I opened the hospital door this morning for an African American man. We happened to be going in at the same time, me for work, and he to visit a loved one. The hospital has a policy that its employees are to be curtious to visitors, but I don't need that policy. Most people don't. I would have opened the door regardless.
Isn't it interesting to think my polite gesture, which I did almost subconsciously, would not have been so natural as early as 1950 in many parts of our country. In some parts of our country it is still not natural to be kind to someone of differing skin color. I, a white man, opening the door for a black man. Unheard of in some parts and in some times.
But it's so natural to me to open the door for anyone: black, white, female, male, fat, skinny, tall, short. It doesn't matter. I just do it. So why? Why do I act this way? When did I first learn that appropriate interaction with others includes opening the door for them, no matter their color of skin or gender?
Answer: I can't remember when I first learned this behavior. It has always been this way. If it wasn't for a recent article, I wouldn't have thought about it.
The Article: Slave Master Becomes an Abolistionist
Mauritania is a nation on the western coast of Africa that, before I read this article, I knew nothing about. I read about Mauritania's long and recent history of slavery. Yes, there are still places struggling with slavery. According to the article the United Nations estimates that 10-20% of the population in Mauritania is enslaved.
The article revolves around the story of a former slave owner, Abdel, and his slave, Yebawa. What interested me in this article was not only the revelation of slavery still in the world, but of the descriptions made by both men concerning their experiences and how natural both men understood the reality of slavery.
First, a snippet of Abdel the former slave owner describing the act of picking his slave when only seven years old.
"It was as if I were picking out a toy," Abdel, now 47, said of choosing Yebawa as his slave. "For me, it was as if he were a thing -- a thing that pleased me. This idea came to me because there were all these stories about him which made me laugh -- that he talked in his sleep, that he was a bit chubby and a bit clumsy, that he was always losing the animals he was supposed to be watching over and was then always getting punished for this. So for me, he was an interesting and comic figure."
"It's normal that I chose him."
What do you know at seven years old but what is before you? At seven years old there is no sense of social justice outside the given definitions of such concepts delivered by parents and culture. So Abdel can only understand Yebawa according to the social construct given him by his environment. Yebawa is a piece of property, even comical property, nothing more than a thing in the inherited paradigm of young Abdel. With Western eyes I can't understand an ethic of human property, but then I remember that at seven years old I understood people through the lens given me by my parents and environment. I am the product of a middle-class family growing up in conservative Oklahoma. My past, like that of Abdel, is the conglomeration of paradigms I inherited from my environment. At seven, we are receptors of a world that barely extends beyond the walls of our homes. In Mauritania the young Abdel, likewise, has inherited a paradigm that sees those of darker skin color like toys - like property.
But what of the slave, Yebawa? What is the paradigm of a slave? Again, another snippet from the article.
Sadder still, Yebawa didn't consider himself human either -- at least not in the way Abdel was. Mauritania's slaves are very often brainwashed by their masters into thinking they are less than human and that their place is at the bottom of a rigid and still-enforced caste system that allows them only to serve their masters without pay or free will.
Because of their darker skin and lowest-caste status, slaves are treated as inferior.
Abdel's family never beat its slaves, he said, but did regard them as subhuman.
What does it mean to be brainwashed? I think this is the perception of the article's Westernized author.Yebawa has no idea of 'brainwashing'. He simply inherits a culture of slavery wherein his social category is 'slave'. His self-perception has been shaped and molded not by an individualistic capitalistic society, but by a caste system that has him at the bottom - as subhuman. He, like Abdel, like us, inherit a world-view that influences how we perceive others and how we perceive ourselves. In the Western world children are looked on by their parents as destined for greatness. What if your parents only see you as future property of a slave owner? And what if society reinforces that sad expectation by casting you on the lowest level of a system that does not allow for upward movement? Abdel summarizes the point well:
"One must really have in mind that when one is born into a certain environment, it is considered the right one -- just and fair."
