Bridging The Racial & Cultural Divide

A talk on the important issue of racism. Embrace the challenge.

Transcript

We have with us today Joseph McClinton, A diversity consultant from Los Angeles, California. Joseph has been instrumental in my own awareness of the positive potential that accompanies racial and cultural diversity. Today, He's going to tell us about bridging the racial divide, The human evolution. Thanks, Diane. So much of our spiritual journey has been about separating and forgetting. One of the many ways we chose to experience separation from the all was the formation of races and cultures. This separation created differences that at times seems impossible to reconcile. As we are now turning to the future, Our spiritual focus changes to that of remembering and connecting in order to go home again and become one once again with the all. In order to do this, We must somehow remember that we are one race, The human race. We must find a way to bridge the racial divide. Whichever creation myth you hold to be true will contain the idea of separation or fragmentation. The myth I choose to believe is true is that the goddess is the source of all creation and she created God and together they created all that is. As part of the fragmentation process, Masculine energy and feminine energy manifested into man and woman. Further fragmentation produced the four races, Black, White, Yellow and red. Of course, There are infinite gradations and combinations. The metaphor for our society is a melting pot, Not a beaker of different densities, Jealously staking out of their territory. What purpose might there be behind the variety of human races? Mankind's unique and precious quality is consciousness, Reasoning mind. This characteristic splintered into an infinite variety of human consciousness to better explore the planet through an infinite spread of reasoning filters. The different races then reflect both the quality of diversity within the unity and also a diversity of purpose to which the rational mind can be put to use. European civilization, Principally a white culture, Is a highly verbal and technological culture in which language is reduced to symbols and the species in a urge to manipulate its environment, Thereby creating inventions and machines designed to ease the drudgery of everyday life. The predominant religion of white culture is Christianity, Whose central theme is the divorce between spirit and flesh. The fundamental quality of the white race in our society today is divorced from the natural order. In this culture, Mankind's conscious reasoning mind was split asunder. Speech from alphabet, Body from soul, Mankind from animal, God from pheasant, Feet from earth. Contrast this with the culture native to the Americas, The red race. Here were cultures of great sophistication in organizations. Hierarchies of tribal leadership, Elaborate ceremonies and rituals, But all couched in a framework allowing no division between mankind and the natural world. They too were inventors, Innovators of technology, Manifesting in weapons for the hunt, Pottery to aid with food preparations, And the tradition of using every part of a downed beast for some practical purpose. The hide becoming clothing became the meat became food. So in the red culture, Man's conscious reasoning mind was used to manipulate, Build, Create and invent, Always in harmony with the natural order. The black race is similar to the red race in its instinctive harmony with the natural order, With the additional quality of gregariousness and of social contact with others. On the plains of Africa, Numerous tribes coexisted in varying degrees of harmony, Thus flavoring their culture with exploration of social organization, Cooperation, Warfare, Tribal loyalty and so on. The African tribes were not nearly as distinct genetically from each other as were Native American tribes, Thus allowing issues of loyalty and group cohesion to be played out without genetic bias. Even today, As we witness tribal warfare among the clans of Africa, Of truths made and broken, This great exuberant theme of social intercourse is explored in rich, Multi-faced drama. In the yellow culture, There's a strong bond between the spiritual and the temporal. As you find in religious philosophies of the East, There are martial arts which emphasize interdiscipline over out of violence, The mind body synthesis of yoga and the law of calmer codified in their religions. And yet rising from this base, Eastern culture specialized in abstract reasoning. Eastern culture is concentrated on the grand philosophy, Looking for the physical evidence of the deeply felt unity of creation, Finding patterns in that unity miraculously reflected in the workings of mathematics. Thus, Eastern culture developed the ability to manipulate, Rearrange and consider concepts and relationships reducible to mathematical equations to order and understand the world as a series of such relationships. Reducing the earth's great racial heritage into a few words is at best ludicrous, But I felt the need to give a background for our world today, And especially America. For it is here that these cultures clash and yet have an opportunity to harmonize. Racism and prejudice, Like all forms of abuse, Are painful and quite often unspoken. We all want to believe that we are colorblind, But deep down inside we know this is not true. Carl Jung states, The psychological rule says that when any situation is not made conscious, It happens outside as fate. Like sexism, If you have not examined your beliefs and attitudes about race, You may be in deep denial. As an African American man living and working in the mostly white world, I have