The Poisonwood Multicultural, Multiracial Question December 22,1999

The medif classes on the Multicultural Movement during December 1999 were very enlightening. It was as if the term culture had changed to mean race. From the speakers viewpoint, I would never understand them because I could not put on their skin or facial features or have faced life as they have. Multicultural had taken a turn from let's try to understand one another to you will never understand my race because you are of that race.

Wouldn't it be better to look past the skin color into the thought and meaning systems of a person? After all there are only five categories to choose from and racism is only a portion of one of the five which is based on discrimination and prejudice.

Do I have to be a racist to understand how one thinks. Can't I sit down with them and study what comes out of their mouth to discern what their words mean in order to gain knowledge about them. Then it's up to the amount of wisdom I possess to understand them using the knowledge I've gained. The same goes for the sexist, ageist, crimist, or whatever sect of that religion of difference there is. I know of many skin colors with a common view, and successful criminal investigators that aren't crooked. They understand how a crooked person thinks without being one. Therefore the never understanding a person with out being one is an idea, but not the only idea. There are better ideas than that.

Is it fair to box someone in by saying you will never understand me because you have that color. Never and always are terribly complete words. Certainly there maybe some things that I may miss, but never implies nothing and forever. Let's broaden our views to discuss more options than this. Certainly racial divisions are an issue in three of the five world views. In the cultural category of Cosmic Humanism, ideas come from color and features along with the meanings of the collected wisdom of their ancestors. The earliest history of this is Hinduism, which uses a cast system of organizing people of their same society. It dates back to 1,200 BC. Budism, Confusicism, Indian Way and New Age are apart of these same collective wisdom systems. Story telling and proverbs are an important aspect of these cultures.

Yes, people do have physical differences, but they also have differences in choices of thought rather than things that they can't change. Racism has a tendency to divide humanity in a negative manner which causes people to be treated unfairly. Culture, on the other hand, depends on your thinking and meaning systems as to the words you will say and the cultural artifacts or cultural events you will produce. This is a broader perspective than physical features alone.

In another view not all humans are equal, even though the proponent might say that they are a race of humans. In Marx/Lenisnism the belief in the superiority of certain men have evolved from nothing to fish to monkey to godman prevails. Along with that idea, some support the idea of favored races, like Hitler who thought the German people were the superior race. He took a small step from the favored species of Darwin to the favored class of Marx, and on to the favored race. Since this is an atheistic view, the proponent would have to rule out that we are made by God, made in His image and are equal with one another. They would have to resort to a materialistic evolution, and survival of the fittest model.

The Secular Humanist would also say there has to be racial differences, seeing that man came from monkeys and one of the races is the closest to that relative, and the other is evolving into godhood with their neoclassical culture.

The pop culture of the Post Modernist would say who cares an long as I can do what I want, when I want, to who I want. I'll do whatever feels good.

Nietzsche, the great high priest of atheism said "God is dead", we killed him. Dieing in 1900, he birthed this century of atheism into existence. Since then God has been quietly dismissed not only from our schools and universities but from every part of polite society. Nietzsche's superman was also Hitler's inspiration to the super race concept. What a hero Nietzsche must have been. He is described in this way; a syphiletic, woman hater, and whimp.

Using the idea of skin color as a human division has consequences as compared to other destructive ideas. Marx was midwife to Stallon and Ho Chei Mein, who between the two of them killed 100,000,000 people. Yes indeed the folly of an idea can destroy so many. Steven J. Gould, Professor at Harvard, a self confessed communist and leading evolutionary atheist of our time said this, "You human beings are nothing more than a twig, like you would find on the grass in your backyard". Notice; not a living branch, but just a twig. How significant you are. Doesn't that inspire you. What meaning your life has. Yes, atheism robs life of any meaning or any purpose at all. The one thing atheists can't stand is that we have purpose for our lives, because to them it's all simply a matter of chance.

How different that is from what we are told in Christianity; that our life has vast significance, that we have been adopted into the family of God, that we have been created by the almighty, that we are loved by Him, that he has called us to a great and wonderful meaning and purpose for life, that we are to be joined with Him in the greatest effort in the history of mankind to bring man unto eternal life, that we have been adopted into His family given His name, that we have an inheritance among the saints in life and in paradise forever, that we are all one in Him. There are no racial differences in His kingdom and that if we do not enter into heaven as a child, we will not enter.

But who is the victim of this racism. Isn't the people that have color and believe in the racist system. they are the victims. The races are off into their little groups squabbling over who's going to project their race, when that's not even the issue. Ideas are the issue. Ideas that are distructive verses ideas that are creative are the issue. The secular powers of society say go ahead and argue. Do your thing but do not let that group in, that says there is another way. They are extremists and we can't tolerate their view. Dont even bring up the thought that there could be a God. We won't even consider it. And they call themselves objective thinkers.

However let's consider it for an instant. If there is a God; 1. then there must be a record, and there is. Every thing before the 6,000 year old scriptures is prehistoric and interpreted through an educated speculation of a person from one of the five world views. 2. There must be a standard, and there is. The ten commandments has been the model of how man should treat one another. 3. He must have also interjected himself into history, and He did 2,000 years ago. It's so obvious that it's almost ridiculous to mention to supposedly educated persons that have read every view against and have negleted reading the account first hand for themselves.

Isn't it time to consider looking at true cultural pluralism and stop focusing on racism and bigotry which will never have a peaceful solution but only serve to isolate the participants if done in bitterness? Let's look at all the options, then consider the results of every viewpoint based on the cultural artifacts and events which were products of that way of thinking.

-- Anonymous, December 22, 1999