Ani Fox - Post Racial Societies

[Ani Fox]

Post Racial Societies

Philosophers when asked about something Post-X have to shrug and throw a mental dart at their world view. No one can adequately predict what a place beyond Now looks like simply because the future reveals itself in startlingly new and chaotic ways. Take for example Sinister and Dexter. Sinister refers to left handedness, evil, in league with the Devil, etc. Dexter is the old English word for right handedness and thus, rightness. To be Sinister before we had a Post-Handedness World meant to be evil, to be punished and suspected and to be a social inferior in every way.

What does a Post-Racial society look like? It looks like a Post-Handedness society – one where no one notices, cares about, remarks on or makes significant choices based on whether they or anyone else is left or right handed. It means ‘race’ as a concept does not exist. We don’t think or speak of it except as an archaic set of almost meaningless distinctions which have no real relevance to a modern society like ours. It means genuine freedom from oppression and violence for anyone in regards to things as silly and meaningless as skin color, ethnicity, ancestry, heritage or affiliation. It also sadly means new forms of oppression have grown in Race’s stead, finding new ways to divide people between Good and Bad, Human and Subhuman.

Shocking? Perhaps but also very true. Barring something really wonderful like Humanity growing up and laying down their weaponry, people will kill, maim, rape and raze in the name of meaningless convictions which historically used to not exist and which historically will at some point cease to exist. How many Muslims were there in 500AD? How many Christians in 100 BC? So at some point in the past there was no Crisis of Civilizations? No Culture Wars. But we did have wars: we did have Romans smashing the crap out of the locals and all manner of mayhem in China and Japan. Just as we grow beyond certain categories we also grow into new categories which we use to oppress and harass.

So a Post-Racial society looks much like today but with different categories of who counts and who doesn’t. It no longer uses Race as the decision maker for who is In and who is Out. What we should be asking is ‘What Does a Post-Violence Society look like?” That’s a profound question and one that’s deeper than we might imagine. Think about it.