So we grow up assuming our environment is just and fair. For Abdel, it was when he left Mauriania and studied in France that he learned how slavery was not socially acceptable for the rest of the world. His paradigm of humanity changed slowly, eventually leading him to become an abolitionist. He came to see the injustice; he saw the difference between what was morally right to the rest of the world and what wasn't right in his.
The slave master-turned-abolitionist made that journey from ignorance to enlightenment. And his organization, born under the stars of the Sahara, continues its work into its second decade.
It's easy for me to applaud Abdel's change. It's easy because he changed from a practice I believe to be wrong to advocating for a practice I sustain. But this morning I did something without thinking about it, just as innocently as Abdel in choosing his slave at seven years old. I opened the door for a man. For our culture, that's good behavior. Abdel chose a slave when only seven years old. For his culture, that was good behavior. I did the right thing because I have a culture and paradigm that tells me it is right.
There are factors outside my control (more than I can admit) that shape me and mold me to believe that my actions are morally good. But what if my culture is wrong? What if someone comes to me and tries to tell me the way I interact and perceive a group of people is actually inappropriate. If that person is sustained by the majority, I imagine I would be quick to adapt to the new paradigm under social pressure. However, if the individual is alone in the assertion concerning my ethical behavior to a certain group of people, than I am more likely to reject the alteration and continue in my comfortable yet possibly abhorrent behavior. In short, if slavery is in the air, I will breathe it.
Conclusion
I don't know the groups in my culture that I view as subhuman. I want to say that I don't view anyone or any group of people as subhuman. That's comfortable. It makes me feel like a good person. However, I have to admit to myself that because I don't have the pleasure of stepping outside my culture and personal paradigm I can't see what group I naturally perceive as subhuman. Abdel went to France and experienced his paradigm in a different environment, leading to a deep change. I really can't afford a trip to France. Instead, I offer two groups of people that I guess I may perceive incorrectly. I don't see them as subhuman (I think), but I do lack personal interaction with these groups that would inform my paradigm and produce a more accurate understanding of who they really are: 1) American Muslims; and 2) Homosexuals. I've grown up in an extremely conservative environment and I think I may have many incorrect perceptions of both American Muslims and Homosexuals. I could be wrong, but I won't know until I go talk to them, eat with them, smile with them. Again, I don't view these groups of people as subhuman, but I do think my perception needs to be balanced by genuine conversation with - not about - two minority groups in Oklahoma. Maybe I'll breathe something different when I am around them. I'll let you know how it goes.
Search Ponder Pray Repeat
What does it mean to be brainwashed? I think this is the perception of the article's Westernized author.Yebawa has no idea of 'brainwashing'. He simply inherits a culture of slavery wherein his social category is 'slave'. His self-perception has been shaped and molded not by an individualistic capitalistic society, but by a caste system that has him at the bottom - as subhuman. He, like Abdel, like us, inherit a world-view that influences how we perceive others and how we perceive ourselves. In the Western world children are looked on by their parents as destined for greatness. What if your parents only see you as future property of a slave owner? And what if society reinforces that sad expectation by casting you on the lowest level of a system that does not allow for upward movement? Abdel summarizes the point well:
"One must really have in mind that when one is born into a certain environment, it is considered the right one -- just and fair."
So we grow up assuming our environment is just and fair. For Abdel, it was when he left Mauriania and studied in France that he learned how slavery was not socially acceptable for the rest of the world. His paradigm of humanity changed slowly, eventually leading him to become an abolitionist. He came to see the injustice; he saw the difference between what was morally right to the rest of the world and what wasn't right in his.
They [Abdel and other abolistionists] denounced the Mauritanian government's inaction on slavery, lobbying for legislation that would criminalize the practice. The law passed unanimously in 2007, making it a crime to own another person and force him or her to work.
The slave master-turned-abolitionist made that journey from ignorance to enlightenment. And his organization, born under the stars of the Sahara, continues its work into its second decade.
