We Are The Herrenvolk (guest post by Ann)

Published by rachels | Filed under Uncategorized

Editors note:  Ann is a guest potster and does not have her own blog, but she can be reached the following email.

 “racism: (Webster’s Dictionary/Tenth Edition); [1936] 1: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human abilities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority (or inferiority for that matter) of a particular race. 2: racial prejudice or discrimnination.”

WE ARE THE HERRENVOLK

Man have always shown cruelty and viciousness towards races, peoples and other cultures that are different from his own, especially small minority groups, whether it be the color of the skin, physical attributes, or customs.

Since humans have a conscience to contend with, they have to justify and rationalize why they hate, discriminate and seek to destroy those who are different from them.

And since man can think of many ways to devise reasons for his cruelty, he can never run out of reasons to hate and destroy.

The Herrenvolks of the world have always found reasons to hate those who did not fit their category of the dominant “in-group”; throughout the centuries, there have been many socities and groups who have ascribed to the concept of herrenvolk:

Greeks considered anyone not born a Greek to be a barbarian; they felt that they were by birth innately endowed to dominate and rule the earth. They felt that northern Europeans were brave, but lacked intelligence; Asiatics lacked spirit; they felt that they, the Greeks, were the only intelligent, superior people alive in the world at their time, and that all others were inferior “out-groups”.

The Koreans of old were more blunt and to the point in their zenophobia. They put up signs stating to the citizens: “If you see a stranger, kill him!”

Ancient Egyptians were a bit subtle. They painted the skin of other peoples in natural colors, but, reserved the color red for themselves. It would not take much to realize that at that time, red was considered a superior color, much as the same way “white” is considered a “superior” color in present-day America.

Simple cultures and peoples simply go about elevating themselves, while dragging down others with simpler theories. There was a Chinese scholar who solved the whole race problem as follows: “There are five great races. There are the black colored race, and the white colored race, and the brown colored race, and the red colored race, and lastly there are we Chinese, the skin colored race.”

Small primitive tribes simply cut to the chase and said more it more bluntly in simple terms. They simply called themselves “The Human Beings”, The Men” (the Inuit, the Dineh), and everyone else is not a human being and you had permission to kill them or do anything else to them that would strike your fancy.

Unfortunately, man always needs a reason to jusitfy persecution, oppression and domination. The racial aspect—that there are certain races who by birth/heredity are superior and that certain other races by birth/heredity are inferior, assumed importance in relatively recent times, in the last two centuries. And cleavages based on race are more vicious, since race is inherent, irrevocable and unalterable. No one can escape. You are born into the race you are. If you are born into the “right” race (”White”), you are given by birth privileges owing to your whiteness; but, if you are born into the “wrong” race (”Black”), then you are considered as to be treated as less than human.

If you are the white race, certain privileges are given to you that the “Other” has no right to:

-the women of your race are to be considered the epitome of beauty; all other women are considered non-beautiful or sub-standard because they do not have white skin, thin lips, straight hair, especially if that woman of the “Other” race is black—she is considered to be unworthy of love, adoration and respect;

-the men of your race are considered decent, humane,and forward-thinking and that they are incapable of being “brutes”, but, the men of the “Other” race, blacks, are to be considered “beasts, brutes, savages”, especially if they are black men. Never mind that the “superior” men of the in-group race have done more acts of savagery than can be counted throughout the history of America: legalized, sanctioned and condoned by law and in public opinion the rapes and impregnation of defenseless black women during slavery and segregation, all the way up to the 1970s; the burning alive and torture of black men and women in lynchings; the economic racism of denying black people the rights to decent work for which they were qualified.

-the constant visual, written and media images that “white is right, loyal, kind, good, never -can-do-no-wrong” and that “black is bad-lazy-evil-never-can-do-any right” is the result of two centuries of lies, distruths, misconceptions.

If an out-group seeks to try and resist the prejudiced/racists views continually forced upon them, would a change in behaviour affect the change in view from the in-group? I.e., if everyone in the out-group was to suddenly become all virtuous, honest, clean-living, would the in-group necessarily change their ingrained views of them? Not necessarily so. Special dinstinction, anything that readily differentiates one group from another, adds to the hardship of minority groups, especially black people.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

What can be done to attempt to override the constant barrage of racist, prejudicial assumptions of the in-group towards the out-group?

Members of the in-group should attempt more contact with the outgroup. Isolation of peoples and communities, i.e. white suburbs, gated communities and all-white towns allow for a stilted, stunted view of life. Living, working, attending school and going to church with peoples of other races and cultures can be a very good start to breaking down the physical and psychological barriers that exist in America.

The less you know of a race or person of that race, the more you will develope prejudicial and racial views based on assumptions that may range from the mild to the most dangerous. For the dominant group to be expected to release its hold on power and prestige to happen anytime soon is to be irrational and unrealistic. Power is never conceded freely, and the out-group must seize the images of itself back to give more positive views and images of itself.

More black and minorities need to enter the media and film industry. As long as the in-group has control of media access to images (tv, magazine ads, newspapers and Hollywood), the out-group will have an uphill battle in re-shaping and defining its own image. The “killing of the black body” has gone on for centuries in America, and it will take many years and generations before blacks can change the views of whites and other races of the black people as a whole.

White people also need to acknowledge the privileges their white skin affords them. The benefits it gives them; the benefit of a doubt it gives them. They must make a conscious decision to educate and work with their own people to acknowledge America’s racist past, not by wallowing in guilt; that is the cheap cop-out way. But, by working to change the racist views of their own people.

The white people of America must come to terms with the racist genocide against Indians and black Americans, the economic racism against Latino immigrants in menial jobs and the fear of a “Muslim-planet” they have against followers of Islam.

It is not enough to want minorities to carry the ball all the time; it is time for the white people to do their share in working to make America an America for all.

Working, living and going to school with many minorities will be a start in lessening the grip racism holds on the psyches of white people. When white people see that blacks, hispanic and people of other races are no different from them, i.e., that they have worries about the economy, worries about the proper upbringing of their children, worries about the housing market, jobs, the state of health care in America—once white people see in their daily interactions with other racial groups that they are more alike white people than unlike them, then can the grip of racism slowly be eradicated.
It will not be easy; nothing that is worth working and striving for is.

But, we have to start somewhere.

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