The 8th Principle
“We, the member congregations of the Canadian Unitarian Council, covenant to affirm and promote: Individual and communal action that accountably dismantles racism and systemic barriers to full inclusion in ourselves and our institutions.” https://youtu.be/1aWVP15y17s
But how do we fight racism, antisemitism, class, genders and all other labels that place people in categories for the sake of exclusion?
The reason that people have been labeled is to keep the lord of the manor comfortable, so he can keep his house clean and tidy by employing servants to deal with the domestic issues. Then his servants want what he has so the lord must invent some new categories.
Keeping a society running smoothly never happens without some conflict but when that conflict involves force and violence, the cause is forgotten and new problems arise.
The first thing the mind seeks is to believe it's not my fault. (a) I am a good person, I am innocent, I am not comfortable learning about how others, especially if it gives me unearned privilege.
I naturally want to believe I have earned my status, my position, my wealth. So whenever a privileged person is accused of having privilege they often deny it. Unless of course they are "woke".
"Woke is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination". Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as racial injustice, sexism, and denial of LGBT rights." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke#:~:text
But although there are more diverse conversations they include holding onto privilege by calling it something else and using more pressure (racism) towards those who are not in the privileged group.
This all seems quite easy and reasonable, however the pushback means that the privileged are willing to invent "reasons" for their status. The easiest way is to make fun of "woke" people.
Conversations indicate generally we have not understood how our socializing history has been about creating classes of privilege, breaking them down, rebuilding with new prejudices.
No doubt the status quo relies on using media to sustain their privilege by calling it something else. Class, talent, intelligence, organization, quality, rationality, communication and justice.
All of our labels have been soiled by self interest. It started in the Garden of Eden before Abraham was born. And dear reader you might be asking how would I know that? Well of course I wouldn't.
Everything humanity has invented was based on desire more than knowledge. Everything we have learned, written, sung, spoken is born by desire first then establishment. Until we learned the hard way that knowledge was more than words.
For centuries we lived in caves and if not centuries then years. We survived storms, famine, war and struggle. We created stories to explain how we got here, and weapons to kill our food and other tribes who wanted to eat too.
Then we created bigger stories to sustain our beliefs which include labels for different DNA's like skin colour, brain size, strengths and weakness, family origins, and ownership.
Yes I know this is simplistic and beyond this is the larger universe.
Our planet has been beautiful but we are destroying it now, believing we must survive. What is the final cause? How do we get the whole world to agree on who is destroying the world and how to take responsibility for it.
The loudest arguments are organized by powerful interests ... corporations who have established boards, laws, preferences, languages. And still we deny our own parts in what we describe as problems.
Still we are annoyed by 'the experts on what others do wrong'. Still we shut up that which we do not want to hear.
And still there are millions of people who sign up to spend millions on how to save lives. How to solve the problems we face.
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