What might be the most meaningful thing for any of us to know at this time?
My answer is:
Fear is not a thought.
fear
There’s a powerful lesson in the story of Nobel Prize winner, James Watson, and his opinion that black people are intrinsically less intelligent than whites. As harmful as Dr. Watson’s views on race may be, more harmful is the anger directed at him for holding those views.
In 1962, Dr. Watson shared the Nobel Prize for describing the double-helix structure of DNA, making him a founder of modern genetics. Forty-five years later, in 2007, he told a British journalist that he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa,” because, “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours, whereas all the testing says, not really.”
Watson recently affirmed his provocative contention in a documentary portrait of him aired on PBS. A New York Times article about the program included this statement: “…and scientists routinely excoriate Dr. Watson when his name surfaces on social media.”
That’s a loaded verb, excoriate. It means “to censure scathingly.” Synonyms include: abuse, assail, bash, blast, attack, and savage. Read More
When is it healthy to be outraged?
While improving society is a noble aspiration much in demand today, its achievement is greatly determined by who each of us brings to the table––i.e., how we manage ourselves.
Conversely, our immaturity in managing ourselves is the reason society needs so much help. Even those of us hot to change the world often show up wearing the cement shoes of judgment, blame, and any of the other accoutrements of unmanaged fear.
Why is this? I, of course, do not know. But I have a guess at what might be a top contributor. Our inability and/or unwillingness to be responsible for our feelings. Read More
My Other Website
"The push to change the words “nigger” and “injun” in Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, because the so-called offensive nature of those terms might limit today’s readership and appreciation of that literary classic, is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on how we avoid taking responsibility for our feelings––and therefore miss the chance to become more awake, more whole, more useful friends to one another."
The Essay: The Gold in Niggers and Injuns
