Race

No, Not Everything is Racism

Photo credit: Priscilla Du Preez

Published

3 years ago

March 25, 2021

Patrick Luscri

Racism isn’t what many seem to think it is. The word has been stretched and pulled, expanded and homogenized to fit a great many things. It’s been made to mean “racial,” and the two are essentially different in at least one vital way: Racism contains the contemptible component of inferiority; racial does not.

Racial refers to physical, cultural and ethnic characteristics of races and ethnicities, often manifesting itself in stereotypes. Stereotypes are common characteristics observed over time. They aren’t negative in and of themselves—unless they’re applied negatively. That said, generally I avoid them because they can be hurtful without being racist.

For example, I’m Italian and Irish. I have a Roman nose. It’s prominent. And it’s part of my DNA from my Italian father. It’s one of my racial characteristics, and it’s stereotypical. If someone were to say of me, “He’s got a big nose—I wonder if he’s Italian,” they’d be applying a stereotype. The comment wouldn’t be racist; it would be racial because it lacks antagonism and/or application of inferiority. It could still hurt or offend me, but it doesn’t because I like my Roman nose.

Here’s another personal example: A friend’s mother, after meeting me for the first time, warned him to be careful with me because, “Italians, they steal, son.” She applied a negative stereotype that’s based on cultural characteristics depicted by Hollywood—AND in real life. Italians DO steal, but so do people of other races and ethnicities.

I once witnessed two Italians in Naples drive up on a moped, one hop off and enter a parked car and extract its radio, hop back on the escape scooter, and ride off—all in about 20 seconds. I found myself admiring their efficiency. It’s like they were German, not Italian.

Stereotypes, not racism

My friends mom’s mistake was in misapplying a stereotype. She didn’t denigrate my ethnicity or lower it below hers, she simply stereotyped me unfairly—and racially. She wasn’t being racist. Nor did what she say imply inferiority. That said, I admit that I don’t know the worst of racism; I simply don’t have that experience.

How many times do we read about someone using a stereotype to describe another’s race or ethnicity and who’s tarred and feather as a racist for it? Again, using stereotypes can be hurtful and can offend, but doing so isn’t always racist.

Who’s a fan of The Office? Remember when Michael Scott does his Ping routine? He uses hurtful and offensive stereotypes involving slant-eyed glasses, buckteeth and speech. It’s clearly cringe-worthy and would never fly today (and shouldn’t), but is it racist? Is Michael Scott racist?

Meaning means everything

Words have meaning. They mean what they mean and altering and expanding them based on culture or politics or ideology is a recipe for turning them into bombs. Is racist an umbrella word for racial? No, both are unique words with unique meanings. It’s just that one is being used as a weapon to malign and cancel.

I say we take more care to understand words and their meaning and that we resist slinging them like stones and lobbing them like grenades. I say also that we fight real racism with clear heads and full hearts. Let’s make love our byword. After all, it’s the best of all words and, thankfully, one with a meaning that never changes.

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Related Topics:ethicity Featured Race racial Racism

Patrick Luscri

Patrick is a journalist and writer with degrees in English and journalism. He served six years in the Navy where his life was changed forever by the Lord Jesus Christ. He lives in the Sierra Nevada of Northern California with his wife, dog and two cats. He enjoys hiking and cycling, taking pictures and blogging at https://luscri.com/

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America in the Hands of Arrogant Fools

The field is tilted, and top officials have been paid off; still, we must win

Published

2 months ago

July 22, 2023

Jeff Davidson

As retail crime sprees proliferate across the U.S., this civil and social catastrophe is roundly ignored by the mainstream media as usual. Hundreds of youths marauded through the Chicago’s Loop and Lakefront, for example, breaking into stores, stomping on vehicles, lighting fires, and thoroughly pulverizing defenseless people. Similar occurrences have taken place in New York, San Francisco, Portland, and Minneapolis, among other cities.

A Dubious Future?

I circulated some links about such mayhem to some of my Conservative high school classmates. One wrote back saying, “Maybe we’ll win back power and save this country. Maybe we won’t. I don’t know anymore. Whereas I used to be a little bummed about getting older, I am now glad my shelf life isn’t that long…”

She continued, “The turmoil, though, isn’t just about my feelings or the feelings of our generation. While it hurts my heart to watch America being destroyed by arrogant fools, it’s about what is going to remain of this good and great country for the next generations if the progressives aren’t stopped. I keep vowing to turn off the news, but I won’t allow myself to become ignorant. Too many have.”

Another classmate wrote back and said, “I read that incoming (in Chicago) Mayor Brandon Johnson and outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot each essentially said the weather was warm… and the kids have been denied, so it’s all understandable. Ridiculous excuses for lawlessness. The Left is trying to destroy the country with all the Soros-appointed DA’s.”

What America Was

Another classmate, Tony, a perceptive individual with numerous grandchildren, wrote back, “Our country is in steep decline. I don’t know how to help. My grandchildren will never know what America was. What’s good is bad and what’s bad is good. We have to stop rewarding the worst of us.”

His words shook me to the core. What will our children and grandchildren experience in a declining America as they grow up? Will they ever know that most communities, most of the time, were peaceful? That the law mattered? That elected officials intended to serve, not to generate personal wealth?

