Saturday, February 12, 2011

Ethnicity … Homo Sapiens and the Black aberration.


Like so many others, Halle Berry, that incredibly beautiful version of the female species, has just fallen flat on her face as a member of homo sapiens. So has Gabriel Aubry, the father of their beautiful  young daughter.
Halle insists that their daughter is “black”. Gabriel insists that the child is “white”.  The simple fact that the child is neither “white” nor “black” , as a matter of anthropological/genetic/visual reality, is completely lost on these two bright sparks, as they sound off from their respective corners.
Others have joined the fray, whilst tens of thousands are already also locked into their respective corners on this now vexed issue. And what is the issue? It is all about the ethnicity about folks of “mixed” race.
During the immediate past it has become politically correct for anybody who has even “one drop” of black blood in their veins to “proudly” classify themselves as black. The result is the visually absurd situation where even folk who are visually quite “white” are referred to as “black”, because somewhere in their pedigree there was a contribution of black sperm or egg. The one drop rule is a Jim Crowe-era notion that a person is "black" if they have even a single drop of black blood. It is all powerful. Just one drop trumps even 99.99% "whiteness!". Wow! 
Barrack Obama is the quintessential example. The guy has a black father and a white mother. So he simply cannot be regarded/classified as either white or black. Well you can’t do this, and still claim to be a member of a sentient (cognito, ergo sum) species on this planet, concerned with simple truth. What renders the thing even more absurd, is that Barrack was brought up by his White mother. But somehow we contrive to say he is black? Are we all coo-coo?
The grim reality however is that there are millions who proudly take this stance, that a man who is not black, is black. The cognitive process is – “yes, as homo sapiens, I know that he is not black, but because I have good reason to deny this, that makes him black!!!!”. That’s it!
That’s the justification, in terms of which simple truth is converted and metamorphosized into something else, something other than truth. We do this even though, unlike other creatures, we are possessed of the great gift of intellect. We then use that gift to deny, distort and obfuscate truth … because we say we have good reason to!
And in this process, we quite comfortably ignore so many lessons from history, that prove that so much evil starts with truth being denied, distorted and obfuscated, on the basis of a claimed good reason. The list is endless, but includes the apartheid government justifying its brutalization of Black people on the claimed Biblically based justification that Blacks were ordained to be hewers of wood, and drawers of water. The Holocaust was founded on a whole host of claimed justifications to submerge and destroy simple truth that all human beings are equal. All injustice starts with a lie ... usually a big one!
Now what is this good reason? Why do so many subscribe to this “one drop is enough to make me Black” dogma? Surprisingly it is really is quite simple. It is a hangover from a time when White folk quite brutally indulged themselves in the same “denial of truth” mindset and went about quite viciously  forcing us to accept the “one drop” rule … which we have since voluntarily elevated to a somewhat sacred dogma!.
Wow! We take the grossly cruel and misguided philosophy of the oppressor, and voluntarily elevate it to a sacredly held dogma! Are we mad … or incredibly stupidor delusional … or all three?? Why, in the name of heaven, are we adopting the evil culture of the oppressor?
Look, the reason why we once needed to all be Black is perfectly understandable. . We once had little or no option. A racist dominant group pretty well made sure of this … in trying to contend for its own supposed superiority, based on supposed  racial purity, as justification for gross social injustice.   In the fight for social justice we were indeed forced into one camp. Our heroic leaders, like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela were indeed Black. It was all too easy and natural for all of us “one drop” lot to coalesce into one big Black camp.
However, the world has moved on. Times have changed. We have shed the yoke of oppression. We are free to be who we are! We are free to be who we are! We are free to be who we are! White driven racism has, by and large, been overthrown. White folk have moved on.
Yes, White folk have moved on. Do we not understand that it is White folk who put Barrack Obama in power? Do we not understand that this proves beyond any doubt that they have moved on? They voted him in as President of the most powerful country on this planet because they have moved on. Right there, they proved that merit, not race or colour coding, was the criteria if the interests of mankind were to be advanced. In South Africa, and other African countries, the Black majority is now dominant. There is simply no reason to coalesce into one “black grouping”.  Why do we allow our minds to remain imprisoned in the racist past?
We are free to be who we are!
Now please ask a 5 year old child  to match the following persons to the colours black, brown and white – Barrack Obama, George Bush and Michael Jordan.
Are you now going to dispute the simple truth that is going to emerge from the uncluttered, unprejudiced, unencumbered mind of the child? Are you going to lie to the child … and justify the lie with a long story that should really be relegated to the dustbin of history?
When Halle Berry starts lying to her beautiful brown skinned  daughter that she is actually black, what is she doing to the mind of that child? What is she doing to the child’s self-image? A child absolutely knows when you are lying. For God's sake, the child can see itself in the mirror. And here you are lying about something critically important to the child - its self-image! Psychologists and criminologists all agree  that self image is critically important to all human beings, particularly children. It ensures proper development and militates against deviance and criminal propensity. That much is no longer rocket science. So too as regards the fact that self image starts (and ends)  with knowing and accepting WHO YOU ARE! That is why it is now the legal norm that an adopted child has a legal right to know who its natural parents are! So I think parents who do this to their children need to be horsewhipped!
So can we please, please, please dump this herd mentality and stop insisting on putting ourselves in colour coded camps? Even the worst hangover eventually passes. Let us stop confusing our children. Let us, instead, infuse them with pride and confidence in who, and what, they actually are. Lies are lies, howsoever packaged.
You see, when Halle Berry insists that her child is Black, she is according her 50% White ethnicity no value … and thereby being quite racist … the very thing she supposedly does not subscribe to! So too as regards Gabriel Aubry. Both are being overtly racist!
Personally I am a very nice shade of honey brown, and very proud of it. I do not think of myself as either black or white. I acknowledge that I am "a person of colour" ... but it is not a preoccupation.  It is also quite bemusing to see how all the supposed "black" folk are now nearly all also a nice shade of brown, (with Coloured type hair to match)  on account of cosmetic interventions. Concomitantly so many White folk "roast" themselves to get to my colouring.
What angers me is that, in order to secure socio-economic rights in South Africa (naively aping the US), under Affirmative Action and Black “Empowerment” laws, I have to claim and prove that I am Black. So we have the gross obscenity that during racist colonial days, many “Coloured folk” had to “play white”,  so as to secure socio-economic rights. Now we have to “play black”, … even though we have supposedly been liberated at terrible human cost??? Right there our "new free South Africa" has embedded the racist culture of its previous apartheid oppressor! ... whichever way you want to bake it! WOW!
It is obscene. It is vomitus stuff.
Again, as homo sapiens,  do we not know that justice, particularly social justice, can never be founded on lies.
We are free to be who we are. We need to get off the Jim Crowe plantation.
Unlike the Tunisians and Egyptians we are free to  now just claim our freedom?
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4 comments:

