When The Chocolate Taoist Meets Racial Bias and Bigotry
“It dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil.”
By W. E. B. Du Bois
As I continue to dance through life with a Taoist twist in my step, the journey across the tangled terrains of race, culture, and bias has been both a gritty challenge and a singular vantage point.
The moments that dot this path—ranging from soul-shaking to soul-awakening—aren't just personal signposts; they're echoes of a collective heartbeat, pulsing with stories similar to mine and yet uniquely divergent.
In this space, I often find myself turning the kaleidoscope of life to view its patterns through the lens of philosophical Taoism, spiced with hard-hitting truths from the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Cornel West, Henry Louis Gates, and other racial justice evangelists.
I find myself contemplating on how we, the melanin-rich kinfolk, can wade through the mire of our uniquely traumatizing experiences without letting them chain us down. It’s here where Taoism, with its seductive simplicity and profound emphasis on harmony, balance, and the unforced rhythms of life's dance, lays down a groove that compels us to move differently in the face of racial injustices.
Taoism whispers the art of wu-wei, or "effortless action," hinting that the mightiest moves sometimes come from not pushing against the current but rather flowing with it. This isn't about rolling over or playing dead; it's about engaging with life’s puzzles with a level of insight that slices through the surface.
Case in point: a friend of mine recounted how he was repeatedly profiled and pulled over by the boys in blue on his daily treks to work through Denver—never ticketed, always targeted. It's a tired tune that many of us with a chocolate hue know all too well, where the mere shade of your skin draws suspicion.
But here's where the Taoist beat drops, urging us to see these jarring moments not as isolated incidents but as part of a grander, more mysterious cosmic choreography, where every move, every pause, has its rightful moment.
Let’s fast forward now to a jolt I experienced in 2019, in a San Diego restaurant that was one of my favorites. A stranger, emboldened by ignorance, tossed a racial slur my way. The air froze, the crowd gawked, and the pint-sized bartender became a giant, ejecting the offender with a fury that was poetry in motion.
Such moments, raw and unfiltered, are stark reminders of the undercurrents of racism that thread through our daily lives. Taoism teaches us to meet these with equilibrium, to see the interconnectedness of all beings and strive for internal and external harmony.
Yet, amidst this, there's a palpable disconnect. Many of my vanilla brethren struggle to fully grasp the weight and weave of racial injustices, clinging to the comforting thought that "progress, though sluggish, is in motion." This optimism, while commendable, sometimes misses the beat on the urgency needed to dismantle systemic disparities.
Here, the enduring wisdom of MLK Jr. strikes a chord, insisting that justice delayed is justice denied; Cornel West's duel of truth and love against injustice dances well with Taoist harmony; And then there’s Henry Louis Gates's deep dives into African American history and culture, which provide the context and the beat for our ongoing resistance against racial biases.
My saga as a brotha steeped in Taoist hues has taught me to groove through the complexities of race and bias with my soul tuned to the frequencies of harmony and balance. This Taoist soundtrack, remixed with the wisdom of legends and thinkers, charts a course for confronting and soaring above the racial injustices we face.
With this, I am issuing an invitation to lean into the universe's profound, enigmatic wisdom, letting it guide us effortlessly toward our aspirations. In doing so, we're not simply facing down the specters of racial biases but also laying down the steps for a more just and synchronized world beat.
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Every little bit counts.
As usual,, elegant and literate discourse on a tough topic. Thank you again.
Personally, I don't think the "isms" will ever end, partly because there will always be new generations of humans looking for a target for their fears and frustrations. Like DOA - Dead On Arrival - I learned there was such as thing as AOA - Angry on Arrival. It's biological and anthropological - the grand "us and them" of the tribe. I can make myself feel better - higher in status - if I can make someone else feel lower. And it doesn't matter who - mostly people whose skin a different color, who are a different gender, a different culture or language or religion. As long as I can label them as "lesser."
I learned from the works of Laird Wilcox - https://propagandaanalyst.wpcomstaging.com - that bigots are alike in their beliefs and behaviors, regardless of the cause they align to, left or right.
I don't have a yellow Star of David tatooed to my forehead, so most people are not going to look at me and see a "Hebrew", to quote a well-intentioned in-law, particularly with the last name of Wagner, a great stealth name for a Jew. I have learned a lot listening to college-educated clients make remarks about Jews, not knowing one of them is in the room. I would wait to give them enough rope, and then the reveal. Good times when they realize Patricia Jean Wagner is not, as one friend said, a German-Lutheran milkmaid. My parents taught us to be confident, good-humored and compassionate, towards the sad and sick people, even while we set limits. A teaching moment.
I was raised to take action against bullies, which has included confronting them in public as needed, one-to-one. Not just racists. Bigots come in many flavors. In some hoped-for future, when skin color does not matter, there will be new targets. Let's stand up for them. Meanwhile, if you can, speak.