Thursday, October 25, 2018

Understanding Racism, Oppression and White Supremacy




In the last 20 years, or so, there has been a subtle shift in the meaning of a number of words we have been using. You may have noticed that words like Racism and White Supremacy are being thrown around quite often, and by people you wouldn't normally expect to be outraged by them. This is because Racism, White Supremacy and Oppression have been redefined, for a specific purpose by people with an agenda we may not be aware of.

Below are the original meanings:

Racism - the belief in the superiority of one race over another, which often results in discrimination and prejudice towards people based on their race or ethnicity. It was tied up with scientific racism, the pseudo-scientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism (racial discrimination), racial inferiority, or racial superiority.

Oppression - to "crush, put down, subdue, prosecute relentlessly;" "cruel or unjust use of power or authority,"  from Latin oppressionem  "a pressing down; violence, oppression."

White Supremacy - "the belief or assertion that white people are superior in certain characteristics, traits, and attributes to people of other racial/ethnic backgrounds and that therefore white people should politically, economically and socially rule non-white people." White supremacy originates from "White Supremacy and Negro Subordination," by John H. Van Evrie, M.D., New York, (1860).

Van Evrie's thought, (which lacked any significant scientific evidence), emphasized the inferiority of black people to white people, defended slavery as practiced in the United States and attacked abolitionism, while opposing class distinctions among white people.

 *The new definitions of these same words are somewhat different. They are below:


Racism - A pervasive system of advantage and disadvantage based on the socially constructed category of race. It is a historically based system of active and/or passive actions/beliefs/policies and conceptions that have disparate and oppressive outcomes and confers visible/unacknowledged privilege on the basis of race, systemizing and perpetuating and unequal distribution of privileges, resources, & power between white people and people of color (adapted from Bell, Funk, Joshi, and Valdivia, 2016 & Hilliard, 1992).


Oppression - When one social group’s collective prejudice and discrimination toward another social group is backed by power at the individual, institutional, ideological, and interpersonal levels. This power transforms prejudice and discrimination into oppression, transforms the relationship between groups as one of dominance and subordination, and results in structural inequality between the two groups.



White Supremacy - a political, economic and cultural system in which whites overwhelmingly control power and material resources, conscious and unconscious ideas of white superiority and entitlement are widespread, and relations of white dominance and non-white subordination are daily reenacted across a broad array of institutions and social settings.

Looking at these re-definitions three things stand out; 1) they are academic constructs; 2)they are crafted to describe a system rather than a particular belief or action; and 3) they've been expanded to be more broad and vague than their original meanings. Well, one may think, don't meanings of words naturally change over time? Some do, some don't (like, fishy still means fishy), and there are some  words  that are deliberately changed.
One thing to remember is that these new definitions like white supremacy are superficial and vague. They are superficial enough to engage and recruit the average person who doesn't think beyond the label being promoted. Who wouldn't want to end white supremacy? The new definitions are obscure and broad enough to give cover to the actual people controlling the levers of society. These definitions contain very little explanatory power which makes it hard to specify and name those who are actually in control, how they are really operating, and how we can properly deal with them.  

Who is doing this and why?

As mentioned in another article http://www.innercivilization.com/2016/12/the-frankfurt-school-and-why-it-matters.html there was a group of Marxists that entered academia in the 1930's that began to influence Western culture. Using Critical Theory, they significantly co-opted and influenced the civil rights movement, feminism, the student anti-war movement and then brought about free love and the sexual revolution.  (*Critical theory is a social theory which is about criticizing the way a culture and “society as a whole” function, in order to change it. Contrast this with other social theories, which are more about simply understanding and interpreting why things are as they are). The new definitions are also formulated out of the post-modernist, deconstructionist views of Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida, who sought to dismantle reliance on universal truths and believed that words are social constructs that have no valid meaning that correspond to objective reality.And that the accepted terms were indications of power by the dominant group. (This belief allowed them to make up their own definitions for their own purposes.)
Their goal has been to use who they call 'victim groups' to bring down the foundations of dominant American Western society (the family, religious values, historical traditions, beauty in art, music, etc.) in order to eventually impose a Marxist totalitarian utopia.

