It states, and it only states, that one particular race is to be valued or judged, that one tone of skin is either divine or satanic, that a person is only worth as much as the type of people he came from. In the history of civilization, it was a vulture preying on the superstitions of people all around the world. Those who conformed to whatever society told them to commonly accepted Racism, just as commonly as those with enough heart to feel have rejected it. This vile institution has profaned the minds of men, it has turned them into monstrous beasts, careless and heartless, brutal and cruel, in their pursuits to cause suffering.

To Racism, there is nothing but race. A man may speak for all that he wishes, may argue for as long as arguments last, but if he is not the right race, the right ethnic background, then there is no difficulty in the question. And it is but one question: is this man a member of our race? Does he have the same skin color? Do his parents have the same skin color as my own parents? Racism is simply a judge of that and nothing else. It is not humane or rational in the slightest bit. It does not ask: is this man humane? Is this man merciful? Is this man accepting? Does he offer his sympathies to those who may suffer?

Racism is blind inhumanity. Without caprice, it will throw responsibility onto that which no man can possibly be responsible for: race. From this one creed, men have committed numerous atrocities. Racists have forced Jews from their homes and barred them from work. They have whipped the flog against the stinging, bleeding flesh of the African human, whose life can be defined as toil and sweat. They decapitated Asians who tried to mine gold. Of every immigant to the United States, they have put coals of fire on their back, much like the coals of fire on their own minds. They have lynched men with a smiling face, cast them out into the streets, smited them and beaten them. With scorn and hate, Racists have committed the contumelies that once were thought to only make up nightmares. That is my opinion of Racism.

Arguments of Racism

"You are now citizens of many of the States, and in time you will be of all. I am astonished when I think how long it took to abolish the slave, how long it took to abolish slavery in this country. I am also astonished to think that a few years ago magnificent steamers went down the Mississippi freighted with your fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters, and may be some of you, bound like criminals, separated from wives, from husbands, every human feeling laughed at and outraged, sold like beasts, carried away from homes to work for another, receiving for pay only the marks of the lash upon the naked bark. I am astonished at these things. I hate to think that all this was done under the Constitution of the United States, under the flag of my country, under the wings of the eagle.

"The flag was not then what it is now. It was a mere rag in comparison. The eagle was a buzzard; and the Constitution sanctioned the greatest crime of the world." -- Robert Green Ingersoll, "An Address to the Colored People," 1867, delivered at Galesburg, Illinois.

There are those who assert that since someone of a particular race committed a certain crime, therefore the entire race is dedicated to committing such crimes. However, this is flawed reasoning. An individual's actions can only be representive of their own character, their own morals. An entire race is not a moral agent, just as a society is not and a government is not. Every sole conscious being is their own moral agent. To hold green-eyed people, red-haired people, or black-skinned people responsible for the actions of a very few, select individuals is ludicrous. Yet, even beyond this, there is a bigger justification for Racism. According to certain statistics, more African men are in prison or some correctional phase than European men yet more European men populate the nation. Some may argue against these statistics, but I will not argue against Racism if it is at the cost of truth. From these statistics, one may be quick to conclude that African men have a tendency towards criminal activity. However, this is still flawed reasoning. Consider how many African men were in prison prior to the conclusion of the Civil War in the south. I would be astounded if even one were in prison, as they were all confined to the prison of slavery. With a mixed population of both white and black people, and prisons constituting most white people, it would be equally logical to assume that Europeans had a racial inclination towards criminal activity as it would be to assume today that Africans have a racial inclination towards criminal activity.

However, from an objectively logical standpoint, it would be easy to see that race has little if anything to do with criminal activity. If one were to study Criminology and to understand the reasons why men and women commit crimes, they would understand entirely that the reasons are poverty, opportunity, among other factors that are exhibited in those who commit crimes. Being born of one race does not make any person inclined to commit crimes. Being born of poverty and corruption, being born in a government that holds no respect for your values, these are the aspects that will incline a person to become a criminal. To say that one's race is important in determining their moral stature is tantamount to saying that one's hair color or eye color, or any other physical attribute, is important in determining as such. If 90% of the people in prison had birth marks, does that mean we can conclude that individuals with birth marks are bound to be criminals? In fact, we can hypothesize even further beyond that. If 100% of the individuals in prison are human beings, does that mean we can conclude that human beings have criminal tendencies and that they are deviant, cruel beings? As I have stated, a person is not a criminal because of their race, their species, their hair color, their eye color, or any other arbitrary, physical characteristics. An individual becomes a criminal from tendencies that lead them to break the law.

"Some of the best people I have ever known are Jews, and some of the worst people I have known are Christians. The Christians were not bad simply because they were Christians, neither were the Jews good because they were Jews. A man is far above these badges of faith and race. Good Jews are precisely the same as good Christians, and bad Christians are wonderfully like bad Jews." -- Robert Green Ingersoll, The Jews.

There are those who argue, however, that by fighting other races, they are preserving their own race. Some claim to get this reasoning from Evolution and the law of Natural Selection. (It is astounding that it has never occurred to them that Evolution is a a scientific observation and not a moral foundation.) Some of them may argue that hate and love go hand in hand, that as much as they love their own race, they hate opposing races. Yet such claims are ridiculous and unreasonable. If I am going to die for preserving something, it will be love, affection, and reverence. Race is unconcerned with any of those things. A person born of any particular DNA is fully capable of becoming an

"Ex-Governor Atkinson protested against this savagery. He was threatened with death. The good people were helpless. While these lynchers murder the blacks they will destroy their own country. No civilized man wishes to live where the mob is supreme. He does not wish to be governed by murderers.

