What are your thoughts on the mentality of us-versus-them?

During much of my adult life, I have used ideas about the moral problems of colonialism, racism, and other aspects of European and European-American world domination as bright lights, so to speak, to guide my thinking.

But I admit that in the shadows of my thinking lies the fear that maybe someday, being someone from the United States will mean that I have all sorts of problems to deal with , as opposed to the sense of privilege, advantage, opportunity, and good fortune ‘being an American’ seems, presently, to have for me and people I care about.

It is not the case that I consider our nation or consider myself to be an oppressor, necessarily, though some people in other nations, and in this nation, may think that.

But this topic reminds me of the idea of someone who has power or some other sort of advantage over someone else and who is afraid that, someday, the tables will turn, so to speak.

Regarding slavery in the United States, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter that, maybe, at some point, “the wheel of fortune” may bring White Americans to a fate similar to that of the enslaved Black Americans.

I venture that some White supremacists believe that people who identify themselves with the label ‘White’ ought to arm ourselves with weapons and unite with one another to protect ourselves from those who, according to that line of thinking, are determined to oppress White people in the ways that they-the non-Whites- think Whites have oppressed them.

But perhaps there is more to human relations than can be explained by the mentality of ‘do unto others and keep doing it to THEM, because if THEY get the chance, THEY will try to do it to US.’

In a speech at Harvard University, if I recall correctly, during his visit to the United States in 2000, the then leader of China said that his nation would never do what the European colonial powers did to his nation and peoples of other parts of the world.

Whether that turns out to be true, if China becomes a superpower, time will tell. But what we do know is that this us-versus-them mentality, is not something that has to happen, to say the least.

For example, Jim Crow segregation was ended, and various types of discrimination against Black Americans has been reduced, if not eliminated. Yet, the gains in the political and economic status of Blacks in the United States has not caused Whites in this nation to be worse off.

If some White Americans are worse off than we were 10, 20, or 30 years ago, my guess is that it is not because there is less discrimination against Black Americans. Perhaps, instead, it is due to economic policies that (mostly White) politicians and corporate leaders have made.

Taking a guess at that, those policies have involved our political and business leaders in the United States promoting the power of major corporations. As a result, according to this line of reasoning I am pursuing, our nation has pursued policies which have eliminated many manufacturing jobs, while also widening the gap between poor and rich in this nation.

I am not trying to demonize politicians, corporate executives, or ‘the rich’. Instead, I am presenting the idea that the economic problems of (Black, White, Red and Yellow) middle and working class people in the United States are due, at least partly, to public policies that promote corporate greed at the expense of middle and working class people, not to mention our national interest.

Ideas focusing on blaming Black civil rights progress or on blaming illegal immigrants are incorrect, in my opinion.

Likewise, regarding me not wanting to over-emphasize an us-versus-them mentality, based on my knowledge, the end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994 did not lead to having a system via which the Black majority in that nation sought to oppress the White minority.( The taking away of land from White farmers in Zimbabwe, a country that borders South Africa, perhaps does not support my argument.)

If the United States is no longer a super-power, it does not necessarily mean that the foreign policies of other nations will harm people in this country.

I guess this talk about not wanting to over-emphasize having an us-versus-them mentality also can be applied to predictions about non-Whites comprising the new majority in this country at some point in the coming decades. I would at least like to think that, as someone who is White, I am not afraid of that happening, yet I admit that sometimes I am, indeed, afraid of that, though my fears are fleeting and abstract.

Sometimes, I am afraid of what being ‘an American’ may mean at some point in the future and afraid of what being a ‘White American’ may mean at some point in the future. But these are usually fleeting thoughts. For the most part, as a matter of principle, as someone who considers himself a ‘progressive’ or ‘liberal’ person, that fear is not a major part of my mentality.

At present, by a long shot, my sense of seeking to follow my conscience by attending to the responsibilities that I think that my sense of privilege as a White, relatively well-off person and as an ‘American’ requires of me eclipses any fears I may have about the tables being turned with regards to my ‘race’ or nationality.