Marx blamed all of the ills of the world, hunger,  crime, wars, injustice, etc., on the capitalist system. Marx believed if we abolish the capitalist system, all of these problems would disappear.

While traditional Marxism embraced an economic struggle, dividing the world between the proletariat workers and the rich bourgeoisie, this new Marxism arising in America in the form of social justice, critical theory, critical race theory, and political correctness (a term coming from Stalin's Russia) places the conflict in social terms; the majority and the minority. The majority are the privileged and the oppressors, the minority are the under-privileged and the oppressed. They essentially re-framed the conflict from “capitalists vs. exploited workers” to “white European Christian males vs. exploited minorities” (black people, women, homosexuals, Muslims, etc.)

This explains why these new definitions have an academic tone, because that's where they were constructed (in academia). It also explains why 'racism' and 'white supremacy' are now interpreted to be synonymous with "the system". Thus, in order to get rid of racism and white supremacy it is necessary to change, dismantle and topple the whole American (capitalist) system.

The reason it was expanded was first to capture all of the majority (white) males in their net and then label stigmatize them with all of the connotations of the original meanings of the words, unless they reject their privilege, join the movement and become "allies" (another re-defined word).

Professor Bret Weinstein explains why re-defining words is an important tactic:

"These seem like critiques and arguments but in reality "they are linguistic traps. A linguistic trap involves something like the re-definition of word like 'racism' or 'white supremacy'." The word gets redefined and it gets redefined in a way that sets the bar incredibly low.  So that really you can’t help but trip over it. Having tripped over it the penalty phase takes the definition right back to its traditional one. If you have failed to properly confront a system that has been deemed guilty of White Supremacy then the penalty for white supremacy is as if you have burned a cross on someone’s lawn. This is unfair and logically inconsistent. But nonetheless very effective." 

One of the founders of critical theory, Hebert Marcuse, specifically came up with the tactic of repressive tolerance, in which he describes 'liberating tolerance' as "intolerance against movements from the Right and toleration of movements from the Left." So the outrage we see is intentionally selective and self serving.

The goal of these re-definitions is to shut down debate, instill fear of being labeled a racist, homophobe, misogynist, sexist, white supremacist and to create allies thereby recruiting more voices for the assertions made. 'Ally' is another redefinition. It's original meaning includes a sense of partnership, but with the new definition, one must follow the script or be labeled and stigmatized as being against toppling oppression.  





What Do Black People Get Out Of This? 
Nothing. 

That's the short answer, if we're speaking in terms of meaningful benefits and gains. However, the negative outcomes for black people are numerous and devastating to our bottom line, which is 'overall quality of life'.  Below are some of the negative effects related to embracing this current approach.


1. 
We think people are actually concerned about us, when they aren't. The whole idea is for to get us on board with their agenda which, as we know from the history of what happens when Marxist states come into power, does't end well. Once the 'useful idiots' are no longer needed, the Marxist elites purge the population, killing the same people who help put them in power, (see Stalin's Russia, Mao's Cultural revolution, Pol Pot's purges in Cambodia, etc.)
2. 
A stated goal of these radicals and Marxists is to undermine and break down the family unit. Their goal is to have people view the State as the ultimate authority. However, our goal as black people is to restore and strengthen the black family. Since being torn from our families and culture and then having them further devastated during the slavery period, rebuilding is an important value for us. It's key for us.


In The German Ideology (1845), Karl Marx wrote disparagingly about the idea of the family as the basic unit of society. 

