Fundamental Bigotry on the Move

I do not understand.

A white police officer in Philadelphia shoots himself but puts out the story that he was shot by an African American male who was dark skinned with braided hair and a tatoo on his face.

In Arizona, there has been not only a controversial and divisive immigration law passed,but now a law has been passed which prohibits ethnic studies in Arizona public schools.

In an interview on CNN, anchor Ali Veshi said that the law was aiming at stopping courses that promoted “overthrow of the American government.”

I do not understand.

Well, maybe I do. I remember author Karen Armstrong saying that fundamentalism always raises up when that with which people are familiar, or that which people know, begins to change, or changes too much.

She was talking about fundamentalism in religion, but could it be that there is a sociological or societal fundamentalism as well?

When Tea Party members say they “want their country back,” are they rebelling against a nation which has changed too much?

This is a new day, for sure. The days of America being a country ruled and controlled primarily by white men is over. The days of the dominant population of this nation being white Anglo Saxon Protestant are also over, and, presumably, so is all that that domination meant.

That has to be scary for the dominant group and maybe scary for others, too. African Americans are no longer the largest minority ethnic group in the United States, and, if human nature may safely be predicted, I would assume that we will see the historically oppressed oppress the new majority.

I see the bigotry coming up out of the pores of America’s skin. There is some concern that the United States Supreme Court will have no Protestants for the first time in its history. CNN anchor Rick Sanchez, introducing a story on President Obama’s newest nominee for court, Elena Kagan, said, “There are only Catholics and Jews on the court. What’s up with that?”

I winced when he said it because it didn’t sound complimentary, though I don’t think he meant any harm, but again, there is that sociological/society bigotry rising up.

The words being used, the laws being passed, the antics being carried out (as with the white cop in Philly who lied about being shot by an African American man) are not a good thing, not a good mix. One group of people are scared out of their wits that everything they have ever known is falling apart at the seams. Other groups are getting angrier and angrier at the scared group of people, who will act and react to their anger in fear and, probably, with violence.

It feels like we are in a bubbling cauldron, and it feels like it’s all about to spill over. Bigotry never cooks well, and when it spills over, its residue is hard and not easily removable.

We need to do something, and soon, before the bubbling cauldron spills its contents and we have a mess that we will never be able to clean up.

That would be a candid observation.