encountered racism and prejudice in many forms. I grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina during the 50s and 60s. This was the era of segregation in an American version of apartheid. African Americans were officially considered second class citizens and therefore had to be separated from whites. Everything was segregated, Including bathrooms, Water fountains, Schools, Hotels, And movie theaters. When riding the public buses, Colors were expected to sit at the back of the bus or stand up and let white people sit down if the bus was filled. There was a restaurant downtown which had tables for white people, While blacks were required by law to stand up and eat at the counter with no seats. In 1965, The Civil Rights Bill was passed and all segregation laws were struck down. In celebration of this historic moment, My mother took all five of her children downtown to that restaurant. We all ate hamburgers and fries sitting down. The meals were served by a smiling white waitress. I recall this moment because I thought African Americans were finally going to be accepted by white society, And we were not. What I remember also after the neon colored sign was taken down at the Carolina movie theater, The word colored was shadowed in the brick wall. This, I feel, Is what we as a nation are dealing with today, The shadow of racism and prejudice that lives in our minds. One of the inner processes I have people perform is an examination of their beliefs about race, Religion, Or culture they identify with. A white woman stood up and said she did not see herself as white. She viewed everyone as the same. She admitted that she was having problems with the black people in her life, But insisted that she saw everybody as love and light. During the break, She left saying that she did not have time for processing that day. All she had wanted was some techniques to help her deal with other people. The pain and fear about race caused this person to hide behind religious jargon and run away instead of facing herself. I believe race is an internal dilemma that is worthy of exploration. In any system of personal growth, One must separate out the part of self that needs healing and examine it and see how it functions. Race like the inner child or ego self can be studied in this way. Belief precedes the experience of reality. Some of what I was taught about my blackness made me feel ashamed of who I was. For example, I was taught never to look white people directly in the eyes. As I examined myself, I found there were times I still functioned as a less than black person. I was afraid of the nigger in me. As a child growing up in the rural, Segregated South, I saw my parents and relatives act and behave in a certain way around white people. And this taught me to do the same. The awareness of my own internal conflicts about race within me has allowed me to go through a healing process and let go of my tendency to see myself as a less than person. One process I also use in my workshops is to have people write down a list of negative beliefs about race. For instance, All black people steal or all black people are on welfare. All Chinese people can't drive. All blondes are done. And so forth. As you do this, And I strongly suggest that you do, You may find yourself wondering where all this stuff came from. Ask yourself, Which Chinese people can't drive? Do you know anybody named who told me this? Is this an honest observation or something I learned? Some white people, Like the woman in the workshop who could not see her race, May have a hard time understanding how they were taught to think of themselves as superior. When Europeans set out to conquer the world and force their culture upon indigenous people around the world, They set up the institution of racism. Unless white people see themselves as a race and see their impact upon the world as a race, They will never understand the system or institution of racism. For example, When a white person goes into a car store, They can be assured that they will see white people's faces or likenesses on cars in that store. A white person can do well in a challenging situation without being a credit to their race. A white person can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking. And what about those darn flesh-colored bandages or crayons? Whose flesh was this? I believe that the institution of racism cannot end unless white people are willing to end it. People of color also have to give up being victims. The institution of racism causes people of color to view themselves in a negative light. For example, CP time or colored people time, Meaning that black people are always late or that events organized by black people will not start on time. Then there is JP time or LP time, Jewish people time and Latin people time, Meaning also the same thing. A white person can be late for a meeting without having lateness reflect on their race. People of color can no longer blame white people for what does not work in their lives. Both sides have to be willing to give up their positions and beliefs in order to bridge the racial and cultural divide. The principles of observing learned behavior and choosing to change that described behavior in this talk can be applied to any persons or groups experiencing conflict. We were all taught about race and gender as children, And most of what we were taught needs to be reexamined. My favorite example of learned behavior appeared in a recent article. A father and a son are en route to a baseball game, And their car stalls on the railroad track. The father can't restart the car. An oncoming train hits the car. The father dies. An ambulance rushes the boy