A White Man's Perspectives on Race and Racism

By Zephareth Ledbetter

Do you feel that it is always the same group of voices addressing our issues with racism? Do you feel compelled to quietly go along with those voices for fear of societal backlash? Do you have concerns about even asking any questions which might challenge the racial groupthink that pervades and often controls our current reality?

A sociopolitical examination of race relations in the United States, A White Man's Perspectives on Race and Racism is a centrist and narrative challenging outlook on the history, causes, and effects of racism. It addresses media and political bias and misinformation, direct and indirect culpability, and requirements for social correction through various subjects including cultural differences, racial double standards, affirmative action, cultural appropriation, immigration, separatism, and encounters with police.

It also asks its readers to "rip off the Band-Aid" and reexamine what they think they already know, shed their preconceived notions about others of all races, ignore propaganda, and think for themselves without threat of judgment.

Zephareth Ledbetter is a pen name for the anonymous author, who explains his choice of anonymity herein.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anonymous
• Release date: Sep 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215877890

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Introduction

If your first, instinctive response to the title of this work is one of anxiety, or stress, or anger, or fear... If your first thoughts are Well this can’t go well, or Why should anyone care, or This guy just dug his own grave... If you are a proponent of the narrative that no white man can possibly have any meaningful input on the issues of racism... Then you are feeding into the problem at its source, which is the prejudgment of others based upon things beyond their control.

When I mentioned this as a working title (to a then unfinished work) to friends, their responses were mostly concerned versions of You really don’t want to do that. They meant well, of course, but that has become part of the problem. It is now demanded that, for anyone who is not considered to be part of a marginalized group, they either tout a supportive company line or shut up altogether, hiding their opinions. This causes countless well meaning, non-racist people - who abhor racism but don’t necessarily agree with every talking point of the extremist crowd - to hide in the shadows for fear of being misinterpreted. The need to have every person agree with us on every single level of the conversation leaves us without the input of numerous positive voices on the subject. In our attempts at unattainable perfection, we are shooting ourselves in the foot.

Since every person who writes, speaks, or has an opinion about racism identifies as a part of some specific race, their perspectives will always be viewed by some as without true merit. There is no avoiding that reality. I considered not including the facts of my race and gender, but felt that would be disingenuous. There are people who will dismiss what I write out of hand simply due to those facts, which is a concern, but I decided that is their problem, not mine. Some will misinterpret any statements they find critical as racist, and any which are supportive as racist code, but that too is out of my control. There are those who feel that the fact of my race makes me inherently racist, as such delegitimizing my experiences and views; this is the pot calling the kettle black (irony noted). I included the fact that I am a white man not for shock value, but in the spirit of full disclosure. Every reader has the right to process that information as they see fit, and that fact will give more or less weight to the impact of these perspectives on each individual who reads them - a fact that, while true, is racist in itself. I cannot help, or change, the fact that I was born male and white, and that should have no bearing on the validity of my views, any more or less than anyone’s gender or race should. Unfortunately, however, we are all acutely aware that it does. How much it does for you is your own choice, but I don’t believe anyone should remain silent about their thoughts because some others feel they’re not the right person to have those thoughts. We all are who we are. I have, however, reluctantly disincluded my name to protect my associates and loved ones from radical extremists on both sides of the aisle. That is unfortunate, but I feel it is necessary in the current climate. Some will call it cowardly, but I will have to live with that; there are people in my life about whom I care more than myself.

For some background, I am agnostic bordering on atheist, meaning that I believe there probably isn’t a God; if there is some universal creator, I believe it took a start the life engine and let it run its course approach and has no active intervention in humanity as is described in most religions, so religious belief does not play any role in my thought process. I was born and raised in New York City, a true melting pot of cultures if ever there was one, though our neighborhood was predominantly white. My family was neither wealthy nor poor, but solidly working/middle class, and while we didn’t have anything extravagant, all of our needs were met. I am of Italian, Irish, and Ukrainian descent, and my family mostly emigrated to America in the first half of the 20th century. I have had friends and co-workers from a variety of cultural and religious backgrounds, so culture shock is a pretty foreign concept to me. People I’ve known from all races and backgrounds have, in my presence, made references to other races in disparaging ways - sometimes venting real experiences, sometimes just through lack of understanding, sometimes simply joking. While all of those events would be characterized as racist by some, I haven’t always inferred that as the motivation behind those thoughts - sometimes, yes, but not always.

Those facts may or may not have an impact on your acceptance or rejection of my views; that is for you to decide for yourself. All I can do is present my reality as I have experienced it. I have researched and written this in order to verify publicly believed truths, to expose publicly believed falsehoods, and to clarify any preconceived notions which I might personally have had (and there were plenty).

