STAND UP AGAINST RACISM

I'm re-posting this one because I think it is timely in our increasingly divided country.

Just for the sake of variety, this post is NOT a myth.  We all need to be aware of and successfully discourage prejudice, not only by others but especially by ourselves.  None of us are innocent. 

RACISM
"The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts,
while the [rest] are full of confidence." -
Charles Bukowski

 

PURPOSE OF THIS POST: 

·         To convey the courage of my convictions,

·         Emphasize the need for dialogue using the “is it true, kind and necessary” test while aiming for at least two of those criteria in any given moment,

·         The importance of a desire for equanimity,

·         The need for at least attempting empathy and understanding.

·         Being accountable for our feelings and actions by seeking education, nuance, specifics and evidence for, and against, one’s prejudices.

First, consider definitions so we’re at least on the same page as to what we’re talking about.
Second, consider causes
Third, effects
Fourth, solutions.

DEFINITIONS:
My favorite is from Oxford-
RACISM:  prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people based on their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized . . . the belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.

PREJUDICE:  preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.  Key words:  not based on reason or actual [statistically relevant] experience.  I added “statistically relevant” because a person’s racism could also be based on rare traumatic personal experiences.

CAUSES:
What is racism a subcategory of?  That is the source of its solution and dissolution.  I think the primary category of thoughts and behaviors is prejudice because prejudice is the fertile soil in which discrimination & antagonism flourish.

So, one achievement from this important word game is that it is fair to say no one is “a racist” nor is anyone “not a racist”.  Not a single one of us is free of preconceived opinions not based on evidence. Isn’t it important to recognize that no one is totally prejudiced nor totally not prejudiced?  It is simply a matter of degree, given a specific incident of prejudice. 

In a courtroom, a jury rendering evidence-free or hearsay-based judgment would be reversed by the judge.  Shouldn’t we be as disciplined in our thinking?  Why do we seem so susceptible to this bias?  What are the causes of prejudice?

Upbringing- familial.  There is high survival value- usually -in a child’s learning from the ancestral accumulation of family/tribal wisdom.  Unfortunately the not so wise stuff is also transferred.

Human Nature- we want our choices to be apparent and easy.  Skin color, dress, language & cultural differences are obvious and easy bits of information.  And irrelevant if we’re using them to distinguish others as inferior.  We’ve gotten intellectually lazy.

Evolutionary tribalism- worked well 10,000 years ago but now that we’ve populated the globe tribalism is destructive to the individual, society and the world.  Collaboration has the highest odds of success for both individuals and groups, not endless fighting.

Biblical misreading- good and evil, all or nothing, heaven & hell.  Dichotomies are rarely true or useful.

And false dichotomous thinking in general.  Again, there is no such thing as “a racist”.  There is no such thing as “a nonracist”.  We are all on the gradient, somewhere between.  A few are much closer to either end.

Easy scapegoats- insecure, abused, mentally ill people can inch their ways up a notch from the bottom by beating others down to their level of suffering.  Skin color, voice accent or visual cultural differences- dress, physical appearance, religious practices -become easy (but specious) indicators of who deserves to be abused.

EFFECTS:

In general- as with all prejudicial decisions involving other people -thoughts, feelings and decisions based on hearsay or prejudice are risky.  On the one hand, you risk missing valuable lessons from, and rewarding relationships with, those you may dumbly marginalize.  And, on the other hand, you risk enabling and empowering the prejudicial members of your “tribe” who are dangerous to you and to others.  Neither effect bodes well for your future as those effects spill over into all aspects of your life.

But I get it.  If you’re struggling financially, physically or psychologically (or all of them!), the emotional release of causing pain to another supposedly inferior or evil person or group of people is undeniable.  But that’s all it is.  An emotional release.  Your underlying problems aren’t solved and are in fact made worse.  Your gratifying but evidence-free behavior will also, at some level, eat away at your soul.  This becomes a vicious downward spiral:  pain > prejudicial action > more pain > more prejudicial action.

Evidence-free, prejudicial decisions are addictive; they are a logical fallacy known as the “sunk cost” fallacy:  The more you have invested in something- the sunk cost - whether it is time, effort or money, the more committed you become to that thing even when all the evidence suggest it’s time to fold ‘em, it’s time to evolve.  As Jim Rohn says, “We nourish the cause and curse the effect”. 

