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Challenge racism in the same way you challenge addiction
Some theories relate people’s lust after racist ideas, and white supremacy to an addiction, a promise of reaching a superior state or holding on to one you already have. A continual search for release, relief, and happiness. The same rush, the activation of dopamine. Yes, and when confronted with the problem of racist ideas, many react with denial, “I don’t have a problem, it’s everyone else,” is the common refrain. “It could be worse, I didn’t kill anyone.” Has anyone heard this response when telling a neighbor something they did or said was racist, or even if you wonder if someone like Lovecraft was racist? The denial jumps in on the defense.
But, I don’t want to get psychological here. I’d like to dip into a bit of history. Whenever you take a drag of that cigarette, you might want to remember that it was thanks to Jean Nicot that the idea of “race” was used to describe human beings. And when we mean race, we truly mean racism, where the very separation of types of people into groups forced unequal life stations based on fabricated superior and inferior qualities. Interestingly, although the idea of race had been previously used to describe animals, in particular horses, Nicot brought humans into this hierarchical picture.
