Peachy's Ramblings & Muses

Seems like whenever racism in the south is brought up, a counter is made declaring that there’s racism in the north too, as if that somehow makes it all right. Can’t deny that racism finds a home in places other than the south but these notions got me to thinking.

Are the motivations for racism the same for everyone, or is it possible that it’s a very personal thing? Based on what I’ve seen, I have to think it’s personal rather than logical in that there seems to be no factual evidence deeming one race as superior to another.

Not to belabor a point I’ve made many times about how black people were used by white power brokers who owned slaves as wedges between them (power brokers) and the poor oppressed white. Whites were handed the notion of black inferiority on a silver platter, and this made it easier for whites to ignore how badly they were being treated…but it’s a point I have to make now in order to flesh out my thoughts on this.

The above statement pretty much explains my theory as to how southern discrimination and racial hatred started, but it doesn’t explain the hatred against blacks in the north. I think hatred and discrimination are based on two entirely separate issues: 1. Slave owners needed to divert poor whites’ attention. 2. Northerner were left to deal with a mostly uneducated population of blacks that migrated south to north. While in the south, racism seemed truly based on a notion of inferiority because of color, in the north it seemed to be based on an immediate and huge influx of poverty-stricken, uneducated people that brought havoc to the cities of the north.

Of course, we have the Federal Government and the south to thank for this sorry state of affairs. Southerners didn’t see the need to educate blacks, and in some cases made it illegal. The Federal Government gave blacks freedom on a silver platter without giving them the necessary tools.

Don’t think the U.S. government has learned its lesson yet…goals of war almost never include goals for mitigating the bound-to-happen consequence of a culture rendered destitute.

Case in point: Buddy and me. Together 30 years in November, and married for 28 of them in December. We’re both atheists. And we have every reason in the world not to make it! Two ex-drunks (both sober 30 years now, which is probably why we did make it) who had all the problems newly sober people have on top of the living problems everybody else has… See More.

I figured out something the other day. I’m not a person who believes IN something….. I believe THAT certain things follow others. I believe that if I don’t drink, I won’t get drunk. I believe that when I die I won’t be alive anymore. I believe that dark comes at night and the sun will rise in the morning and that if I jump as high as I can, gravity will still bring me back down to earth. I believe that the earth is relatively round and that I’ll never make it to the north pole. Or the south pole, either, for that matter. I believe that if I’m wrong, and there is a god, I’ll see her/him someday, and probably be in a lot of trouble. I believe that if I’m wrong and there is a god, she/he will probably be the god I grew up hearing about, and I’ll be forgiven for not believing because of the way I’ve lived my life, according to the things Jesus taught that I learned about in Sunday school and church camp. I believe that if I’m wrong and there is a heaven, love will trump hate, and forgiveness will overcome blame, and mean people won’t be allowed to come in.

You know, there are some things we believe in. We believe in each other and in our marriage and in our love. Absolutely, joyfully, unconditionally, without fear or doubt. That sort of faith doesn’t come easily or without effort. We’ve each earned that faith from the other. We believe in our sobriety and the program of AA that gave us our lives back. We believe in AA because we saw it work for other people before we tried to make it work for us. We have to see empirical evidence that something exists and works before we are able to believe in it. We’re just not capable of faith for the sake of faith or belief because we want to believe. Believe me, I’ve tried. I nearly got drunk 3 years sober I tried so hard.

Whatever we’re doing obviously works for us, though. And I’d fight for anyone’s right to believe as they choose if it helps that person live in this difficult and frightening world. I even sometimes envy people who are capable of faith. I’m just not. And I don’t need to be. I just need to remember that if I don’t drink, I won’t get drunk, and if I don’t stick my hand into a nest of cottonmouths I won’t get bitten. As long as I believe THAT certain things follow another, I’m safe and happy. And married.