"Let me say that what I have said is flattery compared with what I feel. When I think of the other lynching -- of the poor man mutilated and hanged without the slightest evidence, of the negro who said that these murders would be avenged, and who was brutally murdered for the utterance of a natural feeling -- I am utterly at a loss for words." -- Robert Green Ingersoll, Fragments From The Pen of Robert G Ingersoll.

Still, there are those who draw their arguments from religion and the Bible. Ephesians 6:5, Exodus 21:2-6, Exodus 20-21, and Leviticus 25:44-46, are all verses in the Bible which condone slavery. Racists have used this as an excuse for slavery, to enslave those who are not the same genetically. Slavery is but a cruel institution that works for the small gain of a profiteer and works for the massive destruction of the mind and body of the slave. As I detest slavery, I must detest the Bible, as the later righteously and proudly defends the first. To state that god has given one race the right to enslave another is not revelation. It is hearsay. Even so, if god condoned murder and rape, would any person listen to it? Only the pious and religious would, as their minds have often been restricted to what the church can tell them. To those who are humane and rational, the abuses and manipulative methods of the Bible are only atrocities to mankind. To practice the Bible truthfully is to be inhumane, uncaring, unfeeling, heartless, and brutal. However, the point is made: a god can condone anything, but that holds no foundation on what is right or what is wrong. The religious Racists, some who have "Slavery is of God" as their motto, are combinely ignorant and malicious in ways not seen before. To quote Frederick Douglass, the slave who fled from his plantation, "We have men sold to build churches, women sold to support the gospel, and babes sold to purchase Bibles for the poor heathen, all for the glory of God and the good of souls. The slave auctioneer's bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other, and the bitter cries of the heart-broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his pious master. Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave trade go hand in hand." [Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself, 1845.]

"As soon as our ancestors began to get free they began to enslave others. With an inconsistency that defies explanation, they practiced upon others the same outrages that had been perpetrated upon them. As soon as white slavery began to be abolished, black slavery commenced. In this infamous traffic nearly every nation of Europe embarked. Fortunes were quickly realized; the avarice and cupidity of Europe were excited; all ideas of justice were discarded; pity fled from the human breast a few good, brave men recited the horrors of the trade; avarice was deaf; religion refused to hear; the trade went on; the governments of Europe upheld it in the name of commerce -- in the name of civilization and religion." -- Robert Green Ingersoll, "Centennial Oration," 1876.

One final plea for Racism is to declare that one's race is superior. That, for some reason or another, one's race has produced better art, better technology, better government, better literature, better people. After such a declaration is made, one then concludes that one race is better than another. They conclude that a man of one particular skin color holds more worth because of his ancestors, as compared to another man of a different skin color, who holds less worth because of his ancestors. This justification is a fraud. Whether or not someone's father invented the telephone, it does not give them the right to torture unrelentingly without thought. The inventions and art of past do not give moral justification to anyone to be cruel or inhumane. The inventors and artists have given us their genius so that we may better ourselves, so that we may advance our position in life. To take that for granted and state that is the reason that individuals of a different skin color deserve no freedom or life is a credulous claim. Men, despite the acts of their fathers, can feel just the same, whether their father was Graham Bell or Thomas Edison.

"The average American, like the average man of any country, has but little imagination. People who speak a different language, or worship some other god, or wear clothing unlike his own, are beyond the horizon of his sympathy. He cares but little or nothing for the sufferings or misfortunes of those who are of a different complexion or of another race. His imagination is not powerful enough to recognize the human being, in spite of peculiarities. Instead of this he looks upon every difference as an evidence of inferiority, and for the inferior he has but little if any feeling. If these "inferior people" claim equal rights be feels insulted, and for the purpose of establishing his own superiority tramples on the rights of the so-called, inferior." -- Robert Green Ingersoll, "Should The Chinese Be Excluded?" 1898.

Ending

Racism is a profanity in the realm of logic and in the realm of humaneness. It does not endeavor to preserve that which has led us to glory, or will lead us to glory. To affection and kindness, beauty and reverence, it could not care less -- it has only one care: race. In this light, it may rightly be called blind injustice. To a white Racist, they would rather have a white rapist than a black philanthropist in their community. To a black Racist, they would rather have a black murderer than a white Humanitarian in their community. Racism does not love virtue or mercy. It only loves race, an unknown variable that holds no control over one's merits or value. By opposing Racism, one affirms that individuals can attain value and worth, no matter what color their skin. By opposing Racism, one is both rational and humane. And I must oppose Racism, as it has caused countless cruelties across the globe, all for the sake of something so trivial, so unrelentingly unimportant as one's genetics.

www.punkerslut.com

For Life,

Punkerslut

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Punkerslut (or Andy Carloff) has been writing essays and poetry on social issues which have caught his attention for several years. His website www.punkerslut.com provides a complete list of all of these writings. His life experience includes homelessness, squating in New Orleans and LA, dropping out of high school, getting expelled from college for "subversive activities," and a myriad of other revolutionary actions.