been shot; they luckily have not died. I’m not making an argument about the refugee issue. I unfortunately don’t have much time for that in a world where 18,000 children starve to death everyday. Rather, I’m making a point about the nature of our fear.
Racism engenders violence.
The stunning irony of that engendered violence is that it’s usually local and usually not interracial and not inter-religion.
Most Muslims are non-violent. Their religious text simply does not order them to indiscriminately kill non-believers; that’s a falsehood like conspiracy theories that say the German Holocaust didn’t happen. When these non-violent, peaceful families of Muslims are killed, they are usually killed by other Muslims–the few violent extremists. When Muslim terrorists kill someone, they by far predominately kill other Muslims.
To address American issues, black people simply are not genetically predisposed to committing more homicides or more crime.
When the few violent maniacs of any group kill people, they usually kill the people who happen to be around them. When a white American gets killed, it’s five times more often by another white American.
The same generally goes for any group. The violent, hateful maniacs of any group kill the other people in that group.
As I already stated, American citizens kill each other by the thousands each year. But like any other group most of us are peaceful. We are just families, families who hate to fear for our loved ones’ safety. Fear is a powerful emotion but it’s not a very reasonable one.
We–and I don’t mean just Americans or just people of one race or religion but rather the peaceful people and everyday families that make up the vast majority of each of these arbitrary groups… WE cannot afford to let our fear drive us towards racism, xenophobia, or hate.
We cannot afford to have any less compassion or love for some humans simply because they are not in “our group”. “Our group” is not our group.
Our group is peaceful people and everyday families, not terrorists.
When we let fear drive us to racism or xenophobia or hate, and thus define “our group” differently, we thereby side with some terrorists against an entire race, religion or other arbitary group of mostly peaceful families who are just like us.
Insofar as there even is an ‘us’ and a ‘them’, an ‘our group’ and a ‘their group’, those violent American Neo-Nazis are not in our group. Isis is not in our group. The violent terrorists of any race, religion, or nation are not in our group. Instead, our group contains the vast majority of every race, the vast majority of every major religion, the vast majority of every nation. Our group contains the vast majority of blue-eyed people. Our group contains the vast majority of brunettes.
We are the majority. If any of us let fear bring us to racism, xenophobia or hate, that will divide us. Divide! That’s the path to leaving our group and going towards that other group–the smaller group, the violent group of fearful cowardly terrorists who steal the safety and the lives of the innocent because in their cowardice they are so blinded by hate.
What do you think? Please let me know I’m not pouring my heart out to an empty room: Leave a comment below!
