Some Perspective on Racism Today

On one side of my family, I have relatives who fought on both sides of the Civil War. We're talking about brothers killing brothers. My family had members from Iowa and Virginia. The son of the northerner was from Iowa who married the daughter of a family from Virginia.

Among the other side of my family, I have relatives who were five brothers who came to America from Germany and settled here three decades after the war and clearly could have had nothing to do with the war.

I could go into a lengthy discussion of how my German grandfathers could be held responsible for reparations to be paid to the black children of a family from Jamaica who came to the United States last year, but surely you can see how crazy this might be. Especially since it is also clear that most of the 600,000 men who died in the Civil War were Northerners who were fighting against slavery.

We have here a complicated and heated argument for who is to blame for the horrors of slavery and racism.

Let us acknowledge that these terrible things have existed from the beginning of civilization. These matters are not peculiar to America. Slavery was not merely a matter of white Americans or Englishmen enslaving black people from Africa.

Black Africans enslaved black Africans.

Muslims enslaved black Africans in far greater numbers than were sent to the Americas. Moreover, slavery in Saudi Arabia lasted until 1964--a full century after the end of slavery in America!

Among all our ancient ancestors, white people were enslaved in huge numbers.

Asian peoples enslaved countless peoples.

Native American peoples enslaved other native Americans in huge numbers.

Slavery was practiced everywhere in history.

Slavery was a disgraceful fact of all cultures everywhere.

Now, let's be searingly honest.

Racism is evil. Racism is evil outright.

Racism is not the only evil.

Racism is not even the worst of evils.

Who would deny that the worst evils are murder, rape, and slavery? Have I missed other evils worse than racism?

It seems to me that some of the protesters today, to say nothing of the rioters and looters we are seeing now, might be lacking some perspective on the crucial matters they claim to be protesting against.