Instead Of Tolerance Protesters Want Equality-And There Is A Difference DMT.NEWS - DMT NEWS

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Instead Of Tolerance Protesters Want Equality-And There Is A Difference DMT.NEWS

July 06, 2020 , ,

Article by WN.Com Correspondent Dallas Darling

“Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.”

-Aristotle

Sociologists agree that the price of being tolerated is accepting your inferiority. Tolerance, moreover, is easy to dispense when a leader and people feel confident of their own superiority-that is, when their superiority has been legalized and institutionalized for centuries, even elevating it into a national crusade. Unlike equality, tolerance is a blight on the human conscience, the superior being able to define and treat the rest as subhuman.

White Tolerance

The killing of George Floyd that spurred protests in cities across America have been met with heavy police resistance and condemnation also has exposed a society that prides itself on white tolerance. But amid continuing violence against African Americans and the devastating toll that COVID-19 is taking on Black communities, it is a tolerance that breeds inferiority and revolution. The truth is no one likes to be “tolerated.” To tolerate means to insult, to put up with someone.

In contrast to the relaxed police response to the armed, largely white anti-lockdown protests just a few weeks ago, which included white militias taking over several state capitols, police reaction to these generally peaceful, Black protests has been highly militarized. In some cases, the violent repercussions have been started by the police and federal authorities themselves, a dynamic that has led to confrontations and injuries and fueled further unrest, rage, and destruction.

Tolerating What They Despised

In the United States, all men were never created equal. Nor did those who considered themselves superior see others as endowed with inalienable rights. Equality would have meant Thomas Jefferson freeing his Black slaves, or Abraham Lincoln signing an executive order right away to emancipate all Black slaves, instead of first safeguarding the Union. They could only tolerate what they despised. It may be better than being killed, but it is not to be wished for.

White toleration also meant decades of segregation, lynching, forced migration and deportation, and pogroms against Black communities. To tolerate is to be partial, to emphasize all differences that lie beyond people’s control, such as the color of their skin or the place of their birth. Toleration ensured the gulf between equality of opportunity and equality of outcome would remain intact, be it political, economic, or social. It included the distribution of goods and resources.

Superior by Default

The pushback against Black reform and the condemnation of black resistance, and of Black radicalism, mainly driven by white tolerance, is not a new phenomenon. Nor is the dismissal of Black people’s claim for justice and equality if their uprisings or activism do not fit a certain script of “nonviolence.” This double standard white toleration is further illustrated by valorizing the crackdown of authorities while condemning groups that supported resistance.

In “Respectability and Remembrance: The Continued Condemnation of Black Resistance,” Ann Stokes writes, “What fueled the rise of Black Power activism that appealed to African Americans who felt voiceless was the economic and political disadvantages brought about and enforced by whites tolerating Blacks, never treating them as equals. And if you are in position to put up with them, rather them with you, then you are by default their superior.”

What We All Want: Equality

What the largely Black protests want is what we all want: Equality. To be treated as equals instead of tolerated with regards to rights, and opportunities. They want equality in hiring and labor, in education and healthcare, in the arts and sciences, in voting and political participation, and in how a nation recalls its past. Protesters no longer want to be treated as subhuman when it comes to auto, housing, and business loans, or the possibilities in politically representing the nation.

Neither do African Americans want to see another political leader propagating white toleration, which Donald Trump just did.

Along with targeting anti-racism protesters, he retweeted another video showing a Florida supporter shouting “white power” at Black protesters.

Whether it is called white toleration or white power and white supremacy, this kind of countenance is the same kind of hatred found among the Ku Klux Klan, White Nationalists, and Christian Identity.

The Tolerated and Tolerators   

The power of equality is the most important characteristic of any society. America, therefore, has another reckoning with its “tolerance.” But if this sense of superiority feels threatened, its toleration will again turn to hatred and intolerance, whether exercised by the State of unruly mob, or both. Either way, the Tolerated can never rely on their Tolerators. When viewed more broadly, the current protests are in continuation of this struggle for racial equality and justice.

Dallas Darling (darling@wn.com)

(Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John’s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.WN.com. You can read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com and www.WN.com/dallasdarling.)



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