There is no such thing as "racism"

Do you know what one of the main problems is with modern day society?

We're taught not to discriminate based on race.

And while that might seem like a good thing, and you might be rather outraged right now, the entire concept is fundamentally flawed.

The problem is that teaching people this concept instills them with the idea that there is such a thing as "race."

There isn't.

"Race" is a socially construct based on a person physical appearance or geographic location.

Genetically, there is no basic difference between one person and the next. Obviously, because we're all different, there are genetic deviations. But there is nothing to establish "race."

There might be differences based on a person's ancestral geographic home, where an entire group of people gathered in a specific type of environment and procreated based out of a small genetic pool.

And there might be physical differences because of those environments and the extensive amount of time spent there, which allowed for evolutionary and adaptive measures to take hold and be carried on through generations.

And the time even allows for the generation of different cultures, unique to each "genetic" region.

Now I suppose the argument could be made that all of the above mentioned is what defines race. Or that different varieties of humans exist as races, in the same sort of species-subspecies that animals have. Like the difference between a Siberian tiger and a Bengal. Why the term "race" has even been used, instead of sub-species.

But these are animals. First of all, they don't care. I doubt they even notice or know.

And Second. We should be better than animals. We should realize that there are no real differences. Nothing to justify segregating ourselves based solely on genetic histories.

Now, as mentioned, there are different cultures.

But truthfully, this what we're really afraid of.

Take for example the idea of "the angry black man."

What scares us?

The anger?
The black?
Or the man?

Are we afraid of an angry Eminem?

Well, I suppose so. So maybe it is the anger.
But are we afraid of an angry Carson Daly? Or perhaps an angry Lindsay Lohan?

I didn't think so.
That rules out the anger.

So: black.

Are we afraid of an angry Tiger Woods or Lenny Kravitz?
No.

But they are only partially black.

What about an angry Jamie Foxx? or Chris Rock?

Well, I'm certainly not.

So that rules out black.

Man?

Well, do you really think anyone's afraid of just every man?
I mean, this is a category that includes not only Eminem, or 50 Cent, but Elton John and that Carson guy for "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy."

So somehow I don't think it's the male part.

And yet, there is a specific kind of man, with dark skin, who scares us when he's angry.

But it's certainly not any of the individual traits. It's the collective. And it's a collective that we fear in not only existence, but in possibility.

There are certain people that scare us for what they could become.

People like 50 Cent.

But also people like Eminem.

Because what scares us, which no one bothers to explain or think about, is not a specific person or supposed "race" but a specific culture.

It is a culture that is quite common across the world. It is a culture that is rampant in large cities and concentrated in poorer neighborhoods.

It's a culture where violence excels and flourishes.

We've all been conditioned to recognize the signs. The behavior. The language. The dress and mannerisms.

Now, that this culture happens to often congregate in areas also commonly populated by "races" we would call "black" or "Hispanic" or even "Asian", and encroaches on just the corner of the "whites" is coincidence.

I can't explain why these off-shoots of larger cultures have converged in poor areas and created new cultures. I can't explain why it always seems to be the same cultures converging.

I'm not a politician or a historian or a social analyst. Or a current or former member of the downtrodden who's embittered against the society and government that put me there.

But it remains. We're not afraid of "races." We're afraid of cultures. We've learned to interpret visual and verbal clues as identification of danger. Like a brightly colored frog.

A talent remnant of nature and a development of society. One that, sadly enough, is often correct.

But it is still just a culture.

So while obviously it would be wonderful if we could just get rid of the concept all together, that doesn't seem likely to happen until the "races" are much more integrated.

Which won't occur for a long, long time since there are still too many distinct cultures that prohibit or frown upon mixing with other cultures in an effort to preserve itself (which I admire and understand even as I disapprove). Continued education and exposure will of course speed the process along. But ideas like "separating church from state," which prohibit prayer and cultural specifics from combining our generations, and the "monetary and class" differences, which retain several culture commonalities, will severely limit the process. Though it does offer one of the few positives that has come from our society progressing towards modernization conjoined with the removal of cultural uniquities, like "rites of passage," allowing for increased survival ratings and provided a lot more time for "soul searching" and leaving individuals much more likely to develop studious interests in other cultures, thereby increasing exposure and cross-patternization which is carried on through the genetic or (as is my hope for this society) non-genetic offspring.

But since the concept of degradation and discrimination won't go away, the least we can do is teach people in the correct context. The ignorant teaching the ignorant doesn't make anyone smarter.

And since you must call it something as long as it is around and when it is later used in the context of "once upon a time," at least refer to it by the much more accurate "culturism?"

You don't have to give me credit. You don't even have to agree with me or spread this concept any further than your own mind.

Just stop doing it.