Lies of the Mind–Part One: Racism

A Black Child Discovers the Big Lie

Actress Phylicia Rashad, appearing on a Martin Luther King day program on CNN, shared a memory from her childhood in Texas. Seeing a water fountain labeled “For Whites Only” and curious about why she, a black child, could not drink there, she took a drink from that forbidden fountain. To her amazement the water tasted exactly the same as that in the “Colored Only” fountain. Instantly she saw the truth: racism was a giant lie, foisted by white America on the former slaves of the south. Black Americans knew this of course, in their bodies and hearts, but it took the rest of America years to wake up and get it.

Obama’s Presidency Been A Huge Turning Point

With the election of Barack Obama as President, the United States of America has been swept up in a wave of energy as our collective lie of the mind, our racism, has been released at long last. It has been a long time coming. You could see and feel the joy and the jubilation on television as crowds danced in celebration on Election night and at the Inauguration ceremonies. The collective deception has released its evil hold on us. Finally, we are free to pursue our dreams, no matter the color of our skins.

Much Work Left To Do

The suffering is not over. We have much repair and mending to do: with kids who think they can’t learn, with adults mired in poverty, and with the hundreds of thousands incarcerated in prison. But we have taken a critical step forward in healing a major fracture in our society, a deep schism caused by a lie of the mind.

Racism: A Collective Thinking Error?
What is a lie of the mind? We could also call it a thinking error or a collective in-authenticity that a large group has adopted unconsciously, absorbed as if it were in the air or the drinking water. Why would such large numbers of people absorb a belief like racism, that made them believe they were superior to a whole group of people whose skins were a different color? Perhaps because they felt inferior themselves? Or were frightened of their ability to succeed in society and needed to put someone else down? There are a host of possible reasons. What we do know is that racism was profitable for a whole class of people.

Was Racism Deliberate, Unconscious or Both?
This lie brought terrible suffering to millions of people for generations. It caused the senseless deaths of untold numbers of people and damaged the souls of countless others who thought they were worthless. What about the millions of Americans who believed the lie of white is superior? Were they bad people? Did they perpetuate this lie consciously? Did they know what they were doing or were they so absorbed in their own needs and fears that they were incapable of truly seeing the needs of the people they disdained?

And Miles to Go Before We Sleep
Over the years racism continued its insidious damage until it was examined and seen as a lie. Finally, as transformational figures like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and ultimately, Barack Obama, appeared, the collective conversation began to shift. Most white Americans were not bad people. We were however, blind people who did terrible things out of our unconsciousness. Now we have awoken and there is much work to do to put things right. Our job now is to create a society that is fully in alignment with the values that we in these United States, have always espoused. We have reached the turning point. We are ready and now is the time.

I have written about this topic before. Please see my previous blog: Healing Racism.

Part Two of this Blog will appear next week. It will apply the notion of the lie of the mind to the War on Terrorism by the U.S. and by Israel in Gaza.

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