Discrimination

 The history of our Republic is associated with religious, economic, and social discrimination.  Father of our country.  George Washington owned slaves; and representatives to the constitutional convention were slave owners as well.  The Wasp aristocracy wielded power,possession and status.  The religious teachings of Luther and Calvin; and capitalism facilitated ,contributed  and fostered an authoritarian character structure .  Although there was supposed to be a separation of church and state, one particular God, with authoritarian characteristics, became central to the Republic as depicted in our monetary system; Pledge of Allegiance; patriotic songs; religious holidays; and being called a Christian nation.  This essay  briefly describes the discrimination in question .  Discrimination is defined as the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of ethnicity, age, sex, or disability. 

To begin, Luther believed that man  ,by his nature, was rooted in evil and lacked the freedom to choose between God and Satan ; and it was necessary for man to receive God's will and grace with faith. Faith changes his nature when he unites with God.   And Luther’s attitude toward the world was based on hating and loathing for anything or anyone that was not striving for this unity with this outside power.  In other words, man had to submit to God in order to receive salvation because man was powerless ,insignificant and this was the only way to receive God's love, and  deliverance from harm  or loss. 

God's power is good because it's ordained and Luther hated the poor and powerlessness of the masses  which he called rabble . Luther rebelled against the church and spoke and wrote about the gospel because , according to his teachings , man is now prepared for his role in which his life becomes a means and prepares him for life after.  In other words, the powerless and insignificant,  require an external power to protect them . Psychologically,  a powerful authoritarian God or  a father figure reduces anxiety about the uncertainty of  both life in the present and an afterlife  .

Calvin also believed that man was powerless,  insignificant, and it was necessary for man to self humiliate and eliminate human pride because the world was despicable, and one had to devote himself  to God in order to  reach a future world. Calvin  also introduced the concept of predestination.  Predestination means that you were chosen by God before birth  and/or selected to reach heaven and avoid eternal damnation, irrespective of how you lived  your life.  God works in mysterious ways and picks the good guys from the bad guys by demonstrating his unlimited power.  So not only were the Hebrews chosen by God but some of Calvin's followers as well.  This suggests that Calvin also had a deep hatred and resentment toward  all the unfortunate others.

Luther and Calvin wrote and believed that man was essentially evil and powerless, and that  man can achieve absolutely nothing that is good , based on his own merit.  In fact, to love oneself is a sin which suggests the notion of self hatred and that  is one of the greatest “sins” to be found in man. Also ,man was to become an adjunct to an all powerful  authoritarian God.  Man must subordinate himself , find the center and the power or principle that's outside of himself.  Further, man should not be selfish, which in essence is the ability to suppress spontaneity, which affects  personality development.  However, when a man is unable to love himself , he cannot love another. 

England ruled the colonies, economically, politically , socially and religiously and they rebelled.  In the constitutional convention, the motives of the aristocratic  authoritarians  were clear . They had to have slave manpower to further their economic, political and social power. 3/5  of human beings were the compromise. Forget that Christ. Paul ,Mark, Matthew  expressed that man should love his God, strangers and enemies  .

In 1787, the 3/5 compromise was reached.  This decision regarding  the non fully humans affected the number of seats in the House of Representatives; number of electoral votes and how much states would pay in taxes.  The political and economic benefit was obvious:. Free states wanted to exclude slaves because they had no voting rights.  But the slave states facilitated their power in that slaveholders were members in the states legislatures.  One argument was should slaves be included in taxation but not in representation or vice versa ? They were  property .

It was stated "representing men who have no will of their own and these men had been degraded."  This compromise had additional influence that affected the presidency,  and speaker of the house.  The Supreme Court safeguarded southerners in the Senate and electoral college votes with favorable decisions.  The Constitution was a pro slavery document.  However, in the Constitution.  nowhere, did it say that a colored man was forbidden  to vote.

It was given that the slave lacked full personhood, no legal recourse or standing to challenge or participate in any kind of electoral legislation of their own accord.  The black man was not a full person, which meant that his wives were not full persons also.  Since they were considered property , the savages  lacked morals , ethics and were to be watched over and taken care of by the power structure for their own good.  However, why would you permit and allow your most "precious" resource ,children, to be nurtured and reared by a  non person; why would you have non persons prepare  meals;?  Perhaps your most precious resource was not children and maybe it was money, power, dominance and exploitation.  Why would you have intercourse with a non-person ?  In other words, one can meet their egos' sexual needs in a variety of ways and  does not  it require a human partner ?  In any event, it's  crazy hypocrisy and rationalization .Aristocratic authoritarian character structure has the power to rule , possess and discriminate based on their narcissism and conscience.  

With the Emancipation Proclamation, the South  aristocracy rebelled as they were emotionally and physically "attacked" economically, politically,  and socially.  Their whole  authoritarian aristocratic life was threatened.  Someone had to restore it.  Yes, they lost the war and they haven’t forgotten . Repressed hostility still remains  irrespective of all the Southern discriminatory laws that followed.  

