{"id":1041,"date":"2019-03-11T15:25:24","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T15:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wsm.prolerat.org\/?page_id=1041"},"modified":"2019-10-21T16:01:27","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T15:01:27","slug":"religion-racism-and-class","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/religion-racism-and-class\/","title":{"rendered":"Religion, Racism and Class"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
August 2002, Ghana<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\nThe absurd claim of racism is that people’s behavioural, physical and \ncultural traits conform to a certain fixed and immutable pattern; and \nthis determines the superiority or otherwise of a group in relation to \nothers. This is an outlook that has been used to justify some of the \nmost unspeakable and horrendous crimes against humanity, sometimes \nleading to killings of genocidal proportions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Eduardo Galegno’s Open Vein of Latin America, he recounts that \nbefore foreign conquerors set foot on the soil of the land the Indians \ntotalled no less than 70 million. But a century-and-a-half later, they \nhad been reduced to 3.5 million; and in 1685 only 4,000 Indian families \nremained of the more than two million that had once lived between Lima \nand Paita. Yet Archbishop Linan by Cisneros exposed how some of the \nchurch elders had perfected lies into a fine art. He said: \u201cThe truth is\n that they are hiding out, to avoid paying tribute, abusing the liberty \nwhich they enjoy and which they never had under the Incas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Racism however is flawed on a number of counts, not just for its \nbarbarism and irrationality. Its fundamental arguments are basically \nweak. Where are those people who conform to racial purity, let’s say in \nterms of colour? You will meet a lot of dark-skinned people in Africa, \nbut you will no doubt also come across light-skinned types in southern \nAfrica and eastern Nigeria. How can one also argue that the Yanamani \nIndians or the Bushmen of the Kalahari desert are less intelligent than \npeople in Norway or Japan. The two groups live in different material \nconditions, and these varied environments impose on them tasks and \nsolutions that respond to their peculiar circumstances. In spite of the \ngaping loopholes in racists’ theories racism has been used together with\n religion to justify the enslavement of other people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Islam, Christianity and Hinduism <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Arabs and their Muslim counterparts, according to Dais Brion, \nwere the first people to develop a specialised long-distance slave trade\n from sub-Saharan Africa. They were also the first people to view blacks\n as suited by nature for the lowest and the most degrading form of \nbondage. Rotter’s pioneering work and the research of Benard Lewis \nreveals that for medieval Arabs the blackness of Africans suggested sin,\n damnation and the devil. Arab scholars most of the time also invoked \nthe biblical curse of Canaan to explain why the sons of Ham had been \nblackened and degraded to the status of natural slaves as punishment for\n the sins of their ancestors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the 10th century some Muslim writers asserted that Ham begot all \nblacks and people with crinkly hair and that \u201cNoah put a curse on Ham \naccording to which the hair of his descendants would not extend over \ntheir ears, and they would be enslaved wherever they were encountered\u201d. \nBenard Lewis also quotes a 13th century Islamic historian from Iran who \nconcluded that the Zanj (blacks) differed from animals only because \ntheir two hands are lifted above the ground and that many have observed \nthat the ape is more teachable and more intelligent than the Zanj.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the 17th century Father Gregorio Garcia detected \u201cSemitic blood\u201d \nin the Indians, because like the Jews, \u201cthey are lazy, they do not \nbelieve in the miracles of Jesus Christ, and they are ungrateful to the \nSpaniards for all the good they have done to them\u201d. When Bartolome de \nLas Casas upset the Spanish court with his fiery denunciations of the \nconquistadors’ cruelty in 1557, a member of the Royal Council had \nreplied that Indians were too low in the human scale to be capable of \nreceiving the faith. Another justification for holding other people as \nslaves was found in Leviticus 25:44 which said, \u201cBoth they bonds-men and\n they bonds-maid, which thou shalt have, shall be the heathen that are \nround you; of them shall ye buy bonds-men and bonds-maids.\u201d But the most\n popular text on the matter is found in Genesis 9:25 which says, \u201cCursed\n be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren.\u201d Some \nslave-owners went beyond the bible arguing that it might be wrong to \nenslave Christians, but that the Negro was not a human being and \ntherefore could not become a Christian. One pious lady said, when asked \nif her Negro maid was to be baptised, \u201cyou might as well baptise my \nblack bitch.