to the hospital. In the emergency room, The surgeon takes one look and says, I can't operate on this child. He's my son. Most people will come up with all kinds of bizarre scenarios for this riddle, Sometimes even involving as to rest. What stops most people from seeing that the boy's mother is a surgeon is that we all have learned that only men can be surgeons. Gender belief, Like racial beliefs, Can be unconscious. We are now at the crossroads in race relationships in this country. We can either create and manifest a future vision like that of Martin Luther King or a nightmare of the race war that some people want in this country. I choose the positive future. Bridging the racial and cultural divide is an ongoing healing process. As you begin to heal the race within yourself, You will find it easier to genuinely connect the people of all race of any culture. I truly believe that there is a future where people are evaluated by the content of their character. I also believe that the healing of race and race relationship is quickly becoming an imperative for all of us. Joseph, That was extremely valuable information. But there are many, Many more questions that I know we all have about bridging racial and cultural diversity. Let me ask a very basic question. What is racism? Racism is an idea that implies that one race is better than the other. Now, For the most part in this country, In this particular Western world, We consider people of European descent to be racist by nature, The system itself. In other words, All institutions have been set up so that Europeans would consider themselves to be better than other people. Yet, On the other side of this, Because now we have so many cultures in America, And especially in Southern California, When one person can say, Or people of color can be prejudiced or racist themselves. What I mean by that, For example, Some people I have come in contact with who will tell me about some racial idea of, Let's say, For example, Chinese people can't drive. Now, I hear this from everyone of different races. I was going to say, You keep using that as an example. I hear everyone of different races say this to me. So that implies that may be considered a racist comment. Prejudice, On the other hand, Can be an idea where you prejudge someone before you see them. And again, Racism then can be defined more as an institution of one race being better than the other race, Or considering themselves to be better than the other race. But again, This is jargon. And what it boils down to is that someone feels hurt and someone feels better. And racism then becomes a put down of someone else and a cheap hit of power. Because what will happen in the racist comment is that you will have to keep repeating it in order to feel better than the other person. Now, How did growing up in a segregated society affect you personally, Even today? Like you mentioned prior in your prior talk about the water fountains being different and riding in the back of the bus. You had so many experiences with this. How did this affect you today? Well, Today, As I looked at myself and examined myself and issues around race, I recognize that there are times that when I will find myself feeling or experiencing the less than person. Now, How this affects people or myself especially. I'll give you an example. I recently viewed a movie called Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored, A movie directed by Tim Reed. In that movie, As the grandfather was explaining to the little boy about segregation, He used a W and a C. Now, As I explained to this child. But as I observed the movie, One of the things I noticed in the water fountains scenario, Here was white and colored water fountains. The colored water fountains was lower and smaller than the white water fountains. And I observed this from this perspective as an adult, As a child, All water fountains were a little too tall for me. But then as I think about this, What does this say to adult people of color and adult people who are white? A diminutive situation. Yes. And also a superiority situation, Which then makes it understandable why these patterns of prejudice and racism, Especially in the South, Still are so hard to let go of. Because one race was taught that they were superior and want to believe that. And another race was taught they were inferior and trying to find ways of not dealing with that. And that produces, Again, In people of color, Anger and rage. The system of race relationship in this country or in the world, A system of differences, Has caused so many problems that the system itself is atrophied. It can't work. It cannot take us into that future that we all want. You've talked a lot about governments in the material you've presented today. And you've said that, You know, Governments and institutions can't really change the racial divide through legislation, For example, But that it has to be done on an individual level. Can we really change the deep rooted perspectives we each hold inside of us? Do you think? Yes, I think we can. I think we have to. I think it is quickly becoming an imperative. The deep seated problems that we had inside produces the laws that we try to use to force upon people to change. Now, The civil rights laws were necessary part of the evolution of consciousness in our country. And also we've produced then this thing called affirmative action. And all those laws have been passed. But they do not necessarily deal with the core issue of racism and prejudice. You see, As a man growing up in America, As an African-American man, My family spent a large amount of time talking about white people. White people were a fascinating dinner