One of the most challenging aspects many “races,” “ethnicities,” “tribes,” and “descendants” of human beings face is competitiveness.
We are not denying that competitiveness is inherently bad. But there is a drive in some groups more than others, to dominate, control, and overpower other groups. Even if it means groups must sacrifice, kill, murder, manipulate, break rules, or downright commit acts of genocide to be the supposed “dominant” or supposed “superior” group.
This competition is found everywhere, in workplace culture, military structures, sports, media, Hollywood, and between siblings.
Individually and collectively, it sometimes feels as if the desire to win will always come first, even if we sit in a church, synagogue, mosque, or temple and are told to be better people, yet don’t exactly consider anyone outside that building a human being.
It feels like our supposed leaders are master minds at creating a sense of fear for anyone who doesn’t fit into that particular status quo of the four qualifiers (race, ethnicity, tribes, descendants).
In other words, we only love those who love us, and if that person denies our love, even if it is romantic, we are ready to cut ties with that person.
Our egos are most fragile. Our pride is most intensified. At the same time, it may feel like the world is on fire. From a particular perspective, this is how the world has always been. But our access to media makes it feel like the world is a constant drag.
From the most ancient of texts, human nature is ugly. As if humans are not humans but ravaging, vicious animals. The culture of sex will explain this in a way no other form of energy can. Our desire to have sex is the desire that will intensify every rotten experience of being a human being. Men and women use sex as a weapon; this metaphor can be explained in the last chapter of the Bible, where sex with the Beast causes rage. (Rev 18:3)
These four qualifying groups are constantly competing with each other over every finite detail of life. To achieve a supposed status, recognition, fame, glory, or amount of money, power, or some personal ambition. Suppose any of these four qualifiers sees a man or a woman have sex with someone other than those who belong to the specific in-group.
We should expect that person to be excommunicated from the group. Almost as if going against the supposed grain is the biggest taboo a couple on Earth can ever commit.
The four qualifiers compete for everything yet gain nothing in what really matters.
The most money, the best-looking cars, boats, or tools. The most desirable-looking female or the most handsome-looking man.
In the end, nothing from this world can compete with the human heart and our desires to feel love that is not bred or born from sexual desire.
Instead, it is the desire to feel heard and seen. It is the ability to use your pain as a source of knowledge rather than a justification for crime.
The four qualifiers seem to be in constant competition with each other, competing for dominance and for whose trauma and pain is the worst. Yes, we do believe racism is real. But the effects of racism are not just the fault of one group or one supposed qualifier. The energy and nastiness of racism are found inside every one of the four qualifiers.
So how can we look at one qualifier and point, blame, mock, and ridicule, as if our own identifiable qualified group is somehow exempt from that which we judge others for?
In other words, racism has no favorite in-group; the energy, the feelings, and emotions derived from racism are all still the same, no matter the time period or the context. Racism doesn’t have a color, a shape, or a form. Racism is found worldwide and is readily exposed and available across every qualifying group.
A part of us believes that racism and competition go hand in hand. For example, if you are a white man, do you see yourself in competition with another white man? Chances are no, no, you don’t. Chances are, if you see yourself as a white man, you desire for your fellow white brother to succeed in life. There is no competition between a white man and another white man. Even though on paper, they may actually, literally, physically, and emotionally compete with each other. But because you see yourself as a white man, and you identify as a white man. You do not look at another white man as being someone you need to compete with. Even though both of these white men might have the same type of business, they compete with each other on paper, but don’t see each other as competition.
Now, let’s look at this from a different angle. Let’s say a white man has the same business as a Mexican man. Both are working in the same job and the same field. Now the white man sees himself in competition with that Mexican man. In the previous example, two white men did not see themselves as competitors, even though both worked in the same field. But when you throw in a man who does not belong to the qualifying in-group of that white man. Now the white man sees the Mexican man as his competition.
Here we see how racism interacts with the consciousness of a white man.
He does not believe that he is racist, nor does he think that he is capable of being racist. But the way in which this white man operates with another white man compared to that of a Mexican man, all working in the same field. Efficiently shows signs of racism, even if this racism is implicitly or subconsciously displayed.
Proving that competition between in-groups is the very source of why we might actually display racism as an appropriate behavior.
