In today’s America there are more immigrants than the majority Caucasian race and the races are becoming mixed. Apparently, there are four distinct races: Caucasoid, Negroid, Mongoloid and a combination of the three: Indian. The distinctions are made through biological traits that adapted to environmental (climatic) factors over time, and as a result of migration. The most publicized form of racism exists between races, but the most awful form exists within races. This “intra-racism” has been suppressed because it tends to lessen the impact of “inter-racism”, which blames mostly the Caucasian race. It is important to note that racism is not inherited biologically, rather, it is socialized/learned behavior which allegedly serves to preserve the races, albeit, with its roots entrenched in ignorance.
All emancipation movements were not made possible without the support of the majority race, Caucasian. Most movements for civil rights and justice involved the cooperation of a few inter-racial partnerships with a common goal…unity in humility. The Honorable Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s cause would not have manifested without the support of a few unnamed Caucasians. Same with the abolition of slavery, it would not have been realized without the support of some Caucasians. In Caribbean history, we learn that African slaves were “POWs” of tribal warfare and were sold by Africans, in exchange for “beads”, to the Caucasians. This is a fact that has been suppressed and it prevents healing between races. A refusal to “move on” refuels old fires.
I am of the Indian race. I was born in the Caribbean and came to the US at the age of 18. I am kinda multi-cultural, having experienced many different cultures and having the well-developed ability to “walk around in the other person’s shoes”. I have enjoyed some unity with all races in my homeland but encountered major racism when I came to the US: from all races. I encountered racism first, within my own race. This experience of intra-racism, made it easy for me to observe it in all the races while functioning in a field, which called for contact with peoples of different races, ages, cultures and backgrounds. Intra-racism is as much painful as inter-racism. At the DMV, I had the pleasure of an attempt to classify my race. The White employee wrote on my paperwork “Black”. Afterwards, a Black employee reviewed the papers and advised me that I was not Black, and change me to an “Other”. Fine by me I thought, as long as I know who I am, you are on your own with classifying me. That was not so bad. Bad was when a doctor from India told me I was not Indian because I was not born there. I figured she must have slept through her genetics classes.
My experience was an eye-opening one while working with non-Caucasians. The Hispanics and Blacks were united only from one selfish purpose to the next but not otherwise. In my experience, both could be supportive but there was always an underlying contest to have a manager of their own race over them. They would do and did practice every kind of act to accomplish this goal, including Voodoo and Santaria. They believed in their “power” to get their own way, distort facts, complain, blame and devise deviousness. The time it took to be this way and do these things far exceeded an eight hour work day and could have been used to serve twenty clients per day. But no. The concepts of work and ethics are relative. It appeared that the Hispanics found it hard to take directives from a “little black girl” and the Blacks found it hard to take orders from “What is she and just who does she think she is?” The movement was always an undermining one. Only another Hispanic or Black could understand their need for rest, relaxation and leisure at work while on the clock. I spoke with a peer who told me she had a lot of clients coming to her for therapy because they never worked so hard, in their countries of origin, as they do now in the US. I guess, adaptation and assimilation are taking on new meanings. The mentality is that if you don’t like to work hard or even at all…change the work place. Finding another job, a job you like or improving your marketability are moot options. The other inferior person must change, not “I”.
I could not understand it…I did my time in the education slammer, so why was I experiencing this base form of human mis-interaction? Then it dawned on me…I asked them to work and I was not fitting the racial profile. No workplace cultural diversity training ever really taught me about the cultural norms of any culture. Such trainings only allowed employees to aire common mis-conceptions, but never informed about norms. One of the norms of my race is “hard working”. This leads me to say that, most Black Jamaicans in fits of rage with and an Indian person, will frequently revert to name calling and use the word “Coolie. This word weighs the same as the slang word for Blacks, which in Jamaica is “Neiga”. The comedy is, that “Coolie” means “hard-working laborer”. I had the dismaying experience of being called “Coolie” in one of these trainings by the trainer, a Black Jamaican nurse with a MBA. What was she doing even training people on cultural diversity? It was more a name-calling forum to desensitize others to being offended. I did what I always did in these situations…ignored her. She later came to me to proudly display pictures of her husband’s mother, an Indian. Was she searching for some identity with the Indian race? Or was it a cowardly form of apology?
This is the same person who said with her green contacts and blond braids, “I am proud to be Black”. I wondered about the straight hair weaves, blonde extensions, green contacts, bleached skin and classical music playing on the computers of my past Black supervisors. Were they really proud to be Black or trying desperately to be the best they can be…White-looking? I don’t get it. Could it be an assimilation move, a career advancement concoction? If I were proud of my race, should I not be proud of my authentic features? Just like the Indian race, the Blacks who are lighter skinned, tend to feel that they are white or superior because of it. They look down on their darker brethren, even if their complexion is store bought. They expect to receive more attention for the extra effort and sometimes, they do. I suppose that’s the reinforcement.
Almost all Jamaicans with European surnames, would swear that they are directly linked to a Caucasian ancestor. It’s never because they were owned by slave masters and named accordingly. Worse if they are light-skinned… the 1/16th DNA principle excuses ancestral rape. Is it a crime in being of slave ancestry? In the past, the first slaves were Israelites – Jews – whites. Throughout history many peoples were enslaved. Slavery is an injustice to all peoples. So, why does the Black man resist this part of his history and expect compensation for it? I am not trying to justify mal-treatment, but many races experienced it (some are even experiencing it today). I am of indentured servant ancestry, am I proud of it? Yes…Why, you may ask? First of all, I cannot do anything now to change my history. Second, if I were in India today I would probably be dead from the mass murdering of female children for their poor return on investment…dowries, would be of the lower caste with no hope of an opportunity or would get “notice” of a divorce by my husband through his lighting a match and dousing me with gasoline.
Contrary to popular belief, racism is not wickedly served-up to Blacks by Whites only. Blacks, Chinese, Hispanics, Mid-Easterners and Indians indeed hold their own internal racist systems for the propagation and suppression of their own. Blacks in America do prejudge whites and themselves, but reserve the right to condemn whites for prejudging them. The Blackman does not hold the exclusive right to “cry” discrimination and racism. They perpetrate it themselves. Look at what happened to Mr. Imus, was he to bear the brunt of the burden for the whole human race?
It is time that we admit that we are all “racist” in one way or another…that the historical basis for racism was to propagate the race and control being outnumbered by other races. This has always been the underlying reason for wars and genocide also known as population control. Every group seeks to subdue and oppress the majority rule. However, in today’s world there is no need for racism because quite frankly, the racial divide is narrowing due to some generation “Y-ers'” increased tolerance and some generation “X-ers'” bravery to step out into the world of interracial coupling. As for the lighter skinned relatives, my father got the last laugh. My siblings and I ended-up being the only ones in our generation to attend college and earn degrees, even Cum Laude. Rather than perform the expected roles of growing-up to be their servants, we far exceeded their megre expectations. Up until now they cannot recover from this truth. Yes, our prognosis was bad, being offsprings of one who was too “black” to be a blood-relative of his generic-white siblings. Frequently called “adopted” during family disputes, my father made a way for us that was a break in the traditional cycle. It is my hope that the knowledge of intra-racism will take the edge off inter-racism…that the Caucasian race will stop being targeted as the only one capable of perpetrating this ignorance.
