everydayinamerica

There is so much chaos going on around us…with anything and everything imaginable manifesting to further complicate everyday living by the escapees from Pandora’s Box…

Being witnesses to those who are creating the dramas that affect lives in the day to day process of living, should be more than enough incentive to step outside the box…

Several days ago, Whoopi Goldberg made statements that infuriated the Jewish community, and others, to the point of her suspension from “The View.” First of all, the irony of a show that expresses viewpoints, handing down discipline for free-speech and personal beliefs, shows the hypocrisy of human nature in spades…One cannot be openly expressive of their views while exercising freedom of speech in this country…unless people learn to step outside the box and educate instead of punish and ostracize those who have the right to their personal beliefs…

Stepping outside the box would have enabled those who stood in judgment to see and understand why those statements were made by Ms. Goldberg…Instead, punishment is always preferred to education and correction in our society of intellectuals and the educated.

Ms. Goldberg presented her understanding of Racism from her experiences as well as knowing America’s history on Racism with people of African ancestry, and the enslavement of Africans brought to this country as work horses and chattel…devoid of any rights to be…or treated with any kind of humanity…let alone equality…further continuing the devaluation because of the color of their skin…their languages…and their way of life…normal on their mother continent…totally unknown and misunderstood from those in a land who forcibly took them from their own…

I once had a gentleman who was my employer and was Jewish. We would have many conversations on Jewish people and their battles with racism, and Black Americans’ battles with racism…He said that what lessened their persecution was their ability to “assimilate” due to their coloring….He said that it was unfortunate that Black people did not have that ability as a group to assimilate by color to help ease their persecution and inequality….

The treatment of those of Jewish descent and ancestry was indeed man’s inhumanity to man…it was also a plot of genocide…

Was it Racial?

To those who understand the history of the Jewish people…it was…to those who do not know the history of the Jewish people…it was viewed by many as “man’s inhumanity to man.” And it was…

Most people who are not familiar or learned in the history of the Jewish people, view Judaism as a religion…not a Race of people.

Historical definitions of race and such concepts divided humanity as follows:

Caucasoid: Aryans, Semitic, Hamitic

Negroid: African Negro, Khoikhoi, Melanesian, Negrito, Australoid

Mongoloid: North Mongol, Chinese and Indochinese, Korean and Japanese, Tibetan and Burmese, Malay, Polynesian, Maori, Micronesian, Eskimo, and Inuit, American

Uncertain: Dravida and Sinhalese

Please take note that within the race of “Caucasoid,” are Aryans…Semitic…Hamitic…all classified as belonging to the race known as “white” in everyday jargon…

Taking view to this “classification” of race…it was clearly “Man’s inhumanity to Man.”

Taking view to the History of the Jewish people…Racism was also at issue…The Holocaust was an attempt to extinguish a race of people…

Genetic research has found that the idea of and differentiation of races was indeed wrong.

Today, scientist agree that there is only one race…the Human Race.

Taking a look at the definition of “Racism” according to the Oxford Dictionary, it reads and defines as follows:

“Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.”

Take a look at “xenophobic prejudice” and “self-hatred” which also contribute to “race splintering.”

“Race” is…and still is… most certainly entrenched here in America and around the globe…practiced as the definition of Racism..and linked strongly to “skin color.”

We can see what devastation and destruction has been visited upon specific members of the human race due to “classification and separation” of humanity into “ethnic groups” or “races” by scientific curiosity and the need to isolate and study…without giving thought to consequences and genocidal conclusions…due to ignorance and the need to differentiate.

Some scientists said that Jews were a race in the 19th century.

A man named Houston Steward Chamberlain (September 9, 1855 – January 9, 1927) authored many popular scientific books in his time and wrote that Jews were a race, and were a danger to other people. He was acquainted with Adolf Hitler. Chamberlain was known for his Antisemitism, and his best known book, The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, was viewed as a standard antisemitic piece of the early 20th Century….

A person who is of Jewish heritage or who has converted to the Jewish religion is considered to be Jewish.

A Jewish person is not only one who practices the religion of Judaism, they are also people of ethnic heritage, originated as an ethno-religious group in the Middle East.

Traditional Jewish law, called Halakha, is written that someone is Jewish if their mother is Jewish, or if they have converted to Judaism. Judaism has been defined as a religion, a race, an ethnic group, a culture, a nation…an extended family….by the way of Jacob, father of the twelve tribes of Israel…Jacob was the grandson of Abraham, whom God promised (Abraham) he would be the “father of many nations.”

Many years ago, I accepted a position which gave me the opportunity to be educated in Jewish history, religion and culture …as an Executive Assistant to a Rabbi. It was a fascinating and enriching experience…and the learning is ongoing.

We must move forward in “Stepping Outside the Box,” to practice forgiveness…understanding…and teaching others out of their ignorance…misconceptions…and innocence. How else can they learn if wisdom is coveted?

We must seek to understand before hastily passing judgment without the truth of facts. Swiftly moving to condemn destroys any hope of humanity in situations such as the one presented by Whoopi Goldberg.

I do not condone or condemn what statements were made…stepping outside the box…Freedom of Speech, which is “The right to express any opinions without censorship of restraint…” was conditional… and selective against what freedom of speech is supposed to represent in Ms. Goldberg’s expressing her statements…yet the speech that Trump made to his constituents that resulted in the insurrection of January 6, 2021 at the Capitol Building, resulted in no punishment of a speech that posed and resulted in a “clear and present danger” in inciting a riot resulting in destruction and death.

Trumps words created an imminent risk and threat to safety and other public interests by naming persons to be harmed, and sanctioned the destruction of government property.

We must step outside the box and understand the real threats…as opposed to statements truly made by legitimacy of understanding…without intention of harm or malice.

We can and must rise above our own contributions in stifling progress in our desires for peace, unity and promoting equality and human rights…by not becoming judgmental and jumping to condemn…before we seek to understand…and impart resolutions without bias…

Step out of the box…step away from the chaos…seek to teach…educate…understand…

The only way we can heal as people and as a nation…and a world…is to stop the cycles which punish and condemn…when wisdom and understanding can open doors to enlightenment….

Our beliefs define us…they can either destroy us or lift us up…depending upon points of view…the positivity…or the negativity…of those beliefs come into play when they are taken out of context by the beliefs of others…

How can we keep a common ground?

By stepping outside the box…

Let’s begin by taking a closer look at “Character”…

“The mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.”

“Character” gives the revelation of harmful intention and malice…..

Trump or Whoopi?

Who represents and upholds character…and who does not?

Your answer will come by stepping outside your box….