The southern aristocratic power structure wanted to  remain supreme , be independent and therefore  favored state rights  . They withdrew from the union  and started a civil war.  After the conclusion of the Civil War, the South had difficulty initially during the reconstruction phase.  Result was the rise of Jim Crow laws that were state and local laws enacted by the white dominated state legislatures. They were able to disenfranchise, remove politically and affect the economic gains accrued to Blacks. They mandated racial segregation in all public facilities such as schools, transportation ,libraries, drinking fountains and so forth.  Result was that Blacks became second-class citizens based on politics. social, and economic disadvantages. Wasp  authoritarian aristocracy rules .  

Under the Jim Crow phase ,their were KKK ,white league redshirts , Texas Rangers and lynchings, as well as  voter fraud  complaints with the authoritarians in power. That sounds familiar . With the authoritarian rule which is directed over one racial group, there was voter registration and electoral rules with their poll taxes, literacy ,comprehension tests, and residency requirements as examples of restrictions and discrimination.  In fact, the grandfather clause permitted illiterate whites to vote but not Blacks. 

 Mississippi, North Carolina, Alabama  have a rich and notable history  in discrimination, exploitation and segregation.  Blacks were not eligible to vote . if they didn’t vote, they could not  serve on juries  or run for local offices.  The mythology was expressed, and that this segregation protects Blacks from adverse feelings, and incidentally is okay for white men to have sex with  a black female but not the other way around. Jim Crow laws glorified ,retained Wasp exploitation and power in the South. The popular novelist John Grisham  writes about betrayals and discrimination in the South.

During our so-called experiment with democracy, the Republic established civil rights and voting constitutional rights  .The assassinations of the Kennedys and Dr. King  followed .Don't forget the bantam rooster George Wallace, Newt Gingrich’s   Contract with America  and other  state rights crazies that  rebelled and exploited the multiracial Republic , by not wanting to pay taxes, reduce power of the federal government ,rewrite US history and eliminate voting  participation with.States rights , Wasp rules with authoritarian tendencies ..

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Then , Pres. Obama was elected president. and the current rebellion  followed with Trump, civil  rights legislation with their "separate but equal" discriminatory Supreme Court ruling. The current Robert’s court  attacks democracy with their prehistoric  Wasp history  rulings of overt  constitutional discrimination .

Psychologically ,not liking oneself is projected onto others, especially when one's emotional ,sensual, social, economic,  political  and entitled sense is threatened.  Envy, jealousy and hatred becomes apparent when "others" are perceived as doing better.  The repression is manifested with so many irrational acts.  The buildup of repression , pervades the whole personality and affects one's relationship to others as well as himself, but is often rationalized in a disguised form.  This continued rebellion, discrimination of wanting to return to white power, is driven by  anxiety , an evil and sadistic repressed hostility .

Feelings of insignificance and resentment destroys confidence and teaches man to despise and distrust himself and others.  Essentially , it makes him a tool before some  authoritarian secular power like Trump that contradicts moral principles and goes against the foundation of  Judeo-Christian tradition.  The  anxiety and human needs of being frightened, uprooted, isolated, and powerless is apparent ..

Within Luther and Calvin philosophy, there's a division , a separation, among human kind because man didn't  only make himself  an instrument of God's will but  to that of the economic capitalistic machine as well. For progress ,he works in amassing the mighty dollar ,to save , to invest and to  be successful . The man who is thinking in terms of his own self-interest becomes "I am what I have, what I possess."   And another way to deal with anxiety, insignificance and powerlessness as well as one's moral standing with God, is  through secular activity.  Secular activity, work,  was important for man to be able to take care of himself and his family.  In fact, man becomes driven to get ahead,and  to succeed . He becomes a workaholic.  There's no one  forcing man  to become a slave  and worship the almighty dollar .The tendency is  an internal compulsion that also pushes , minimizes and provides relief from  anxiety through activity.

Today, if a poor white wanted to attend college, the cost would be prohibitive.  Back in the old days, state college fees  were reasonable and there were plenty of opportunities to work in the automobile industry with its proud middle-class.  Today,  college and professional sports rosters are made up of an inordinate amount of black athletes . Not as many scholarship opportunities for  the white athletes of today.

If we pay attention to the salaries of the superstar black  athletes, it's out of this world.  Brown and Tatum of the Celtics just received  5 year contracts making 60 million per year.  Ed Budde, one of my friends, was a first-round draft choice of the Kansas City Chiefs.  His first year salary was about $15,000.  The point that I'm making is that the amount of resentment, jealousy , rage and repression  of so many white high school educated people is significant.  Their opportunities and expectations are meager. It's no  wonder that Making America Great Again suggests going back to the previous era of white dominance in every sphere.  Not only in sports but in the entertainment , legal, educational, medical ,professional  and political fields, the amount of black  and other minorities , the competency ,superiority, success  and achievement is so apparent.  It's no wonder why  in so many  parts of the country Wasp’s  want to keep Blacks away from the ballot box, restrict their education , ban books with the hope of again subjugating.  The class struggle  continues and is the  American story.  We are no melting pot.!  The struggle between authoritarianism, human dignity and democracy continues.

Reference

Fromm,Erich Escape From Freedom.