Children of the Water: Troy L Johnson - used with artist’s permission.
Have you ever stated you are color blind, when discussing race?
Please, don’t ever do that again.
First, and most obviously ~ people are not gray. Nor will we all intermingle into a gorgeous mocha-latte hue in the foreseeable future.
This is not because of prejudice. Or laws, or customs forbidding interracial love.
There will ALWAYS be a range of skin colors from pale & arctic to dark & equatorial simply because EVOLUTION decrees that the survival of the species requires a wide range of skin colors.
This is so that if something happens between the relationship of the Earth and the Sun, we will already have darker-skinned people around who can brave higher temperatures and more intense sunlight. And a percentage or two of folks, like me, who may be able to hibernate or live in caves because we require so little sunlight.
See?
Do you really see how bogus the concept of race as we experience it and ‘know’ it to be defined today is?
Skin color tells us nothing about someone’s interior consciousness or heart or soul.
Skin color does tell us the optimal latitude where someone would experience effortless wellbeing through the energy of sunlight absorbing through their skin.
If we only ever talk about skin color, as Americans, in relation to governmental categories and societal prejudices; we are committing a sin of omission equivalent to genocide of the African American community.
There are peer-reviewed epidemiological studies proving that most American cities are too far north, latitude-wise, for the sun’s rays to be optimal for equatorial-hued humans. And this is before we consider we have built the work-week so that almost no one can enjoy the sun to the extent that it improves our health.
Ever since Homo Sapiens first went on walk-about, our species has not let latitude stop us from evolving. Because our skin is adaptable and will change based on how much daily sunlight we have access to, within the range of the hue we are born with, which is the median color of our ancestral heritage.
Yet here we are in the era of a sociopathic president, where the only dimension of racial improvement in the public debate is held captive via governmental categories, that represent no actual people. Where those with influence insist they are color blind, defying all common sense and seriously undermining how crucial it is on the human health and welfare angle to be having robust talks about how darker skin requires more access to sunlight in order to mitigate the many diseases known to strike African Americans disproportionately. Overall, more sun exposure (and robust sleep) are the free ways to improve any human’s health. And we cannot let a culture of prejudice stop us from studying the appropriate dosages that will vary based on skin color.
In 2020, the issues of race are seriously threatening to devolve us.
So I ask you to find a new way to respond, the next time you almost state out loud, “I don’t see skin color.”
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White people, don’t think I do not realize that you are scared to do this. Talk openly and bluntly about your racial advantage - otherwise known as white privilege. Do you have a role model of a pale person who is able to sincerely talk in public about their love of dark skin? Someone who could not care less about being labelled by some knee-jerking dickhead, because the truth of my acceptance of all my Homo Sapiens cousins is broadcast throughout every look, sentence, and action?
Well, follow me, especially on You Tube, where I share video essays about Wellbeing Philosophy where my Antiracist agenda is always up for Socratic Monologue > https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgKgDOplK6BFx1HhaHCWkt7DX-V0uN7zy
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The basic importance of skin color sorted, let’s move on to some advanced topics.
Painting by Troy L. Johnson > Seeing the beauty & power of Ancestral posture is the twin of loving all skin colors. There is an immense treasure trove of health advice available when you enjoy noticing black bodies and how they move.
I agree with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi.
Either a person is bluntly anti-racist or just a closeted bigot. That is the American reality of 2019.
Now let’s consider money - greed - as being the root of all racism > This powerful essay by Kendi will enlighten you to the role of seafaring Portugal when it came to establishing racial categories to divide men apart, so that the slave traders could ease their conscience.
https://lithub.com/ibram-x-kendi-how-racism-relies-on-arbitrary-hierarchies/
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Next up, over on twitter #WakeUpToRacism is trending. I can show you how your privilege was installed somewhere around the age of 5. If your family was economically stable enough to get you a 48 or 64 crayon carton of Crayola’s.
Guess what? You never thought about that light peachy color being called ‘skin.’
The zeitgeist of the US set you up to be a racist, no matter how pure your own heart.
I am dismayed, but willing, to fess up, it was a college course on South Africa that opened my eyes to the terrorism of racial thinking in America. There is nothing perfect about South Africa, but we cannot ignore the parallels between the countries, while we learn from the differences in how the majority/minority battle was reversed.
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This is a POWERFUL article that MUST BE READ by Loretta Ross. We are stopping progress by insisting on perfection. America in simply one HUGE HAZING culture.
“We’re a polarized country, divided by white supremacy, patriarchy, racism against immigrants and increasingly vitriolic ways to disrespect one another. Are we evolving or devolving in our ability to handle conflicts?”
“Calling-in is simply a call-out done with love.”
“We can build restorative justice processes to hold the stories of the accusers and the accused, and work together to ascertain harm and achieve justice without seeing anyone as disposable people and violating their human rights or right to due process.”
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READING LIST >
Ibram X. Kendi:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/historical-significance-1619/596365/