"The nuclear family must be destroyed… Whatever its ultimate meaning, the break-up of families now is an objectively revolutionary process." ~ Linda Gordon


Marxist and critical theorists use feminism as a wedge to divide men and women, thus breaking down the family. If someone says they're a feminist, they are saying they identify as a fragment. Not part of a whole. They are saying, 'I am a separate self and I see you as separate, and thus will have no problems attacking "others".  But the truth is, as a man, "I am you. I am another aspect of you. So treat me kindly because if you hate me you hate yourself.  If you destroy me you destroy yourself and your children." Kindness, respect and being just in our daily lives dissolves any notion of oppression. Despite what Marxists say, biology is not a class. Because someone is born a particular gender does not automatically oppress anyone.  

Feminism is a weapon, and it has even been used in response, in counterintelligence circles to confuse the revolutionary movement. 




















"The Women's Liberation Movement may be considered as subversive to the New Left and revolutionary movements as they have proven to be a divisive and factionalizing factor.... It could be well recommended as a counterintelligence movement to weaken the revolutionary movement." This was from an August, 1969 report by the head of the San Francisco FBI office."[1]
Within several years, the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations were pumping millions into women's studies programs on campus. (The controlling super elite don't mind supporting anything that will help divide and distract the population and insure their own survival, be it left vs. right, white vs. black, men vs. women, lgbtq vs. straight, Christian vs. Muslim, etc.)

In 1965, 24% of black children and 3.1 % percent of white children were born to single mothers. By 1990 the rates had risen to 64% for black children and 18% for whites. According to the latest data for 2016 from the CDC (Centers For Disease Control and Prevention), 69.8% of black children and 28.5% of white children were born to single mothers.
 [1] Frank Donner, The Age of Surveillance (New York: Vintage Books, 1981), p. 151.

3. 

Our true priorities end up becoming subordinate to the aims of these cultural Marxists posing as our friends.
After slavery, our true goal was to restore 'knowledge of self', self love and determination,  re-connect with our African life ways and thinking, establish strong, viable cultural institutions and economic footholds, and prepare our future generations to excel and flourish in this new landscape. However, the only activity we can focus on which will get any help from others in society is if we speak out or protest against racism and white supremacy (leaving all the above mentioned necessities on the back burner.) In fact, we are told by the Left that nothing can be done until we first dismantle racism and white supremacy, which leads to eventually tearing down this capitalist system. See how it's rigged to work in the favor of their agenda?

Here's one clear example which shows how much concern these people have for us. For at least the past two decades it has become apparent to anyone paying close attention that over 80% of the police killings of black people have occurred when the suspects are resisting arrest or not complying with the police officers. But instead of the Left using their platforms to provide manuals and guidance on how to carry oneself when stopped, 80% of their energy is focused on getting us to protest and attack racism as the sole cause of these killings. The other 20% is focused on attacking anyone, black or white, who doesn't fully agree with this as the only strategy and anyone who mentions a more comprehensive approach which includes preparation and education on how to interact with police (and each other). 

We are being held hostage by a doctrine we didn't create. And our children are still dying with no modification in approach to life in America in sight. 

For an example of how we are being manipulated into this position comes with a glance at a few basic facts that aren't promoted to us in the mainstream media narrative. In 2015, police killed 38 unarmed black people and 32 unarmed whites. In  2016, police killed 22 unarmed whites and 19 unarmed black people. In 2017,  30 unarmed whites were  killed by the police compared with 20 blacks.  Of course, our defensive conditioning will reason, "well there is a smaller percentage of black people in the U.S., so these statistics are still disproportionate to our population." The answer to that lies in the fact that black people were charged with 62 percent of robberies 57 percent of murders and 45 percent of assaults in the 75 biggest counties in the country, despite only comprising roughly 15 percent of the population in these counties (FBI statistics 2009). So because of these realities there will be disproportionate interactions with the police.

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/fatal-police-shootings-of-unarmed-people-have-significantly-declined-experts-say/2018/05/03/d5eab374-4349-11e8-8569-26fda6b404c7_story.html?utm_term=.72c992b9d9b7

The point is, however, how many sensationalized news stories have you seen regarding the unarmed whites that were killed?? Why don't we even know about them??! The answer is, they don't fit the narrative. We have to be careful. Our (predictable) reactions are being manipulated.  