It is the competitive factor that causes our racism to manifest, as the white man did not see himself in competition with his fellow white man, even though both of them are in competition with each other on paper, for customers and economic returns.
But when another person who does not belong to that qualifying in-group is thrown into the mix. The desire to be competitive actually causes us to justify racism. Proving that racism is, in fact, an explicit and implicit impulse inside of us, even if we deny that we are racist.
Yet we hardly ever consider that the competitive nature that fuels a white man’s hatred for another is precisely the energy that causes most of our problems in life due to racism. After all, don’t we say “friendly competition” is a good thing?
In other words, somebody cannot deny that racism is non-existent when it comes to two different qualifiers; racism fuels everything that drives our beliefs. In particular, to the way we view the supposed “competition.”
Suppose a white man sees a Mexican man as his equal, just like the white man from the previous example seeing his fellow white man as his equal. Is there competition between a white man and a Mexican man if the white man views the Mexican man as his equal? No. But is this reality? No.
Suppose a white man views another white man as his equal; the competitive nature inside these white men ceases.
But racism fuels the competition between a white man and a Mexican man. The white man who worked inside the same business as his fellow white man did not have a competitive spirit with the other. But because racism drives and fuels what we believe, and because racism is found in every single qualifying group. Racism itself is the reason the world operates the way it does. But denying racism is just like denying that the Devil doesn’t exist. It is the competitive drive inside of us that fuels our desires to use racism as a way to justify our behaviors and thoughts. At the same time, the white man did not see himself in competition with his fellow white man. But when that white man sees a Mexican man, that competitive nature inside that white man will not allow that white man to view his Mexican brother as anything but competition, therefore justifying racism. And as we stated earlier, it is that competitive nature that, from a particular perspective, that prevents any of the four qualifying groups from seeing themselves as equals. Even though theoretically, there are enough resources to go around for everyone, if we treated each other the same way we treat those in our in-group. But racism does not allow us to see anyone outside of our qualifying group as equals.
- Race will influence whether we will survive our birth, where we are most likely to live, which schools we will attend, who our friends and partners will be, what careers we will have, how much money we will earn, how healthy we will be, and even how long we can expect to live.
The constant competition to outdo our supposed “enemy” in works, grades, money, respect, fame, glory, or sexual performance is what fuels racism. When we are racist, we do not wish for our supposed enemies to out-perform us in anything. We deny that we are racist, yet racism is what fuels every single part of our lives every single day.
This racist competitive nature is precisely what keeps communities, families, and individuals from achieving the human potential we could have on Planet Earth that would drive economic growth, achieve financial prosperity, and fuel human potentiality.
Instead, what the four qualifiers do to one another is point, blame, complain, and criticize one another—never looking at their own in-group as the problem, but always at the other.
Take hemp, for example. The hemp industry generated millions of dollars in revenue for communities and states that would otherwise never have had the opportunity to achieve economic freedom. But lawmakers who do not wish to see certain qualifiers achieve economic freedom have decided to pass legislation against the hemp industry. Therefore, contributing to the cyclical nature of killing the competition, fueled by racism. Our minds feel as though they are programmed to kill any person whom we believe is a competitor because of racism, yet we all deny that we are, in fact, racist.
While we do not believe in communism, nor will we ever feel or promote that communism is the alternative. We do think on an individual level within our communities and in groups. Economic freedom can be achieved if we all understand how to
1. Budget our finances
2. Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses
3. Stop spending above our means
4. Stop trying to blame an outside source
5. Contribute to what we want the world to be
Far too often, we complain about everything yet do nothing in our power to make the world better in this moment. We stay glued to our television screens instead of turning them off. Never letting our minds deprogram themselves from news, media, and social platforms, relaxing, staying calm, and finding areas we can improve individually and collectively.
It feels as though each of us is always needing to account for our own personal characters. It feels as though we can’t stop our minds from turning hostile toward another person: no sympathy or empathy.
It feels as though if someone denies us, we have to automatically hate that person, even if that person is our own son.
Racism and competition make things cyclical, never progressing forward, just staying stagnant. Even though theoretically and hypothetically, there are enough quail for everyone.
Source:
DiAngelo, R. (2018). White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism . Beacon Press Boston.