\u201d While Bishop Berkeley put the same idea into philosophical\n language when he said, \u201cNegroes were creaturs of another species who \nhad no right to be included or admitted to other sacraments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Similarly, racist sentiments are expressed in the Rig Veda, the Hindu\n scriptures of ancient India. Indra, the God of the Aryans, is described\n as \u201cblowing away with supernatural might from earth and from the \nheavens the blackskins, which Indra hates\u201d. The account further reports \nhow Indra \u201cslew the flat-nosed barbarians, the dark people called \nAnasahs. Finally, after Indra conquers the land of the Anasahs for his \nworshippers, he commands that the Anasahs are to be flayed of (their) \nblack skin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first distinctive feature to be noted in religion and racism is \ntheir appeal to a two-category system which presupposes a basic division\n of mankind into an \u201cin\u201d group and an \u201cout\u201d group. In addition, this \nfundamental division is supported, initiated and sanctioned by God \nhimself. God has a special concern for the \u201cin\u201d group, and it receives \nhis sustaining aid and grace. By contrast he is indifferent or hostile \nto the \u201cout\u201d group. In the final analysis God does not value all men \nequally, consequently he treats them differently. And this difference is\n not accidental but central to his will and purpose. The two-category \nsystem is correlated with an imbalance of suffering in which the \u201cout\u201d \ngroup suffers more than the rest of the people. In the account of the \nRig Veda, for example, we know that God has less affection for the \nAnasahs because they suffer more than the Aryans. It is also evident \nfrom holy books like the bible and the Rig Veda that God’s favour or \ndisfavour is correlated with the racial or ethnic identity of the group \nin question. God’s wrath and hostility are sometimes even directed at \nthe physical features of a particular ethnic or racial community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the bible Yahveh often sides with the Israelites in the murderous \ncampaigns to grab land from the Jebusites, Canaanites, Philistines, \nAmalekites in the same way that he was used to justify colonialism. \nSimilarly in African traditional religion the God of a particular ethnic\n group assists it to overcome its enemies and brings prosperity to the \n\u201cin\u201d group. It stands to reason that whilst there is no rock-solid \nevidence to support the claim that God created man, there is enough \njustification in the materialist assertion that God is an invention of \nman. This is grimly illustrated by the fact that while Saddam Hussein \nwas calling on God to help the Iraqis in the Gulf War, George Bush was \ndoing the same thing. No God caused the death of the young men who were \nslaughtered; but the misguided beliefs and the greed of the ruling \nclass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Production and production relations <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Consequently the \u201cout\u201d and \u201cin\u201d scheme of analysis has nothing to do \nwith God. It is a manifestation of the concrete and material world of \nhumans reflected in their consciousness in the process of the production\n and distribution of wealth. Ultimately, production and production \nrelations determine the ideas individuals have about themselves as a \ngroup, and about society at large in matters of morality, religion, \nmetaphysics, etc. And it is only when we have identified and understood \nthe material assets and constraints of a society, how it produces goods \nto meet its material needs, how the goods are distributed, and what type\n of social organisation sprouts from the organisation of production that\n we would have come a long way to understanding the culture and \nreligious views of that society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the production relations are such that makes it possible for a \nminority to appropriate the end-product of the labour of the majority \nthe views of the minority become the dominant ones in society, whilst \nthe opinion of the majority are suppressed. The ownership of the means \nof production is thus important in understanding people’s perception of \nsocial phenomena \u2013 religion, philosophy, art etc. Bearing this in mind, \nwe shall find that religious perceptions in any class-divided society \nare not neutral, but a tool in the hands of the dominant class in its \nstruggle to maintain its control over economic surplus. Religious and \nall manner of spurious ideological theories are contrived by the ruling \nclass or its representatives in the intellectual community and church \norganisations to keep the downtrodden perpetually entrapped in the \nvicious circle of exploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As children in a predominantly Catholic community, we used to be told\n that God was surrounded by a host of angels with archangels. God was \nthe boss and each angel and archangel had a specific assignment to \nperform in heaven. This was a world-view that sought to give blessing to\n the master-servant relationship that existed in the feudal era and \nclass society in general. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some quotations in the bible are also anti-worker if applied in \ntoday’s circumstances. Take for instance the saying, \u201cBut I say unto \nyou, that ye resist no evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy \ncheek, turn to him the other also.\u201d I suppose that when the Accountant \nGeneral’s Office slashed as much as a 100,000 cedis from my salary in \nMarch, I should have responded: \u201cPlease my Lordship why are you so \ngenerous with me? Take 400,000 cedis more.\u201d This would have been \nsubmissiveness stretched to its idiotic limits, and an invitation to \nexploitation and despotism. It could mean an acceptance of wage slavery,\n a system that is inimical to working people’s interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The New Testament also advises us to despise and deprecate worldly \nthings in lieu of heavenly rewards. What would this mean for those who \nhave already made material gains here on Earth? If people like Bill \nGates are also God-fearing they would have a double reward; one on Earth\n and the other in heaven, whilst the God-fearing poor will have only \none. As for the poor who are not God-fearing the extent of their loss \nand damnation is inestimable. The end result of these teachings if \nemployed in a class society makes the working people docile and \nfacilitates their exploitation by the owning class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Convenient smokescreen <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