4. 

We are being maneuvered by the radical left into identifying as perpetual victims. This is severely damaging to our psyche, our spiritual and mental health, and to our future. It creates a victim mentality in us.  And it is wrong. We are not victims. That is not our identity. We are the fathers and mothers of human civilization. That is our identity. But with this onslaught of mainstream and social media we are made to think otherwise. Our children are being raised to think they are victims and little else. This deadens our vision, blocks our imagination, devastates our self determination and undermines our ability (and willingness) to come up with innovative solutions to our problems. 
                                                                                                                          Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries, Dutch management scholar and psychoanalyst points out some traits of those who have developed a victim mentality.

The Victim is Defensive
"The victim develops a negative outlook, wherein he believes that everyone is out to get him and bring him down, such that whenever someone says something about him, no matter how neutral it is, he immediately attaches a negative connotation to it and goes on the defensive."

The Victim Refuses to Analyze and Improve

"When people around him notice his self-victimization tendencies and initiate ways to tell him about his self-harming ways, he refuses to analyze his actions and thereby fails to improve as well. Instead, not only does he go on the defensive and dismiss all the suggestions, he also develops a negative opinion about any person who suggests real change."

It isn't just fate that causes a "victim" to experience more difficulties than other people. He may seek out disappointment, because it can give him a "kick" that psychologists call a 'secondary gain'. This is when not resolving a problem can actually have benefits.

For example, someone with a victim mentality can feel pleasure when she receives attention or pity as a result of her misfortune. She may also get a perverse "thrill" from showing off the injury caused by others and creating a sense of guilt. And refusing to accept responsibility for a problem can be liberating.

"One big problem a lot of people have is that they slip into thinking of themselves as victims that have little or no control over their lives. In this mindset you feel sorry for yourself, the world seems to be against you and you get stuck. Little to no action is taken and you get lost in a funk of sadness and self-pity."

“Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality.”

John W. Gardner

"Why do people often have self-esteem problems?  One of the big reasons is that they don’t take responsibility for their lives. Instead someone else is blamed for the bad things that happen and a victim mentality is created and empowered. This damages many vital parts of your life.
That hurt will not stop until you wise up and take responsibility for your life. There is really no way around it." 

"If you want freedom from oppression.
The first thing you have to do is to change your explanatory style.
See yourself as a master; a free, adept, supremely created being.
It's similar to when people see themselves as African, they dress as Africans and begin to organize their communities and organizations as Africans.    
If you see yourself as a master, you find ways to make things work for you.
If you see yourself as a victim you find ways to make things work against you."

No friend or ally, with our best interests in mind, would persistently pursue strategies that end up instilling victim behavior in us, in our students or in our future generations.



If we can be demoralized from competing at a high level economically, educationally or in any other field, our true adversary has already won. 

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War  



5. 
We have to be very careful when using the term 'white supremacy' primarily because it isn't accurate. There is nothing inherent in whites that makes them 'supreme'. How can you have a superior culture or a supremacy expressed in hatred, jealousy, imbalance, destruction, aggression, deceit, and greed?
James Baldwin was careful to point out that white supremacy is a delusion. White people may wish they were supreme, or more importantly, they wish for us to believe they are- because that gives their illusion more power. 
White Supremacy is primarily a projection or a bluff. And the more people buy into it, the more powerful it becomes. It is the projection of a superiority complex. 

Superiority complex is a psychological defense mechanism that compensates for an inferiority complex. Those exhibiting the superiority complex have a self-image of supremacy. Paradoxically, superiority complex rises from the deep-seated and repressed feeling of inferiority or lack of self-esteem. ~ Alfred W. Adler (an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology.)