What will anyone know if no traces remain? If truth no longer matters? A case in point: some school districts now issue textbooks which claim that Donald Trump did collude with Russia to win the 2016 election.

From the Durham report on down, this assertion has been so completely disproven over the last five years, it is astonishing that any author or publisher would have the gall to print such lies in books, let alone in textbooks. Such falsehoods are being stamped into precious young minds, intentionally poisoning them and molding them to adopt far Leftist causes.

We Have No Choice

As parents and grandparents, we need to be as vigilant as the law allows. As citizens, in a still-free society, we must uphold what it means to have a democracy, to hold public office, and to be accountable.

As we’ve witnessed too often, for years now, the Left seems to be above the law. Regardless of their crimes, from the highest levels of government to small towns, no appropriate redress is made.

The U.S. Department of Justice constantly delays or avoids issues. Consider the countless revelations being exposed about the Biden Crime Family and how they massively sold out America to line their own pockets. Maybe action will be taken this time, but it seems doubtful. The nation’s chief law enforcement officer, Attorney General Merrick Garland, is corrupt and complicit. He belongs in prison, but still he rules.

Have whistleblowers now started to come forward because they’ve been anointed by the Left? Have the Democrats determined that by dooming Biden, they can install someone else as president? They are fairly sure that he and the inept, widely unpopular Kamala Harris, certainly useful puppets, will lose big time, even with the Democrats’ massive cheating.

Preventing the Tragedy

We have no choice but to expose and circulate the facts about the lawlessness of the Left, the manipulation, the unending crimes, and the election tampering. Indeed, exposing their sheer evil is a mission we cannot shirk.

If we want to prevent the tragedy of kids growing up never knowing the true America, the clock is ticking. There are no timeouts, the field is tilted, and top officials have been paid off; still, we must win. Not just for ourselves or our children and grandchildren, but for the entire world. Yes, the ramifications are enormous.

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Life

Let Freedom Ring And Make Merit Matter

You and I don’t want to live in a meritless based society

Published

3 months ago

July 4, 2023

Jeff Davidson

On Independence Day let us keep in mind that among the many factors that have made America great is one’s ability to rise to great heights based on merit: the effort, the brilliance, and the results that you generate. Of late however, an insidious trend has been looming. Allow me to illuminate via this story:

When I was ten years old, I got a trial with a Little League team, but I was cut by the coach just before the season started in favor of his 9-year-old son. The son wasn’t nearly as good at baseball as I was, but I understood the situation and accepted it without much fanfare. I figured at age 11, I’d have no problem making the Little League, and I’d be on some team for two years.

Much to my chagrin, at age 11, I wasn’t even considered for a team and went straight to what was called the farm team. This irked me. I had many friends in the Little League, and they wanted to know why I hadn’t been selected.

At age 12, the last year I could be in the Little League, I was selected by the Maple Hill Dairy team. This team had superstars who had won the crown the year before. They had lost a couple of players due to age but were still the best team on paper.

A Season of Distinction

During the 12-games, I made six hits in 14 official at-bats, plus two walks and two sacrifice flies, for 18 total plate appearances. My batting average was .429. I didn’t know that this average put me near the top of team batting for that season.

When did I learn of my feat? During the season-ending awards ceremony, our coach was handing out trophies at the League banquet. He gave the first eight trophies, one by one, to players on the team. Then he announced that the remaining six were the pillars of our championship season. I was among them.

I had no idea. Apparently, neither did the coach until he had compiled the season’s statistics. In announcing my name, he said he wished he had understood earlier how well I had been hitting: he would have played me more. His words were the highest praise I could have received following the season.

Singled Out for Merit

Today, if you attend a Little League awards banquet, the champions are given awards along with all others. Everybody receives an award for participation, much like what occurs in the larger society. Merit counts for little because the mentality today is that simply participating earns you an award.

To hand out participation trophies is a sham, however, the same sham that’s taking place in many aspects of our culture. The Leftists among us are seeking to quash merit-based testing everywhere. Out with Scholastic Aptitude Tests, they’re racist. They’re sexist. They’re transphobic. Out with the Graduate Record Exam. Out with writing an essay to get into college. Out with letter grades. So it goes in too many aspects of society.

Alas, you and I don’t want to live in a meritless based society. I guarantee that given the information, you’d prefer not to be operated on by a brain surgeon who went to a medical school where grades were not important.

Factors That Matter

Likewise, you wouldn’t want to fly in a plane with pilots who have not proven both in testing and in flight simulation that they are fully capable. And, you don’t want to drive over a bridge constructed by an engineer who went to a school where testing was deemed to be worthless or racist, or biased.

We’ve come too far in human civilization to resort to a time when anybody could pick up a scalpel and perform surgery or where anyone could construct a bridge because in the early days, perhaps, almost anyone had to.

Credentials matter. Academic performance matters. Competence matters. Demonstrating intellectual capabilities is among the vital signs that you’re being served by a professional.

Whom You Can Trust?

What other possible criterion would you suggest in place of merit? Participation? Ethnicity? Time on the job? Having friends in high places?

With many activities in life, merit is not a factor, but these are usually personal and private, contained, local, and not forced upon the public. Suppose it comes to a life-threatening situation, public safety, public health, the orderly flow of vehicular traffic, the health and welfare of children, etc? In that case, I’ll take the high-performance testers every time.

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