conversation topic. How they looked, What they smell like, And so forth and so on. Yet when I talk to white people, Some white people will tell me we were taught never to talk about people of color because they did not exist in our world. So what we have here is a lot of learned behavior on each side of the coin. Those who feel oppressed and those who feel superior. That needs to be learned genetically, Genetically less than zero point two percent of genetic material goes into the makeup of skin color and hair. Those outward manifestations, Which makes us different. So we are much more similar, Quote, Under the skin biologically than anything else. Now I have a question that actually sort of broaches what may still be in our culture considered a taboo. It's certainly looked upon with a lot of embarrassment and probably even a lot of non-discussion at this point. What's your view of interracial or intercultural relationships like marriage, Intimate relationships? Oh, That's a very good question. One of the bridges to creating a society that is, Quote, Free of racism and prejudice, Of course, Is our interracial couples. But let me qualify that. On talk shows especially, You will find this topic is thrown out and laughed at and made fun of. And you'll find people saying some pretty strange things. One of the things I often hear from African-American males is I do not date black women because they are whatever to mean, To controlling, To dominating. Or on the other side, I would hear someone say, A white woman would say, I do not date white men because they are too mean, Too controlling, Too dominating. If you want and prefer to be in an interracial relationship, Then that relationship is filled with an opportunity for growth. Because now you're bringing two cultures together in the context of a relationship and they must then find a way to get along, To love each other, To go through what's necessary to change. And depending upon the couple, What aspect of that relationship occupies an area of race? Let me give an example. A couple that is, Quote, A black man and a white woman, Sure, In our society, They would be looked upon as something abnormal. There will be people, Quote, White people will say they should not be together. This woman is marrying beneath her. There will be black people saying, Well, This man is selling out. He's not being true to his race. And so you have stuff again. And what needs to happen is that to recognize this is just stuff. And those two people then have an opportunity to really bridge the racial divide and the culture divide. In the truest sense of the word, Really. To love each other. For that is what it's all about. Love. To just give each other love. To go through whatever is necessary because you love that person, Not their race, Not their color. Now, Furthermore, One of the other issues that always comes up inevitably with interracial couples, Especially when you're looking at black and white. And again, Because I use that example, That's what I grew up with. And I'm sure that people who live in other races and who combine other cultures may have some of the similar ideas. But in America, In the slavery time, If you were considered 40 percent black, You were considered black. You had to put that on your identification papers. What I say is that a couple who has a child in an interracial relationship, That child is both races. He then or she then is multiracial. We do tend to do that, Don't we? Like if you have an interracial couple and they have a child, We do tend to say, Oh, The child looks black. Yeah. Or, Oh, The child looks white. Yes. And as a way of trying to identify, Because we see the differences as being so important. It's like we don't have a term, We don't have a concept for something that's a combination. So we call that multiracial. And that has to become one of the things or one of the ways to begin to acknowledge it. There are more and more percentages of people marrying outside of their race than at any other time in history. And this will continue. It will not go away. Our media does not reflect the idea of interracial relationships unless they're made fun of. You see, You will never see in our movies, Or have not seen so far, Two top main movie stars, One of one race, One of the other, And their children, And what happens to them. Now, You get movies that deal with this, Or talk shows, Or television shows, But in a very anemic way. It's still very, Very taboo. Most definitely. What's your personal vision for the future? My personal vision of the future is that we can create a society where people are evaluated by the content of their character. That each person is so genuinely real that it won't matter what color they are, What gender they are, Because they will care about themselves and others so much. You see, In the new world, Those clinging to the disease of racism will be swept aside. The disease. The disease of racism. And we will celebrate the diversity and recognize the fundamental unity behind the rainbow of people we have on this planet, The white, The black, The red, And the yellow. And we will join these people in new strands of consciousness to form a new intellect of an imaginable power and creativity, A building of society that celebrates the diversity of consciousness while holding forever in the mind that beneath the multi-hued skin, There beats one heart, Flows one blood, And sings one divine, Eternal song. You

Reviews

Riveting and so true. Thank you

This has really helped my recognise my own racial prejudices. Thanks for the talk. 🌹

Thank you for sharing this talk here.

I find this discussion to be critical at this moment in time - thank you. 🙏