Photo by Josh Hild on Pexels.com[/caption]The death of George Floyd rekindled embers simmering for centuries. As Americans of all shapes and sizes flooded the streets of some 135 cities, demanding change, people around the world watched with horror and hope. The New York Times offered a glimpse of what people overseas see.
Here are the Cliff Notes. They see us out of context. They respond as if this is a first for America. They view us two dimensionally.*
America never has been as great as some people have assumed, nor is it disappointing as some have portrayed. We have flaws. We've screwed up. Our history, especially regarding race, is a toxic dump of our sins. We also have gotten things right. We are not finished. America is lovely, dark and deep. We have promises to keep. And we have miles to go before we rest. And we have miles to go before we rest. (Sorry, Robert.)
At the same time, people overseas don't look within. They see American bigotry as a contradiction to our constitution. It is. They don't see their own failings.
Yes, some white Americans hate African Americans, and some African Americans hate white Americans. But bigotry is not an American failure. It exists in every nation, on every continent. Some Turks hate the Kurds (and visa versa). Some English hate the Irish (and visa versa). Some Sunni hate Shi'a (and visa versa). Some Macedonians hate Greeks (and visa versa). Some Christians hate Jews (and visa versa). Some Jews hate Palestinians (and visa versa). Some Hindus hate Muslims (and visa versa). Some Buddhists hate Muslims (and visa versa.) Some men hate women (and visa versa). Some straights hate trans (and visa versa). I haven't even pealed the first layer of our collective bigotry.
Each bigot has his/her reasons for hating, distrusting, marginalizing another group. It has nothing to do with ethnicity, religion, or gender preference. Nothing. Those are excuses. Bigots hate for they are insecure in themselves and need someone else to blame. Bigots hate because they fear differences, which tamper with their insecurities. Bigots hate because they have been taught to hate and they never evaluated the reasons for the hate.
Bigots fire their hatred in a furnace fueled by ignorance and detached cruelty. In this Hellish fury, their fears and insecurities conjoin. It generalizes individual emotion, and they apply it to an entirety. They achieve in their minds a notion of universality, enabling them to create a one-dimensional enemy who threatens their "sacred" paradigm. Threatened and afraid, they dehumanize others and supersize themselves. And with the miracle of malice, they transform the inhumane into justice.
It's not an American problem.
It's a world problem.
It's a human problem.
*To be fair to our overseas observers, most Americans see events out of context. They view fellow Americans, especially those who are not neighbors, two dimensionally. Like the overseas observers, they end up with a distorted image of their own country.
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