Whither humanity

This afternoon, after returning from church, I read something that shook me to my core. It was angry. It was, I'll name it, hateful. It generalized. It did all the things that had I written it and turned it in to my Writing 121 instructor way back when, she would have called me in to her office, and told me my work was in danger of generalizing, and being racist or bigoted.

My very first Writing 121 instructor did call me in, and was concerned that the paper I wrote was stereotyping a group of people. It was my very first term as a student at university. I was horrified. It was never my intention. Intention or not, she then prodded me about the other courses I was taking that Fall, and when she saw how potentially stressful the term was going to be, she advised that I drop 121 and take it later. I can't say for sure whether she was really concerned about my stress level or she just wanted me out of her class.

That was 43 years ago, this Fall quarter. May she rest in peace. I never took another Writing or English literature class from her, but I still learned something in that half-hour with her that has been with me forever.

I do not know if the person who wrote what they did was only out of rage, or out of rage and hate. I'm not going to say who it was, where they're from, and I'm not going to quote them here, but when you lump a group of people together and lambast them for their sins and cowardice, there's rage there. There's bitterness.

Because the group this person is in has also been abused and oppressed by the group they're accusing.

I found this instructive when I was "doom scrolling" the previous week.

I know this was addressed to Jewish communities, but this should be known about or in all our faith practices, or if it is, it is easy for many to forget: What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. I forget this often, and by the time I've done that thing, it's too late. The person I've injured has moved on. Love does mean having to say you're sorry, again, and again. If you ever watch the 1970 film Love Story (and if you don't like it, it's not on me!!), and you hear those words, tell Ali MacGraw's character, Jennifer, she was wrong!

. . . . .

I know only too well what past wrongdoings do to a people. An older generation of Pakistanis and Indians were still haunted by Partition. This got passed down to us younger folk through not only the Partition (and possibly even before, given how history from the 8th or 9th century is brought up), but the wars that have followed. Pakistan and India, and their neighbors could have achieved so much more as a regional bloc together, if the bitterness and distrust were put aside. But that's not going to happen as long as forces within on both sides of the border prevent that from happening.

If there is a country, a region almost anywhere in the world that has not done hateful things either within or without their homeland, I want to know where that is, so I can live there. Racism isn't just a white thing, although white supremacy has infected every place white people have colonized. Have certain West Asians, South Asians, not treated darker-skinned humans as lesser beings before we internalized whiteness?

I know from certain personal experiences that more than a few still do.

We as humans, still have not learned that when we hurt others, we are also hurting ourselves. And we keep doing it. Again and again.

. . . . .

Here's the thing. Genocide is hateful. It should be condemned everywhere. It doesn't matter if it is our enemy who is being erased. What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. The Palestinians in Gaza do not deserve to be erased or starved. If they chose not to leave their homes rather than endure what they have, or die trying, it is not their fault. No one in Gaza or the West Bank deserves the horrors of bombs and guns and famine. No one anywhere in the world does. The Jews did not during the Holocaust, and they would not today.

I don't know if the person who expelled their rage and bitterness for all to read was accusing the Palestinians of cowardice, or some of their fellow Arabs, but it's been clear that anything approximating an Arab League has been ineffective. Self-preservation has mattered more than speaking up for a people Israel is systematically murdering. And calls and demands to do something are going to keep coming. Some of us can only do so much, but if someone feels they don't have to do a damn thing for a people who brought it on themselves, that is truly a sad comment on humanity. Granted, this is a second-hand account, but even if it is, I'm sure there are people who really feel that way. I just wish I had not read what I did, because every time I read hateful things, a little bit of it seeps into my being. And I've been reading a lot of angry, hateful words, that I also have the privilege of walking away from.

Every day, humanity dwindles and crushes, and every day it revives itself through those who are not ready to see it die.

I want to be part of the latter.