Unknown said...

When I heard this ignorant lady say what she said. I Immediately determined that I would write a piece on its absurdity. I am glad that you beat me to it as I am still shaking in anger. No wonder this world cannot progress past stereotypes. Great article Chris. You put it more succinctly than I ever could. Sinclair Roberts.

Judge Chris N Greenland said...

The real point to be made here, is that it is high time that the "obsession" with race, colour and ethnicity needs to be dumped. Sadly, it is the "non-whites" in the US that are keen to keep it going.
Must say that I have never heard Barrack refer to himself in terms of racial grouping. Good lad!
In South Africa, this "aping" of the US social construct is keeping the nation absolutely obsessed with racial/colour/ethnic differences, especially as advantage accrues if you are labelled "black".
The long term consequences of this culture are pretty frightening.
It's not like Black children are going to one morning get up and say -"well, as from to-day, we don't need Affirmative Action or Black Economic Empowerment any more ..."
The culture of race based entitlement and racial superiority is being EMBEDDED in the psyche of every SA child!
In the process it becomes an obscene "lottery" for Coloured folk ... as to whether they fall on the "advantaged" or "disadvantaged" side of the coin.

Ben Ellis said...

Very nicely put. My thoughts on the 'one drop rule' are at http://www.mixedindifferentshades.net/blog/2010/11/the-%E2%80%98one-drop-rule%E2%80%99-mentality

Unknown said...

Halle Berry and Gabriel Aubry have to except that their beautiful daughter is neither black or white. It doesn't matter how much black or white show up in her genes. These two lovely people have created a new race;a member of the sentient(cognito,ergo sum)-She is of the human kind-Therefore she exists.

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