The Age of Enlightenment

                                 The Age of Enlightenment

I’ve been reading a book by Ibrahim X. Kendi. The title of the book is Stamped From the Beginning. It is a tough read. The premise of the book is a complete history of racism in recorded history. It is both fascinating and gut-wrenching to understand how we got to where we are concerning race in America and the world today.

One of the sections is on The Enlightenment. Oh, the good old days of science and reason. Society started to take a step back from God and did everything to understand that maggots come from flies...not rotten meat. During the 17th and 18th century Europeans started to think outside the Roman Catholic church. 

Many people began to discover that the world could be explained with reason and thought, and we did not need the Church to explain to us about life and death. Ideas like freedom of speech, liberty of the individual, and separation of Church and State began to unfold. Science thrived and new discoveries were made almost daily. 

One of the leaders of this Enlightenment movement was Carl Linnaeus. A Swedish botanist, zoologist, and most importantly taxonomist, Linnaeus is known as the father of modern taxonomy. Basically, he gave Latin names to living things. He put living things into this order:

Kingdom

Class

Order

Family

Sub Family

Genus

This is why we call a German Shepherd a Canis lupus familiaris,

Well, Carl also decided to “codify” people as well. Guess who was at the top of the list? Homo sapien europaeus, These people from Europe were (according to Carl) very smart, inventive, covered by tight clothing, and ruled by law. Homo sapien americanus was next, and they were ruled by custom.  Homosapien asiaticus came in third. These folks ruled by opinion. Homo sapien after was at the bottom. Linnaeus classified them as sluggish, lazy, crafty, slow, and careless. These people were ruled by caprice: a sudden and unaccountable change of mood or behavior.

It wasn't just the Swedes who thought like this. The French, Germans, English, and the rest of Europe were on board with this order of humanity. Who doesn’t like being at the top?

This is the part that is possibly the hardest and easiest concept to understand about these “Enlightened Enlighteners”. They thought people from Africa were barely above animals, yet the majority of them despised slavery. Read that again.

This rings so true with me. When I was younger, I would not have called myself a racist, but I believed that white people were better. I did not want anything bad to happen to people of color, but I did not think they were equal to whites.

Yeah, I wrote about the civil rights movement and Malcolm X in High School. I even had friends that were not white (much like every racist). In my mind, though there was a disconnect. Equal under the law, but not equal in reality. 

You see, I can relate to these Enlightened European men. I was a lot like them. My guess is that a lot of white people are too. In fact, my guess is that all but the most ardent hard-core racists don’t want bad things to happen to any minority. They would much rather prefer just to not hear about it. These people, I think, would like to have everyone know their place and stop making a big deal out of stuff that is "ancient" history.

I can’t do that anymore. I have decided that I just cannot be “not a racist”. I have to be an anti-racist. I have to look at myself. Where can I help, What can I do? Usually, it is as simple as standing up or saying something. For example, someone at the office tells a racial joke...talk to them. Ask why they think it is appropriate to do that. Ask them why they think it is funny to belittle another human. Do you have friends or relatives who use slurs? Ask them why?

The most important thing we can do to help our BIPOC brothers and sisters is to use our position and privilege to speak up and speak out. We must recognize that we are allies and most of us are flawed allies at best. We cannot stop. Read this book. See how far racism goes back in our collective history. Do someting.