Separate, Unequal and More Violent

Last updated on: April 18, 2013 at 3:23 pm by Andre E. Johnson

Separate, Unequal and More Violent 2013-04-18T15:23:00-05:00 Andre E. Johnson

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By Earle Fisher

R3 Contributor

I was asked to construct a response that addresses the Boston Marathon Bombing and also the recent Tennessee state legislature approving a bill that would allow six Shelby County suburbs to establish their own school districts. On the surface it seems that those two things are as distant as the 1300 plus marathon miles that separate Binghampton (in Memphis) and Boston (in Massachusetts). But theoretically I am seeing a seam that is threaded between the historical fabric of freedom and the contemporary cloth of oppression.

This week in my world cultures class I was contemplating a way to analyze the recent event of the Boston

Marathon Bombing within the framework of the class. We opened the discussion by looking at the ways in which we were introduced to the incident (word of mouth, media outlets, social media, etc.). This described for us a culture of highly technological and industrial sophistication – at least on the surface. We surmised that we have done much to be able to connect ourselves to others all around the globe technologically. This internet-connectivity has introduced us to people and places we heretofore knew little of, lest the media’s propaganda based portrayal of other places. The conversation then shifted into how we have become to exposed to so many acts of violence around the globe that these acts have become normative and now serve as a sort of anesthetic and sedative for the reality of human vulnerability. Every day, week and month there is recorded a tragedy that ranges from bombings, shootings, explosions and other calamities that conclude some human life or lives (even as I am writing this an explosion has taken place at a Fertility plant in Texas and the causalities are coming in by the minute). What my class concluded was that we live in a culture of violence that is grounded in theories of separatism. Violence has become so normal because it has been sanctioned by authoritative entities and is portrayed differently depending on WHO the violence is projected onto.

To put this analysis into context, many people have often contemplated how the ancient Hebrew community lived with the commandment of “Thou shalt not kill” and simultaneously celebrated the killing and conquest of other people and their communities. Contextually it made sense because those commandments of non-violence were only supposed to be implemented within their local and communal jurisdiction. It would be comparative to speed limits in local vicinities or interstates. The recognition and enforcement of the “law” varies depend upon one’s geography. In other words, to kill a Hebrew, deplorable; to kill a Philistine named Goliath, divinely endorsed.

We have been bequeathed a dysfunctional ideology of social, political and even religious separatism. It is evident even more so in the American psyche in how we have chosen to highlight and grieve the tragedies like Boston and Newtown (rightfully so) but have turned a blinded eye and deaf ear to the mass murders taking place in “ChIraq” (an Illinois city that is beginning to look like Iraq nowadays) and other chocolate cities and vanilla suburbs all over the yet to be United States of America.

In spite of what the internet and other technologies have done to make the world smaller, we have fostered a climate of disconnection between ourselves and our neighbors. We may sympathetically mourn tragedies that do not directly impact or affect us. But there is little space for us to empathetically stand in the aisles between oppression and liberation… on behalf of others.

What our culture is centered on, now, is power. This conceptual power is mythical at its core but is has substantial manifestations in the societies in which we make our abode. The thirst and desire for power has been the spring board for our quests for separatism that quite often leads to acts of violence. I’m not a psychoanalyst, but I do perceive that whoever set the bomb off in Boston did so as a means of communicating his/her power over those “subjects” who became victims. Historically power has been taken through violent force (even when it has been done in the name of God). With this in the backdrop it seems not only conducive and convenient but moreover necessary to seek power through violent means. For one to bomb innocent and unarmed people, whether in Boston or Afghanistan (which also had a bomb dropped there on Monday at a wedding of unarmed civilians), is to project an expression of power over those who have been victimized. Violence is often the voice of the unheard, but it is also the frequency by which

oppressive empires speak in order to maintain their platform of privilege.

What we have been missing is the connection between violence and separatism. People are reluctant to be violent towards people who they feel a strong connection and mutual relationship with. Therefore when we put together systemic structures that drive wedges between humans, violence becomes a

relative inevitability. Whether we are trying to separate ourselves through school systems, religious communities, political affiliations, neighborhood allegiances or otherwise, we are signing a promissory note of discord and dissension that leads down a bloody trail. I believe the way to peace is through unity and not exclusion by manipulative means.

We have to reclaim a sense of togetherness. I am not trying to suggest a bland and generic existence. I am suggesting that the beauty of our diversity has to be affirmed collectively and is the only antibiotic to the infection of xenophobia. If we want to create more peaceful and wholesome communities then let’s make sure that the basis of our liberty and freedom is not the foundation of our elitism and oppression of others. To want unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is commendable and arguably a divine right. To want to separate ourselves from others as a means marginalization is repulsive. And this separation ultimately leads to bombs exploding, guns going off and lives being lost – at home and abroad.

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