One of the major tenets of the Marxist based Critical Race theory is that white supremacy is a permanent structure of the American capitalist system. You will see this theme for example running in the writings of Ta-Nehisi Coates. White supremacy by definition comes with an implied component of black inferiority. The two go hand in hand. So by being encouraged to believe white supremacy is permanent we are saying we are permanently inferior, just because of our skin color. Nothing could be further from the truth or more harmful to our psyche.  Another problem with that view is that it reifies white supremacy and makes it a 'thing' A looming entity that is out to get us. But it's just a concept or a belief. This is a classic fallacy of logic, called 'reification' (treating a concept or an abstraction as if it were real). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reification_(fallacy)


So-called White supremacy” is not a permanent all pervasive structure, it's a falsehood and a projection, propagated to make you believe it is permanent, all powerful and all seeing. As Francis Cress Welsing noted, White supremacy is largely a compensation projected by people with an inferiority complex stemming from the fear of genetic annihilation. That's the weakness, it's up to us to expose and exploit that for what it is, or else it will exploit us. The more you buy into it as real, the more real it becomes.

 White supremacy is a projection, a cover, and a justification for the deep seated unease of  living on earth with a profound sense of separateness. It is also a justification for otherwise patent criminal activity, theft, murder, genocide, rape, destruction, greed, lying, and deception.

For example consider the words of this British officer stationed in Colonial India:


“….At the heart of British authority, was a gigantic confidence trick. It worked for as long as the illusion could be maintained. Take Government House in Calcutta. It was the seat of British power in India. It’s still the headquarters for the regional government today. When it was built in 1803, there were fewer than 6000 British officials nominally-ruling over some 200,000,000 Indians. As one British governor-general who lived here put it, ‘If each black man were to take up a handful of sand and by united effort, throw it upon the white-faced intruders, we should be buried alive.’ And that’s the reason, for the scale, the grandeur, the sheer, the sheer boastfulness of this place. The idea being if you look like a ruler, the people will treat you like a ruler….But the appearance was an enormous bluff……” ~ Jeremy Paxman (“EMPIRE: The Complex Legacy of Britain’s Imperial History”).


The first place in which to do away with White Supremacy is our minds. Destroy it, dismantle it, expose it for what it really is. It's not white supremacy but the expression of a deep seated sense of inferiority and insecurity. Greed comes from an unquenchable sense of lack, and excessive aggression and violence is rooted in fear and insecurity.

This is the opposite of one who is 'Supreme' or who actually reflects the quality of being supreme. 
As black people we are in a unique position. We can displace white supremacy just by standing up and being the complete, innately powerful, self determined black men and women we were put on this earth to be. We don't need to carry signs to topple white supremacy, we just have to work to flourish as our whole, divine selves.

We have to develop a new mindset that focuses on what is possible, with innovation, imagination and ingenuity. Quantum physics has confirmed that the very fabric of the universe is built upon infinite possibilities.






"It has become possible for us to set up various establishments of our own on a large scale, and directly bring political institutions under our positive influence. For instance, in training the new generation, creating an intellectual atmosphere by the propagation of ideas through books and electronic media and continuing thought and reason through research foundations, schools, cultural centers, the acquisition of finance through industrial institutions, universal realization of one’s objectives through the means of communication, realization of spiritual and cultural affairs through different channels, etc. In recent history those nations who have understood this have achieved success even without having political power. Some have become established and excelled in the field of education, while others have set up empires in industry, computers, software, communications or finance. This process can function not only on the national level but at the international level." ~ Maulana W. Khan.

The big question to ask ourselves is, are we making the most of our opportunities?


The other big question to remember  to ask is, "how can we be inferior victims when, at essence, we are one with God? When the kingdom of God dwells within us, how can we assume an identity of victims?"


We are Supreme.  
"We just have to remember the mystery of our divine nature.  We are divine, we are one with God. And yet it is hidden from us. Virtually every spiritual path or technique is a way of unveiling this primal mystery of existence... a way of bringing this secret into consciousness. We are creatures of light, we are creatures of love, we are unbelievably beautiful, and he is with us. Every breath we breathe, every thought we have is part of God, is God, and this secret is closest to the heart."


~Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee 






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