Garvey's Ghost: Black Talk

Definitions:

Ok folks, we have to set some ground rules here. One of the problems I have when discussing issues from the Garvey side is that people are not using the same terms in the same way. The usual is that most white people, who are not made mute by guilt, assume they are right when they discuss racism, many black people having been trained to avoid discussion of race unless necessary and usually end up using the same definition as white people. The problem with these people is that these definitions are non-functional. That is they do not accurately describe the phenomenon or objects to which they are are attempting to define and therefore lead to more confusion (otherwise known as "the status quo"). No such thing will be going on here. On this blog I will present the ground rules, the definitions, the framework, THE BLUEPRINT.

First: Racism. What an annoying, mis-used and ill-understood word. Garvey said that one should know the roots of the language that you speak. When we break down the word "racism" into it's component parts we get "race" and "ism."
The term "race" is defined as a group of people that share common genetic and phenotypic traits. Now it is popular of late to say there are no races. We can attack this issue in two ways. First we can stand by Dr. Francis Cress Welsing and Neely Fuller and say that race, in social terms and for the purpose of dealing with so-called "racism," has little biological validity "but is translated more as 'organization'. "(Welsing, 1991) We could also note that micro-biologist, pharmacologists and a host of other medical specialists will tell you in a minute that there are biological differences between different groups of people. My personal take is that if you put Loretta Devine, Lucy Liu and Gwineth Paltro next to each other you'd be hard pressed to say that there are no differences between the two. Besides, it is most evident that the "we are all African/human" bent that is popular of late is just a nice was to spread the blame; but that is another post.

Anyway, back to "racism." and "ism" is a doctrine or theory. When we put 'race' and 'ism' together we get "a doctrine or theory based on race." When looked at in this light we can immediately see that the term racism is not in and of itself negative. In fact it includes just about any theory about any group classified as a race. So the Klan practices a form of racism and so does the NAACP. So clearly the issue is not 'racism' but is a particular sub-category of 'racism.' For the purposes of this Blog we state that the problem is "white supremacy." We use the definition as given by Dr. Welsing as follows:

"The local and global power system structured and maintained by persons who classify themselves as white, whether consciously or subconsciously determined. This system consists of patterns of perception, logic, symbol formation, thought, speech, action and emotional response, as conducted simultaneously in all areas of people activity (economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex and war). The ultimate purpose of the system is to prevent white genetic annihilation on Earth- a planet in which the overwhelming majority of people are classified as non-white (black, brown, red and yellow) by white-skinned people."

It was not until I understood this definition and the Cress theory and the Unified Theory of Psychology that I understood what was going on around me. Now you may find me use the term "racism" here or there, when I do it will probably be a direct quote.

A few other items that need to be squared away. These would be "segregation" and "separation." people seem to be quite confused as to what these things are and confuse the two all the time. Segregation is when some group with power places people into some area by themselves. Separation is when one or more groups decide of their own volition to stay together in some location. So when black students are sitting at the same table at some location in the cafeteria, they are not segregating themselves they aren't being segregated, they have decided to sit with people with whom they feel like sharing their meal with.