I believe that I am neither racist, nor the current definition of anti-racist. I acknowledge that racism exists, and in some ways to a greater degree than many people would admit. But I also want real answers to questions about race, even if those answers might be things I’m not happy to hear. I reject the mistreatment of others based on their race, but I also am certain that race is not the motivating factor in every place some people think it is. Many people don’t want to ask hard questions, but I feel, how can we not?

Are different races of people physiologically different? Or, aside from skin color, are they all the same? Is it a personality flaw that many human beings naturally reject those they view as different? Or is there a scientific, anthropological basis for racism? Only a person with his head in the ground wouldn’t be able to recognize the noticeable differences between races of people, but how much of that is borne of geographically based culture as opposed to the genetics of one’s race?

There are two possible answers to this. One, perhaps one day we eventually discover that we are all in fact the same in every way except skin color, and we will be looked back upon from that distant future as having been foolish for any of our differences. Or two, we eventually discover that we are in fact different (more on that later), which shouldn’t matter anyway but which some people will use to justify their negative feelings toward others. Most scientific advancement results from asking questions, but on this subject such questions are frowned upon. We know that people look different from each other because of how the environments of where their ancestors settled affected their physiologies. But what about when that changes? If, for instance, the large stature of the Samoan people is a result of the environment in which they settled, would that change if it was elsewhere? If we moved families of large Samoan people to geographical areas where humans developed with smaller statures, like Italy, Vietnam or Papua New Guinea, and if they continued procreating amongst themselves over many thousands of years to maintain their Samoan gene pool dominance, would the new geographical locations gradually result in smaller breeding?

For lack of a better term, not everything is quite so black and white.

1. What is racism?

The first step in a constructive conversation about race and racism is the ability to rip off the Band-Aid. Not everybody is capable of this; many people are so consumed by their hatred of others, or feelings of persecution by others, or prejudgment of any disparate opinions that they close themselves off to any broadening of their understanding of the other side. Some actually revel in their contempt (which seems sociopathic), while some reject any thoughts they feel don’t come from the right sources as irrelevant (which seems close-minded). This is what is meant by ripping off the Band-Aid - if you can’t tear away your preconceived notions and revisit these subjects with a truly open mind, then this material is not for you, and if you think I’m just talking about the other side, then you’re not paying attention. We must be able to have dialogue about uncomfortable subjects without being labeled, accept those uncomfortable concepts rather than hide from them, and be willing to look inward as much as outward when assessing culpability.

The intent here is not for every reader to agree with every detail presented - that is not possible - but to bring us to a more common ground. We can’t replicate all the experiences of each other in order to experience them for ourselves; every person’s life experiences are unique and, by definition, take a full lifetime to experience. We can only share a fraction of important events, and hope for empathy and understanding. I can’t hope to fully understand why minority people feel the way that they do, but I can and do adjust my actions to better accommodate those feelings of which I’m aware. My hope with this work is that, while many minority people might not understand or even agree with the feelings I present, that they can better empathize and adjust any actions and preconceived notions toward a greater spirit of cooperation.

Race relations in America, and throughout the world, are complex, layered, and affected on all sides by historical forces too overwhelming to overcome with sheer rhetoric. There have been causes and effects going back millenia, which in turn have caused further effects, and so on. As such, there is no single thing that can be done or undone which can change the world’s perspectives about, and by extension treatment of, different races. Almost everyone (though admittedly some more than others) can point to a period in history in which their people were persecuted simply because of the tribe into which they were born. It is human nature to give preferential treatment to concerns which affect us personally, so this becomes one source of defense for the stances of many who are combative toward change - You think your people had it bad? Well my people had it worse! In some cases it’s very true, in others it’s exaggerated, but in all cases it needs to be pushed aside in order to have progress. That’s easier said than done, but if we’re not willing to do so, then we’re more interested in perceived justice for the past than in solutions for the future. We need to realize that our opinions of what constitutes justice for the past aren’t all the same, and we can argue about it until doomsday (which we already are) without ever closing that gap. This is not to suggest that this way is fair - few things in this life are - but that it is the only way to get where we want our future generations to go.

What actually constitutes racism? To some, it is the outward mistreatment of others of a different race. To others, it is simply viewing different races in a negative light, even if there is no outright manifestation of those feelings. To others still, the mere observation of undeniable differences in others is racism, or at least a precursor to it. Again we see, even amongst those in the same category, the varied viewpoints which preclude everyone from being on the same page. How can we fight something when