Let's call it a disease or infection?

By M H Ahssan

The human race seems to move slowly out of the shadow of racism. Its history is entangled with the greatest movements that have shaped the fate of every people: war, empire, colonialism, and nationalism. At various points all of these influences have been put in a positive light. Even now, when few would extol the virtues of empire or colonialism, the grip of nationalism remains strong.

Let’s say that we call racism a disease or infection in otherwise sane minds. This seems reasonable since feeling superior or inferior according to the color of your skin exists at an emotional, often subconscious level, not a rational one. How can we remove this infection when it hides so subtly inside us?

Irrational ideas are sticky. They cling even when we don’t want them to. This stickiness is due to various factors, and each can be changed. The primary factor is belief. Children are raised believing that one race is innately superior to another. If they belong to the wrong race, they are raised to feel victimized, angry, and resentful. Another belief is that history dictates destiny. The stagnation of any underclass is perpetuated because “it’s always been this way.” Then there are the endemic beliefs that a certain race is dangerous, criminal, ignorant, stupid, and prone to irrational acts.

Insidiously, these beliefs mask the disease. A racist can afford not to see himself as sick because he seemingly profits by being a racist. He is given a superior identity. In medicine we call this a secondary gain, like a child getting ice cream and lots of attention when he goes into the hospital to have is tonsils taken out.

To cure racism, you must first burst the spell of the false identity that racism confers, both on the racist and his victim.

I feel hopeful here, because some powerful forces are at work against the disease. The election of Barrack Obama has been widely and correctly seen as a blow against racism. Even a generation ago, Obama would have been viewed racially as a mulatto in much of America. He rose above racial identity by first facing the broader question, “Who am I/” That struggle and the answers he came to are outlined in his book, Dreams of My Father, with its telling subtitle, “A Story of Race and Inheritance.”

No person can be free of racism without examining the burden of a toxic inheritance. All over the world, improvements in living conditions, where they occur, give the population a chance to move away from primitive identities forced upon them for survival. The force of modernism stands ready to challenge tribalism everywhere.

But ultimately it will be the need to survive as a planet that will make racism no longer viable. Survival of the fittest is giving way to survival of the wisest. It may seem overblown to call the new India wise or post-Bush America or oil-rich Russia.

Yet anywhere those old, toxic identities are being toppled, wisdom is prevailing, whether it’s the toxic identity of Bush-era America, India gripped by religious fundamentalism, or Russia stagnating under Communist bureaucracy.

Racism cannot be separated neatly from the holistic issue of identity. “Who am I?” is a question that shifts with history, economics, and crises. If we are lucky, the current global crisis will serve as a cauldron for burning up racism and pushing it closer to eradication.