Overcoming the Racism Game

Over 450 years ago, Native and African Peoples became the victims of European expansionism in the New World. The British colonists, after gaining independence from the Crown, needed cheap labor to develop the vast lands and natural resources they'd stolen. Their solution: establish African Slavery, an innovative labor system engineered and powered by the "Racism Game". This European self-attribution of racial superiority, when combined with Euro-inspired Capitalism, Religionism, and Militarism, served to justify European enslavement of millions of Africans in the name of building a secure and profitable American empire.  

After a great Civil War abolished Slavery and freed Africans from the horrors of physical bondage, Euro-Americans rebelled in full force. They initiated new campaigns of terror against blacks, including: the Black Codes, Peonage, Jim Crow, the Negro Holocaust, School to Prison Pipeline, and Domestic Wars on Drugs and Crime. Blacks suffered underdevelopment, underachievement, and unfulfillment. 

To understand "racism as a game", let's consider Bernard Suits' definition of game as ". . . an activity directed toward bringing about a specific state of affairs, using only means permitted by specific rules. . ."  I, along with others, add that a game is played by opponents on a field of play with rules, a challenge, interaction, and a prize for the winner.  According to D.K. Levine, "game theory" is what "psychologists call the theory of social situations, focusing on how groups of people interact." 

This backdrop explains the Racism Game as the ongoing contest to determine whether (1) whites will maintain America's racist status quo, or (2) blacks will disrupt or defeat the status quo in order to achieve full citizenship and respect. How will blacks respond? 

Paradoxically, whites regularly accuse blacks of "playing the race card", when they're the ones who created the Racism Game.  Having also stacked the deck, they threaten captive blacks with a new form of mental slavery.

If we decide to reclaim our dignity, aspirations, and power, here's a way: The first order of business is to exit the Racism Game. Having done that, we can mend the schism between our men and women and rebuild our relationships and families. Let's get great educations and network to ascend to leadership in every sphere of society. Let's reinvest our know-how, time, and money in our Community to solve our problems, and own and control our businesses, think tanks, and PACs. And given the wanton assaults against us, we must use our Second Amendment rights to protect ourselves, our families, and our Community.

With our vast reservoir of faith, we need neither depend on white beneficence nor idolize a flawed white standard. Our own glorious heritage should be our standard.  Once free from the tyranny of the Racism Game, we can devote ourselves to reclaiming a unified, prosperous and powerful Community.