“The Disenfranchisement of a Select Race”

"When you are born into a society that says because you are different you must be subjugated to special rules and interposed into a lower caste then the rest of society. When this idea is pushed on you then you began to know this as a so called “Reality” in your life."

I wrote this essay last year as the term paper for my philosophy class, and I have been meaning to publish it here, but have forgotten until now, so here it is.

So, as for my prompt for my term paper I decide to write about racism.

Racism is a important subject to me, due to the fact that I am adopted and so are most of my siblings, and in my mixed up family, two of my siblings are of a minority. I have always been extremely interested in civil rights and racism, and the select disenfranchisement of a group of people.

Racism has always been deeply ingrained in human society, from as far back as history can go people have been degrading and subjugating our fellow humans on grand scales due to differences in culture, color, religion, and beliefs. Even today when we are considered to be enlightened, developed, cultured, sophisticated people, we hold on to our archaic stereotypical and racist disenfranchisements. We hide it, but it is still there.

I always wondered why, why do humans like to degrade another based on differences? Why do we decide that because someone is not the same color as us that they aren't as good as us? Why do we think that because someone else believes something different from us that they are lesser beings? Why do we feel that someone who is of a different culture then us, that they are lower then us? Why?

Plato in “The Republic” wrote a statement “Imagine human beings living in an underground den which is open towards the light; they have been there from childhood, having their necks and legs chained, and can only see into the den. At a distance there is a fire, and between the fire and the prisoners a raised way, and a low wall is built along the way, like the screen over which marionette players show their puppets. Behind the wall appear moving figures, who hold in their hands various works of art, and among them images of men and animals, wood and stone, and some of the passers-by are talking and others silent. 'A strange parable,' he said, 'and strange captives.' They are ourselves, I replied; and they see only the shadows of the images which the fire throws on the wall of the den; to these they give names, and if we add an echo which returns from the wall, the voices of the passengers will seem to proceed from the shadows. Suppose now that you suddenly turn them round and make them look with pain and grief to themselves at the real images; will they believe them to be real? Will not their eyes be dazzled, and will they not try to get away from the light to something which they are able to behold without blinking? And suppose further, that they are dragged up a steep and rugged ascent into the presence of the sun himself, will not their sight be darkened with the excess of light? Some time will pass before they get the habit of perceiving at all; and at first they will be able to perceive only shadows and reflections in the water; then they will recognize the moon and the stars, and will at length behold the sun in his own proper place as he is. Last of all they will conclude:—This is he who gives us the year and the seasons, and is the author of all that we see. How will they rejoice in passing from darkness to light! How worthless to them will seem the honours and glories of the den! But now imagine further, that they descend into their old habitations;—in that underground dwelling they will not see as well as their fellows, and will not be able to compete with them in the measurement of the shadows on the wall; there will be many jokes about the man who went on a visit to the sun and lost his eyes, and if they find anybody trying to set free and enlighten one of their number, they will put him to death, if they can catch him. Now the cave or den is the world of sight, the fire is the sun, the way upwards is the way to knowledge, and in the world of knowledge the idea of good is last seen and with difficulty, but when seen is inferred to be the author of good and right—parent of the lord of light in this world, and of truth and understanding in the other.” (Excerpt From: Plato. “The Republic)

Slavery is a very strange form of degradation, when you are raised in slavery you grow tho think that is is the only way. When you are born into a society that says because you are different you must be subjugated to special rules and interposed into a lower caste then the rest of society. When this idea is pushed on you then you began to know this as a so called “Reality” in your life.

