Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Differential Apartheid: A New Strain of Racism - Part 2



“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom

  Differential Apartheid is the result of what has been left undone. Hoped for changes are often left for the passage of time to solve, or finish. A point is made, a vision shown broad, or upheaval inspired, and left to humanity to assimilate through a hoped for natural and innate reason. This is where everything we experience tends to come off the rails. 

  In a perfect world, a seeming reasonable idea is considered, deemed worthy, and assimilated into our consciousness as the right thing to do from a given point forward. Yet, the vast possibilities for what's considered to be true - or absolute - is NEVER a given from one person to the next. Fanning out from the individual, micro-social levels of importance causes dilution. Growing from this point, mix in broad populations, and the levels assigned to what can be jammed onto the list of basic everyday concerns we each have at a given moment in time. Here - from the moment of heard cries for change, to the dilution point as time passes - is where it gets tricky when it comes to a change in innate philosophical ideals...

  I guess this may be a good place to remind you of what I mentioned about me in Part 1, and that's my all too evident lack of intellectual credentials. I have none, excepting my earnest will to learn and understand. I try to think about things with a 360 degree view. I try (and no doubt fail miserably on more than one occasion) to put myself in the shoes of everyone as closely as I can reasonably expect to achieve. Stop laughing at how naive this may sound! At least give me some credit for going the extra mile (and loads of Advil) to consider things beyond my personal world. In truth, it doesn't always come out the way I'd envisioned. The odd thing is, I've been labeled both liberal and conservative, and more than a few of my friend think I'm an alien. Maybe it makes me fun at parties...?

  Getting back to interpreting innate ideals, we should slide a bit toward the most simplistic model and consider the different ways anyone from a given State or region may find an issue worthy of their time to consider? Simply put, can something be thoroughly implemented if its not universally embraced? I honestly don't know the answer to this query if not limited to a single defined subject or narrative. Can it be expected or implied that historical tenets weigh less from State to State, region to region? I know I may seem to be tracking away from the base subject of this article, yet the core of Differential Apartheid is acknowledging how things are viewed, and not by just demographics...

  One of the greatest documents ever written begins with the words: "We, the People..." Amazing words to begin, then it kind of slid off the table and crashed to the floor in Article 1, Section 2, clause 3:

" Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons."

  The Constitution had been battered back and forth for years before final ratification, and I'd bet the only words from the very first draft that weren't severely changed were "We, the people.." It devolved as time passed, and individual needs and ideals filtered in. By the time the Constitution was finalized in its original form, the general populous had most likely moved on, trusting it would be handle... 

  Time and tide changes and shifts, but one thing I hold to be a general truth is that the attention span of most people is rather short. In the blink of an eye, the most precious intentions seem to slip away...

 In part 3, let's move closer to Differential Apartheid's current incarnation. Until then...




 

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