But this is not all. It also calls forth the other forms of \nalienation which are not strictly economic, but are organically linked \nto it. It is important to note that racism and religion tend to elevate \nthe culture and other virtues of the dominant class; and denigrate that \nof the oppressed. But the class character of this domination especially \nbecomes difficult to unmask if the oppressor class has a different \nracial background from the oppressed, as was the case during the heady \ndays of apartheid and colonialism. Skin pigmentation and other physical \ncharacteristics subsume the class dimension of the problem, and \nexploitation is seen through the binoculars of race. One therefore \ndevelops a superiority or inferiority complex, depending on one’s \nphysical traits; and the fundamental issue which is class exploitation \nis lost. Given these circumstances racism becomes a convenient \nsmokescreen with which the ruling class masks its exploitation of \nlabour. Eventually the attention of the working class is diverted from \nthe real causes of its predicament; and a section of it becomes a pliant\n tool of the ruling class in its attempt to entrench the capitalist \nsystem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The effect on that section of the working class which does not share \nsimilar physical characteristics with the owning class is to deny itself\n as different from the dominant class. It identifies and shares the \nconvictions, doctrines and other attitudes of the dominant class which \noppresses it. Guilt and an inferiority complex promoted by the dominant \nclass and imbibed by the oppressed become the result of this process. \nConsequently the attempt to escape this inferiority by denying and \ncondemning oneself becomes a lifelong struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let’s consider this for one moment. It is important to note that for \nmany Christians, the traditional African religious individuals is \nsuperstitious and worships idols and several gods; there is only one \nGod, though he has a son begotten by the Holy Spirit. This god is white,\n his angels are white; and when the saved finally go to heaven, they \nwill wear white robes of purity. But the devil is black; his angels are \nblack; sin itself is black and when the sinful finally go to hell, they \nwill be burnt to black coal. It is surprising that the African converts \nsing in pleading terror: \u201cWash me Redeemer, and I shall be whiter than \nsnow?\u201d And is it any wonder that some Africans buy skin-bleaching creams\n to lighten their dark skins? Is it also surprising that so-called \neducated and enlightened women often buy red, blonde or brunette wigs to\n hide their black hair or spend hours on end in hair saloons trying to \nmake their hair curly and long?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christianity even denies the African the right to their name. A name \nis a simple symbol of identity. But the African convert would normally \nbe required to discard his African name and give himself such good \nChristian names as Smith, Verwoerd, Robert, James, Julius, Ironmonger, \nWinterbotham, Elizabeth, Summer, Winter and sometimes Autumn. This \nbusiness of getting new names has its roots in slave property relations,\n where the person of the slave was the property of the owner to be \ndisposed of and used as the master deemed fit. So slaves were branded \nwith the master’s name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The same story is true in art, dance, music, drama etc, but the \nultimate objective in class society is one \u2013 to control the productive \nforces and appropriate economic surplus irrespective of the exploiter’s \nrace or tribe. Economic control however is much more difficult to attain\n without political control. Political control is therefore established \nthrough proxy governments. Even then the vampire system finds that \neconomic and political control are incomplete without cultural and hence\n ideological control. So the system employs religion and bogus theories \nlike racism to ensure the mental castration of the worker be he \nEuropean, Asian or African.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Back to the Society and Culture index.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
August 2002, Ghana The absurd claim of racism is that people’s behavioural, physical and cultural traits conform to a certain fixed and immutable pattern; and this determines the superiority or otherwise of a group in relation to others. This is an outlook that has been used to justify some of the most unspeakable and horrendous…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2086,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"magazine_newspaper_sidebar_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1041","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1041"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2685,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1041\/revisions\/2685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}