“there wasn’t a lot they had to be afraid of”
Black people have seen the worst of America, yet,
somehow, we still believe in its best.
Joe R. Feagin
“Among the worst characteristics of P-B is the false-self need for a scapegoat [the other] upon which to project its shadow and thereby create the illusion that it has power over its fears. The people targeted for fear and hatred are often those who are the most different and least understood by the majority of people in a community.”[i]
Belief in the other creates suffering and causes all manner of violent behavior. Yet the differences between one human and another, no matter their color, race, creed, religion or sexual orientation, are negligible. So let’s be clear, the concept of the other is an illusion.
It is widely believed in America that white people have problems, whereas people of color are treated as if they are the problem. “This distinction has made all the difference. Once human beings are defined as the problem in the public consciousness, their elimination through deportation, incarceration or even genocide becomes nearly inevitable.”[ii]
Black Americans have been considered the other since their African ancestors arrived on the boat and were sold into slavery. “And so, you learn, early on, that the aversion to blackness can turn perfectly lovely people grotesque. One presumes she [the author Imani Perry of Breathe: A Letter to My Sons] is referring not only to strangers but to those in the village it is said to take to raise a child—those who are supposed to care about her children in the manner due all children, and yet do not act. From them she regularly hears, ‘It must be terrifying to raise a black boy in America,’ and her frustration with these newly, barely woke folk is palpable: ‘Without hesitation, they speculate as if it is a statement of fact. I look into their wide eyes. I see them hungry for my suffering, or crude with sympathy or grateful they are not in such circumstance.’ It is not that she doesn’t want them to care about black suffering. Her point is, would you stop pleading innocence and do something?”[iii] Of course all people are suffering, only the details of their suffering differ.
Artists tend to illustrate what is happening in our world, certainly better than government officials or preachers and priests. The song “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” in the musical South Pacific (1949) is unfortunately still true today! It illustrates that hate and fear are learned behaviors.
Insight # 67 comes to us from artist Willie Nelsen (b. 1933) who is one of the most recognized musicians in country music and is also an actor and social activist.
In an interview with Andrew Goldman, Willie was asked: “You’ve been given a lot of credit for uniting two sworn enemies, hippies and rednecks. How did you do it?” Willie answered: “I threw the first Fourth of July picnic down in Dripping Springs, Tex., which brought together the longhaired cowboys and the short-haired cowboys and the no-haired cowboys. They all sat around and drank beer and smoked some dope and listened to some good music and found out that there wasn’t a lot they had to be afraid of.”[iv]
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Additional Reading:
- The Other, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 2
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[i] Henry, Roy Charles. “The Other.” The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 2, 2018, p. 29.
[ii] Alexander, Michelle. “Injustice on Repeat.” The New York Times Sunday Review. January 19, 2020, p. 6.
[iii] Lythcott-Haims, Julie. “Native Sons.” The New York Times Book Review. November 24, 2019, p. 24.
[iv] Goldman, Andrew. “The Silver-Headed Stranger.” The New York Times Magazine. December 16, 2012, p. 12.
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You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught
(to hate and fear)
From the musical South Pacific
by Rodgers & Hammerstein (1949)
You’ve got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,
It’s got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a different shade,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You’ve got to be carefully taught!
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