But here’s the encouraging thing:  All of these preconditions and effects are within our personal control.

 

SOLUTIONS:

From the above discussion it should be obvious that prejudices cannot be eliminated, much less the prejudice of racism.  But in each individual, each group and all systems, racist thoughts and behaviors  can be scaled down so less harm is caused.  Before talking about solutions, I want to single out one idea that is not a solution.

Etiquette, simply being nicer.  Yes, kindness is important.  (Remember my “True, Kind, Necessary” test for things you say to others.)  Focusing only on acts of kindness fails to deal with anything on this list of systemic racist results, from Alicia Sprague:

• people of all races use and sell illegal drugs at similar rates in the U.S., yet the imprisonment rate of African Americans for drug charges is six times that of white folks­­­­¹ and “the United States currently imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid.”²
• lending and housing market practices continue to segregate people by class and skin color and relegate folks of color to poorer neighborhoods.³
• Native Americans have been forced off land where their ancestors lived for generations and coerced onto the most marginal and barren land in the U.S., ⁴ or that indigenous women are missing and murdered at disproportional rates. ⁵
• a person using a wheelchair cannot enter a building with stairs but no ramp, or more broadly, that our society is not built for people who are navigating the world with disabilities.⁶
• there are “food deserts” in our urban centers, where working class folks have to rely on fast food without the option of accessible grocery stores.⁷
• the maternal mortality rate of Black women is three to four times higher than that of white women.⁸
• private businesses can refuse service to folks who identify as LGBTQ+, whether this means denying them a meal or an education.⁹
• in Flint, Michigan, a community of predominantly Black folks, thousands of residents are still getting their water from lead pipes, 6 years after the initial water crisis began.¹⁰
• trans women of color are disproportionately at greater risk of violence than non-trans women.¹¹
• Latinx women make 54 cents for every dollar paid to white men.¹²
• Anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise in the United States and are at an 18 year high in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. ¹³

So what will work?

Personal Accountability- acknowledge that you are neither perfect nor innocent.  Just because you have the intellectual belief that you are not racist doesn’t mean you are not racist.  Remember.  It’s just a matter of degree.

Education- if you are an avowed racist, try stepping out of your echo chamber by reading black authors, talking to people outside your normal circle of friends.  If you are an avowed nonracist, do some serious introspection and outreach to discover and cure your residual racist behaviors.

Nuance- understand and find examples of the fact that the racist/not racist dichotomy is neither accurate nor useful.

Specifics- examine your specific presumptions about race.  Whenever you say, “All ______ are _______” about those you are prejudiced against, do some research.  What are the exceptions?  Are the exceptions actually the rule?  Does your statement have any evidence to back it up?  Are the sources scientific and peer reviewed?  Or, upon closer examination, does it even make any sense?

Standing up to racism requires that each of us stand up to our own prejudices and the prejudices of others while working to repair the system that perpetuates it.  Stand up.  

Your Constructive Comments are Welcome!

I Asked My Readers "What Makes You Happy?" - here's what they said

There’s a lot we could be talking- and worrying -about lately.

The pandemic.

Vaccination rates.

Earnings.

Impeachment.

Markets.

Politics.

Instead, we asked our readers something else entirely:

And here are some of the great responses  . . . which inspired us and made us smile!  From feeling the south wind blow to the smell of freshly-bloomed flowers, our readers reminded us of the importance of slowing down and enjoying the good things in life. 

• "My dog greeting me at the door when I come home with a happy wag." 
   
• "[After the 2021 snowstorm] I loved the way the ice sparkled on the snow and the limbs of the trees (and was grateful that I had the trees pruned last year)".  

• "Spoiling the COVID kitty my daughter loaned me for the past year."

• "Having the kids and the grandkids living with us has given me so wonderful times, laughs and most of all happiness. I have had the privilege of being part of their lives that I would have missed if we hadn’t lived together."

• "When I let the dog out first thing in the morning, I love the feel of the south wind."
  
