In a few discussions I’ve had recently, I’ve begun to think about an interesting idea. About discrimination based upon intellect as a form of ethnic discrimination.
This thread: In which I pit aspects of the African American culture of today touches on the subject.
I’ve been going to meetings of an activist organization here in New York, and one of the major topics has been racism, tokenism, and missionary tendencies. We’ve discussed how very often the activist community comes from an intellectually superior angle, and oftentimes alienates the people, they think they are fighting the revolution for. It makes it difficult for activist organizations that are largely ‘white’ to interface with what we term as “minority” communities. So we discussed what the issues are that cause these problems.
A very interesting one that came up is the division between atheists and theists. The activist community oftentimes denegrates faith based groups as being the “Opiate of the Masses.” The issue being that religion is a major source of community for ‘minority’ communities in America. Hispanics are largely catholic and Black communities are largely Baptist or some other flavor of protestant. So the intellectual denigration of religion by default falls upon these communities and is thus alienating. It makes it hard to believe that the liberal socialist intellectuals care any more about the people they claim to be fighting for when they take on such a tone of haughty superiority right out of the gate.
In white society we hold Academics to be the loftiest pursuit. There are consistant arguments, such as the thread I posted, about why Black Americans are more interested in music and sports than Academia. I think more than anything that this focus on Academia is indemically ‘racist’. I would say it is the Academic community in ‘White America’ that is the largest perpetrator of racism in this day and age.
This is an idea I have mulled over in my head for a few years now, and have been unable to put into words properly. I’ve always wondered why a lot of the problems I see ‘white’ people have interfacing with ‘minorities’ don’t apply to me in the same way. I realized the other day that it is that I share something in common, in that I am religious, and do not look down upon religion. This was put into stark relief while sitting in a room that was very culturally diverse, having white christian’s, white activist atheists, hispanic catholic women, black women, someone who is part of the nation of Islam. I made a comment about spirituality and how when one is secure in their spirituality they can see that in the eyes of someone else, and there is a passing nod between the people acknowledging that light they see there, and it transcends boundaries of race and religion. As I looked around the room, the people that most agreed with me were the ‘minorities’ who were religious. The ones that didn’t really respond to my eye contact were the ‘white’ intellectual activists.
When I have racist arguments levelled at me, more often than not, they are levelled by people who did not grow up being discriminated against, and who have either recently discovered racism, or have guilt about racism. I rarely have this sort of thing levelled at me by the black guy who grew up in the ghetto. It’s more often the suburban black/hispanic, or a white person, and they are almost always academics.
It’s this idea that academics have that “The minorities aren’t too stupid to be academic like us.” that is what is racist in my opinion. I would say that a lot of the push of academics at people is what causes the resistance, because as I have experienced much in my life is a tendency of academics to denegrate me in order to try and push me toward a more academic life. I have never been to college, and therefore have gaps in my education, but in other ways I am far more educated than many people I have met with a college degree. I don’t feel a need to go to college, not because I don’t think there is value there, but because I feel that the bureaucratic academic structure would be 75% waste of my time, and 25% valuable skills. I do not feel that my lack of college has held me back socially overall. Academics aren’t for everyone, and academia very often promotes a very narrow ideal of what intelligence is. Personally I don’t hold a talent for statistical analysis as any higher intelligence than the ballistic muscle coordination required for a jump shot.
So while I do not wish to apply blame for one person’s actions on another, I think it is worthwhile for us to discuss this academic tendency, and when we ask questions about why certain people don’t value academics, perhaps we’ll come closer to an answer.
Erek