As we delve deeper into our case study of the civil rights movement and explore different events, I have begun to understand some essential ideas. We have split into groups that are pursuing the answers to our 3 driving questions
Why do we hate?
What role does culture have in showing us who we are?
Are we dooomed to repeat history?
For this week’s think and create I have crafted a graphic that outlines the causes and effects of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
The graphic shows the flow of events that lead to the bus boycott. I had hoped to go more in-depth to uncover more of the specific events that escalated the tension but the medium I choose didn’t have that capability. After Brown v. Board of Education, the civil rights movement stalled with the slow policy change that was exacerbated in the south. It would be 8 years until the signing of the civil rights act and the long journey to the landmark legislation was still a long one. The southern states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana remained hotbeds for racial injustices for the years to come outlined the movie Mississippi Burning. Black people continued to live in fear of the KKK and white regulation long after the Montgomery Bus Boycott was won. Long after the signing of the civil rights act, racism and hate live on, leaving me wondering if the problem can ever be solved.
After choosing “why do we hate?”, I started to frame many of the events in light of that question. In creating my Montgomery bus boycott graphic, I failed to address my thinking of how it connects to my question. I began to ponder the questions of nurture vs. nature aspects of fear, hate, and racism. I am going to explore some events I have been exposed to in order to help gain a better understanding of the causes of some of the most destructive human qualities.
Fear
Fear plays a critical role in everyday life for me. be talking about the fear of the unknown. During coronavirus, the fear of the unknown is magnified and examined. In my recent trip home from Hawaii, I got on the plane and quickly scanned my surroundings for individuals that my brain deems as high risk. As I sat down at my seat an older white woman was sitting in the window seat beside me. I felt a sense of relief wash over my body as my anxiety subsided.
“Fear of the unknown and the other is the root of almost all hate. It is born of ignorance and fed by those who would keep us divided.”
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As I look back at this moment I ponder why that individual calmed my fears. It wasn’t one particular aspect of her demeanor that made her seem unthreatening, yet she eased my fear of the potential of someone else sitting in the seat beside. The fact that I felt more comfortable around her than anyone else flies in the face of any logic because her race has very little to do with potential exposure. Even with this rational thinking, I was still more comfortable sitting beside a white woman than I was any other demographic.
My predominately white neighborhood has had a profound impact on my trust level of people of a similar race. My environment has had more of an impact than my genetics.
Hate
Hockey is a unique sport because it uses some of the most primal human tendencies. Rivalries are a cool case study when looking at hate. I believe it has a number of connections to hate in the form of racism. The association with a particular team or region is a strong parallel to people of different races. I am not making the claim that hate found on the ice is akin to racist hate but I would like to explore some potential personal connections.
The Battle of Alberta is one of my favorite hockey rivalries between the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers. It is viscous and always brings excitement because of the constant physicality. The players on either team come from all over the world but when they are put on their jerseys they become an Oiler and a Flame.
When you think of it in that context it may be easy to say that this hate is learned, but I have a different conclusion. Although this particular rivalry (hate) is bred from experience, the capability to inflict hate on others is genetic. Many of the players would have grown up playing minor hockey like me. During their tenure, they would have played many different teams, from many different areas, and they would have been rougher with some teams than they would have been with others.
It is in our nature inflict pain on those who we hate. I am not ashamed of the way that I hate certain area’s hockey teams. My hate for them was bred from numerous injustices and events, but my capability to attempt to inflict pain is something I was born with.
Racism
There is a stark difference between hating someone within the confines of an arena and willfully making life harder for a group of people. One is a healthy competitive atmosphere where the goal is creating a fair playing field and the other has the goal of tilting the playing field to your own side.
The path from fear to hate to racism is one that is followed far too often in our world. Fear is harmless until you use it to justify hate and when the hate turns to destructive racism it becomes a major problem. Segregation policies were instituted following the proclamation of emancipation by majority-white legislators. Voter suppression laws kept white lawmakers in power, especially in the south. I have found the imagery found in The Birth of Nation symbolizes the way that African Americans were conveyed by the men in power. Some of the scenes have burned images in my mind for how despicable they were. It became widely popular and was credited for the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan, an organization with sole purpose of white supremacy.
Call me an optimist, but I believe that it isn’t in our nature to hate one race above your own. I believe that it is education, experience, and propaganda that built the mistrust that can be seen to this day between African Americans and White Americans. The cyclical nature of this kind of generational is powerful and leads me to believe that racism is more nurture than it is the nature of humanity.
My opinions are based upon my own experiences and I am sure that some others may have different thoughts on the subjects. I believe that although it is human to fear, we learn to be racist and to hate others. That isn’t to say we are explicitly told to hate certain types of people, but more insidious and manipulative lessons that aren’t explicit in their message. Humanity is built upon mutual trust and if we could see past the fruitless exteriors of our race. If we were to look inside we could be free of many of the problems that people who aren’t lucky enough to be born white face. With education and positive experience we can bring upon a brighter horizon for humanity.