Take the Israelites, they were let go from the Egyptians, but they kept wanting to return to them, due the systematic mental and physical oppression. This systematic oppression led to a life full of shadow, caused by a lack of freedom. They began to develop a Stockholm sort of syndrome. The were set free, but they were unable to truly take complete advantage of this freedom do to these shadows that had pervaded their very being, this falsehood had became a truth unto them and it affected them to their very core, It destroyed every chance that they ever had of true freedom. Forty years later unable to truly take advantage of this freedom that was meant for them to truly take advantage of. They were mentally suppressed under their captors, it led them to believe that they were better off to be slaves than to be led out and “left in the wild to die”. This is the same mindset carried by most of the races that are largely disenfranchised through out history. Take the negro race, while they were a proud race, they were also a downtrodden and beat race. You may ask how that would work? Well I am going to attempt to show you. The Negro race was this race, a great and noble race, they have a history that far predates that of the white people, they are from the original cradle of civilization. Throughout history they were a race that showed amazing determination and domination throughout its entire existence, the negro race or Africans, have withstood some of the most dangerous trials known to man, they live and thrive in a environment that most modern people would be utterly decimated by. The negro race became one of the most oppressed of all peoples during the 19th and 20th centuries, even up to now, they are still oppressed and pushed down. They were very subjugated unto the “Stockholm Syndrome” not all that unlike the Israelites.

In the pursuit of true freedom from racism then we must find a way to truly educate people, to show them what is real and what is false. I believe that the only way to truly make racism better would be to educate people, show them that you no longer must be a degraded, you no longer have to be disenfranchised because of a difference of color or beliefs.

But on the flip side, most racist people were raised that this is the way. They were raised that “They” (The Negro) aren't the same as us. The only way to remedy this is to re-educate the people, and to truly enact lasting social changes we have to start this social reeducation with the youths of America.

From 1860 to 1960 the predicament of the negro race had not really changed, they just weren't slaves in name anymore: But they were still not free. They had still had not realized this promise known as the American dream. They were still under extreme inequality due to segregation and Jim Crow laws especially in the south. There is a reason that one of the most famous lines from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is “Free at last, Free at last, Thank God Almighty, We are free at last”. And this is due the fact that the negro people were still a disenfranchised race, they were still subjugated by the white man. They were still an oppressed peoples, they were at a place were educational inequality was still keeping them from truly reaching a sense of Freedom. But when the Federal Government began to oder the integrating of American schools, specifically the schools in the rural south, the tide began to turn. Not only were the educational opportunities exponentially increased, but by allowing negro children to study with and associate with white children, you began to incite a rebellion, a revolution in modern social circles.

When you want to change the world you start with the youth. By mixing the races in the schools it showed the white kids that the negro people were just like them, they were not different except by the color of their skin. This mutual education of the races led to true freedom for the Negro, it began to educate the white people that the Negro wasn't some barbaric heathen species that should be suppressed and downtrodden, but that they were humans, and Americans too.

So I guess to truly make racism better, then we would have to continue to educate people, we would have to continue to perpetually pull people out of their bondages, bondages to their culture, bondages to their upbringing and educate them, remove them from their perceived reality and show them the true light. Show them that people of other races are nothing to fear, but that differences are something to be celebrated and loved. We should take our differences and use them as something to bind us together and help us grow as a species. With education and knowledge we can become equal and truly began to see others as equal. Education will be the great equalizer of the future, it is time that we embrace it.

What kind of archaic and barbaric society do we dwell in when we base someone’s status and social standing upon the color of their skin? And a society where someones stature potential for self improvement is based upon their color?

I have thought long and hard upon the quandary of how to end racism, and more specifically how to rid the world of racists. I have once again found this conclusion that education is the pathway to equality. I feel that if we educate the race biters and the racists of our country we can end racism. We would have to educate them that differences aren't to be a deciding factor but a uniting factor, we would have to educate them that differences of color should not divide but unite. Educate the racist populous that strong ecosystem or society cannot be built upon one species, one gender, or one race, but a mixture of different cultures that have come together to build a diverse thriving social ecosystem. This ecosystem can only be built when we educate the people that the only way to thrive and flourish in such a multicultural and diverse society is to come to the realization that to quote our professor “Society is a salad, and no part is more important or lesser than the other”.

Education in my opinion is the only way to truly end racism.