It's easy for me to applaud Abdel's change. It's easy because he changed from a practice I believe to be wrong to advocating for a practice I sustain. But this morning I did something without thinking about it, just as innocently as Abdel in choosing his slave at seven years old. I opened the door for a man. For our culture, that's good behavior. Abdel chose a slave when only seven years old. For his culture, that was good behavior. I did the right thing because I have a culture and paradigm that tells me it is right.
There are factors outside my control (more than I can admit) that shape me and mold me to believe that my actions are morally good. But what if my culture is wrong? What if someone comes to me and tries to tell me the way I interact and perceive a group of people is actually inappropriate. If that person is sustained by the majority, I imagine I would be quick to adapt to the new paradigm under social pressure. However, if the individual is alone in the assertion concerning my ethical behavior to a certain group of people, than I am more likely to reject the alteration and continue in my comfortable yet possibly abhorrent behavior. In short, if slavery is in the air, I will breathe it.
Conclusion
I don't know the groups in my culture that I view as subhuman. I want to say that I don't view anyone or any group of people as subhuman. That's comfortable. It makes me feel like a good person. However, I have to admit to myself that because I don't have the pleasure of stepping outside my culture and personal paradigm I can't see what group I naturally perceive as subhuman. Abdel went to France and experienced his paradigm in a different environment, leading to a deep change. I really can't afford a trip to France. Instead, I offer two groups of people that I guess I may perceive incorrectly. I don't see them as subhuman (I think), but I do lack personal interaction with these groups that would inform my paradigm and produce a more accurate understanding of who they really are: 1) American Muslims; and 2) Homosexuals. I've grown up in an extremely conservative environment and I think I may have many incorrect perceptions of both American Muslims and Homosexuals. I could be wrong, but I won't know until I go talk to them, eat with them, smile with them. Again, I don't view these groups of people as subhuman, but I do think my perception needs to be balanced by genuine conversation with - not about - two minority groups in Oklahoma. Maybe I'll breathe something different when I am around them. I'll let you know how it goes.
Search Ponder Pray Repeat
good read Travis, you might want to check out something in Fayetteville Arkansas. I met people there of that nature. often times you can go to any college group campus and find someone of each of those minorities there. I have to admit, most of what I know of other religions has been from college course material. as a matter of fact, one of my favorite teachers was an ordained Rabi, who included readings of the Quran in his world history class.
ReplyDeleteThis issue of environmental filters or lenses obviously gets into everything, since we perceive everything through it or them. And the persons or objects toward which they influence us indicate just how important this issue is.
ReplyDeleteTravis has largely stuck with the issue of not just people, but particular groups of people. This is certainly important. Above even that is God or the Ultimate. As Christians, especially in America, we have to constantly be self-evaluating and concerned about how our environmental lenses, specifically American ones, affect how we approach God. I've been looking at a book called "Radical"; it's subtitle indicates a bit of what he's trying to do and what I am talking about - "Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream".
Travis may bring the huge issue of how we go about and how far we go to align our lives with God's Will. This topic just reminded me of this idea of how our culture, specifically the American culture and the American Dream, can obviously and yet subtly infiltrate our ideas and means of our most important relationship and our greatest efforts to serve Him.
If it can skew our devotion to God slightly or more at every opportunity, then it can do the same in our interactions with other people. It obviously does so with our own self-relationship or self-image.
I believe this is where Romans 12:2, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." isn't just a single verse, but realize that it is a major work of the sanctification that the Holy Spirit is constantly fighting to wrought in us.
May we all be renewed by Grace, and our minds renewed by Truth and Love, Everyday.
Hey travis, one more thing. I wanted to make sure you knew that when I first started commenting here I went back to the beginning and commented on several of your first posts, starting with Beginnings. I thought you might never have gone back that far, but I thought you might like some of the stuff I wrote. Beginnings, No Name, and What Is The Gospel are some that come to mind and you might enjoy even now.
ReplyDeleteHave a good Sabbath.