  
• "I like to stay busy with productive projects, some very basic things like putting my shop floor tools on wheels"
  
  
• "Happiness is experiencing life, whether that's spending time with old friends or making new ones; whether that's writing, photography, other art; whether that's exploring the outdoors, lugging a 50-pound pack up a mountain, stopping at the top for the moment and easing down the other side."

• "My hot tub makes me happy!"

•  Wherever I go or what I do, I’ll pick up a hat to commemorate what I’m doing at the time. Kind of a story of my life collection. This brings a smile to my face when I reminisce about the places I’ve been and the many things I have done over the years.

• "The smell of high desert soil and dry country plants, like sage."

• "A regular written gratitude list with at least 3 to 5 different things on it. For today? Heat, indoor plumbing, corrective lenses and antibiotics."

• "Zoom meetings with my dance family."

• "The fragrance of honeysuckle, Lady Banks rose,  Rosa Penelope, Casa Blanca lilies, lavender, and rosemary."

• "When I notice I am in the space between a breath."
  
  
• Seeing things in nature such as birds feeding at the bird feeder.
  
  
• Seeing all the colors of a beautiful rainbow right here in Portland.
  
  
• Blue skies with fluffy white clouds and the sun shining.
  
  
• Spending time doing anything with my significant other whether it be a meal, a car ride, a walk, or just watching a good movie together.
  
  
• Planning future adventures with a friend or family member or significant other.
  
  
• Practicing my Spanish or playing brain games on my iPad Pro or listening to an audio book.
  
  
• Getting a really good nights sleep and waking up feeling refreshed and ready for the day.
  
  
• Having a day when I can do anything I want or even absolutely nothing if I choose to.
  
  
• Knowing I have some really excellent people in my life including you Gary Duell.  

• Nurturing connections with the people I care about.  
  
  
• Doing things to make the world a kinder place. 

My personal recipe for happiness is:

Being present with whatever and whomever I'm with in the moment.  

Not judging.  

Not wishing things were different, like some perfect past or idealized future.  Such fruitless wishing leads to stress, exhaustion and a feeling of lack of control.

If I can get some of that focus into each day, I call it a good day, even if it wasn't particularly fun.

I’ve also found that simple things bring me joy, even when I’m stressed or not feeling my best.

Our dog visiting me at my desk.  A nap in my lap (despite her fifty pounds).  Or a quick game of tug-o'-war.

Smiles and laughter from my spouse.

And, especially, time spent in nature, breathing in the air and hearing the wind in the fir trees, our footsteps on the trail & happy dog at our side. . . . then behind us  . . then in front of us.  Shinrin-yoku, Japanese for "forest bathing", is a practice I can identify with.

Your Constructive Comments are Welcome!

EVERYONE SHOULD PURSUE PEAK PERFORMANCE

I believe the title of this post to be a myth.  

In my business (financial services) I'm deluged with books, websites, videos, training programs, motivational quotes and memes, superstar mentor offers, mastermind groups, activity tracking spreadsheets, apps to kick my ass out of bed, and on and on.  The drive for maximum this and killer that and dominant this has spread out over all walks of life.  If you're not becoming steadily more awesome every day then you're an abject failure.

Now I did consider for a moment that perhaps my revulsion toward these pushes to achieve my ultimate wonderfulness was simply in defense of, and a rationalization for, my contented mediocrity*.  But I realized that the most successful peak performance schemes occur in areas that are easily measured.

If I'm an asset manager, the dollar amount of assets I manage reveals my superiority.  If I sell insurance products, my gross sales are my badge.  If I'm an investment banker the size of the deals is my yardstick.  If I'm an athlete there are a plethora of statistics and measurements.  But how do you measure simply becoming a better person, a better partner, a better citizen?  I'm very interested in that pursuit but have yet to find relevant metrics.  Is it:

• Popularity?  We have an excess of evidence that popularity usually is irrelevant and, in fact, almost a counter-indicator of one's quality as a human being.  
• Wealth?  Ditto.  
• Power?  Yet another counter-indicator.  

 How do we measure what is genuinely important?  Is it even measurable?  If so, how?  If not, how can we at least detect it to aspire to it and assess our progress?

I welcome your suggestions.

Your Constructive Comments are Welcome! 

*No, I don't really believe I'm mediocre.