Just Another Word for Hate, Ignorance, & Self-Hatred

Today, April 1, millions of Amercians will participate in the fun and silly tradition of April Fools' Day, a day for michief and naughty little pranks.  However, for The Power of Only One, April 1 signals a change of topic.  I have spent all day trying to come up with a new global issue to address here.  Several different ideas came to mind, but none of them "got the blogging juices going."  So I did what I always do.  I "googled".   Googling Top Ten Global Issues solved the dilema.  There in the search results, I found the answer.  Racism.  Instantly, I knew which direction to go.

April 12th will mark the 149th anniversary of when the American nation was torn into two. The North and the South.  The Blue and the Gray.  This was was a war of economics and government control, with the issue of slavery looming in the background.  But if you read between the lines, ultimately the American War was a war of racism.  Today, on April Fools' Day, I write about the ugly truth about racism.  Racism is neither a joke, nor is it a laughing matter.  Racism is just another word for hate, ignorance, and, in the long run, self-hatred.

Global Issues (www.globalissues.org) describes racism as:

"the belief that characteristics and abilities can be attributed to people simply on the basis of their race and that some racial groups are superior to others. Racism and discrimination have been used as powerful weapons encouraging fear or hatred of others in times of conflict and war, and even during economic downturns."

I will spend the next month delving into and exploring the issues of race and racism.  We will discover the many ways racism rears its ugly head in cultures across the globe, as well analyzing as the legacy of racism in these various cultures. 

To start this journey, I would like share a video produced by The American Anthropological Association (AAA).  Use the this video to start thinking about race and racism.