NASSAU, BAHAMAS – In all of my previous pieces of discussion concerning our culture in the West Indies, Central and South America, I have focused on us as a region uniting under the noble goal of equity and independence. In this piece, I wish to address something that most of us may not realise: the reason racism and misogyny are rooted in the people who express them.
We have tried for hundreds of years to correct racism and thousands to correct misogyny. We try to correct these systems of oppression by engaging the active victims, the ones who perpetuate the systems, through reasoning, requests for understanding and assistance, and demands for punitive or restorative action. We ignore, by far, the recipient victims of their behaviours except in drastic situations. This letter will also address the reason racism and misogyny are not moved by our entreaties.
Human beings are not born self aware. We develop self awareness. Once a child can recognize themselves in a mirror, they are displaying their first few weeks of self awareness. To realise that you yourself exist is the first step. That is the beginning of learning. Learning forms who you are: your core ideas about your physical existence, the existence of others, how to manage your existence in conjunction with all life and entities that surround you. When you realise that you with your own power can shape that existence, you are in your early stages of adulthood. Practicing and challenging your limits becomes your driven hormonal focus. When this settles, you know your limits and have decided on your beliefs; you are an adult.
The initial stage of self awareness forms the core of your being and your largest root system as a growing tree of life. Every subsequent stage is built on that first stage, filling in multiple branches of choices and ideas and forming more roots of convictions. Your environment can limit or expand you. If society decided that you can/cannot have something or achieve something because of a physical trait of yours, you may have rejected or very well have accepted that as a part of your existence and you will either grow branches and root systems defending the philosophy or you will simply not grow that way at all as if the option in your tree of life never existed.
I believe in God. This belief is a part of my core. I have built all of my philosophy, life choices and lifestyle around this belief. Even if the real world shows me evidence that it is my skill, my opportunity, my wise use of time and resources, my courage and the surrounding society’s response to me that makes up the direction of my life, I am still convinced that a supernatural being is working my life out. Even when I logically see otherwise, I still have faith. Whether or not this struggle is a bad or good thing is not my point. My personal choice about God is not revealed in this letter for a reason. It is the fact that the philosophy of God is irremovable, even by me. I cannot remove the core belief that God exists from my own being even when presented with logical arguments, even when I perceive a disparity between reality and my belief. To pull out this core would mean killing the original source of self awareness and early large roots and branches from my tree of life. I cannot do this, even if I wanted to. Anything that argues against the existence of God, I would have to be calm, open minded and try to see the reasoning deliberately and conscientiously. It will take an extreme amount of effort. I can learn. I can understand different perspectives, I can even understand why people do not believe in God and be fair, kind and respectful. I can chat, debate and be cordial and make friends. But when it comes to my life and direct interactions with the things I care about the most, God exists.
I want you to let that idea sink in. The core of someone’s being cannot be removed without killing their tree of life. Very well educated, disciplined and kind persons can accept others’ beliefs, but for themselves it is almost impossible. The people who change therefore never had those philosophies at their core. To attempt to force someone to change their core through reasoning is impossible. To do so by coercion or abuse is evil; because challenging their core is taking a chain saw to their tree of life. Only an expert may be able to do this and only for one person at a time.
Racism and misogyny are formed from white supremacist and male supremacist beliefs. For those who are white, white supremacy, the belief that being a white skinned human being is superior to all other human beings, is a core philosophy in their tree of life. Racism is the system, attitude and actions of white supremacists perfected and coordinated as a social construct after the initial stages of individual development. For all those who are male, male supremacy, the belief that having male genitalia as a human being is superior to all other human beings, is a core philosophy in their tree of life. Misogyny is the system, attitude and actions of male supremacists perfected and coordinated as a social construct after the initial stages of individual development. For white and male supremacists the individual and collective developed behaviours include entitlement, aggression, and coercive control over other human beings and their resources.
Because the beliefs are core beliefs, we cannot pull them out. They, being superior in their minds, have no desire to pull the core out. The ones who are well educated, who can see the reasoning, can understand, advocate and help, but cannot pull that core out. It risks their tree of life. Only those who never grew that core in the first place are free from the destructive harm that comes from having a core that is not aligned with reality.
So our approach to freeing the oppressed groups from racism and misogyny has been incorrect all this time. We cannot change white and male supremacists, we cannot convince them, and no punishment or retribution will change their minds except on an individual level with dedicated care and with an unusually intelligent recipient.
So what does this mean? It means that all white people and all men have been bitten by incurable zombies. Only the very few white people and men who were fortunate to grow up in a bunker have not been bitten. The rest of us are being eaten. And if you are on the up and up of what to do in a zombie apocalypse the answer to white and male supremacy is obvious to you. You know, the whole independence and equity thing. Build a city with walls and all your goods inside. Do not ever need to go out and negotiate with zombies, their bite spreads the poison of bitterness and you might turn into a zombie too. You know, those kinds of women and black people who support the superiority of men and white people. You know, the kinds of global south people that talk bad about the global south. You know, the ones who try to help their own people just to realise how many of us have been bitten and then get so devasted they go back to white people and work with them instead. There is good news about the real world secondary zombie bite though. Unlike the true core zombies, secondary zombies can get treatment.
There is a difference between core philosophical hate and embittered traumatic resentment. This is why women and black people can believe that we can work with male and white supremacists. We do not have that core and can change course. We can lop off a few wild scraggly branches that did not work out. The core people cannot do this. They do not experience the bitterness, or resentment formed from trauma that we do. They are proactive in their core beliefs and feel nothing. Hate is not an emotion, it is a destructive series of steps to take or deprive a “lesser” of resources.
Male and white supremacists have no true hope of change; trauma victims of male and white supremacist societies have hope if the change comes on time. So the challenge is how we as a region bring the correct changes on time to save trauma victims and protect white and male children from the zombie core.
Well, I will let you, my dear fellow human beings, start figuring that out. You all know what I think. Meanwhile, anybody got some extra cans of pigeon peas?
Ruth-Ann Lewis, MMus