The Global Collapse of the “Artificial Hierarchy of Race”

If you listened carefully, over the past few months, you could plainly hear loud, crashing sounds coming from the meetings of world leaders, at organizations such as the G-20 , the economic gathering of the largest developed and developing nations, together with the 27 members of the European Union; NATO ,The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, comprised of European nations, Turkey and the United States, and the OAS, the Organization of American States ,comprised of 35 Western Hemisphere countries with “democratically elected leaders."


Those crashing sounds could be traced to the collapse of the "artificial hierarchy of race" that has existed around the world for more than 500 years.

Those rankings, by racial and ethnic categories, and developed by politically influenced "social scientists," were created to justify colonialism and the subjugation of people of color, wherever on earth they were found. Indeed, the ranking with which we are all familiar, by now, always placed whites at the top of the global, racial pecking order, followed by Asians, who were followed by Middle Easterners, who were followed by northern and southern Native Americans. Blacks, without fail, were placed at the very bottom of the totem pole.


There has always been a need to create a "valid" scientific basis for the concept of global European supremacy upon which the world economy has been based for the past 500 years. How else could good, God-fearing explorers and colonials, who paid lip service to concepts such as "all men being created equal," turn immediately around and approve a 20-year continuance of slave importation as part of the final, signed, draft of the U.S. Constitution? How else did they justify attributing "3/5 of a person" status to enslaved blacks for purposes of electoral representation?

Most of this thinking traces back to the 15th and 16th centuries, when the "Great European Explorers," whose nations, at the time, were the undisputed "lords of the sea," and the unquestioned economic and military leaders of the known world, set out to subdue, "civilize" and generate wealth from people who were already living, and doing quite well, in places such as North and South America, Asia and Africa.


Because Europe and, subsequently, the U.S., had access to the wealth drawn from these nations, and the military strength to retain it, this system continued in effect for the better part of 500 years.

To fully understand this scenario, special notice must be given to the Berlin Conference in 1884, wherein the major, European nations, led especially by then-dominant powers, Britain, France and Germany, met to devise an outrageous plan by which they would attack, subdue and colonize the entirety of the African Continent. Of course, the same "artificial racial hierarchy" was at the basis of all that occurred over the ensuing 25-year-period when this all took place.
Similar actions had previously taken place in Asia, North and South America.

At the conclusion of World War II, the so-called "Allied Nations," led overwhelmingly by Great Britain and the United States, met at the Bretton Woods Conference, in New Hampshire, where they not only established the U.S. dollar as the standard currency for world trade, but also put into place the economic framework which grew to produce the World Bank, the IMF and much of the underpinnings of the United Nations.

Throughout all of this, of course, the absolute belief in the "artificial hierarchy of race" was virtually never questioned.

During the “hey day” of the Roman Empire, few had the temerity to question the Caesars about very much of anything, and certainly not about why the people in most subject nations were strongly encouraged to speak Latin.

Similarly, during the period when the "Sun Never Set on the British Empire," most nations were absolutely terrified of Britain and few ever questioned its leadership. That role, as undisputed world leader, was, of course, assumed by the U.S after World War II

It's clear that a globally powerful military and a strong and stable economy, produce a wide range of subtle, and not-so-subtle, benefits for the citizens of a powerful nation.

"Whether we like it or not, in every corner of the planet, (whites) enjoy an extraordinary personal power bestowed by color. It is something (they) are largely oblivious of, and consequently take for granted, whether (they) are liberal or reactionary, backpackers, tourists or expatriate businessmen," said Martin Jacques, of the London School of Economics, in 2003.

"Being white," continued Jacques, "confers a privilege, a special kind of deference, throughout the world....whites are the only race that never suffers any kind of systemic racism anywhere in the world."

But, if you've been paying careful attention, you know that all of this is starting to change significantly, which will produce what appears to be an entirely "new world order," one that is likely to remain in effect over the next five hundred years.

The absolute unwillingness of the European nations to join the U.S. in expanding its military presence in Afghanistan; Hugo Chavez' "gift book" to President Obama; China's continuing efforts to replace the U.S. dollar as the standard currency for international trade; the growing weakness of the U.S. economy and military; the ever-more-critical comments about the U.S. and European leadership by Iran's Ahmadinejad and Brazilean president, Lula ─ all of these things point to a declining ability by Europe and the U.S. to define the parameters for future, global economic and cultural activities or, even, to continue to unilaterally draft their own versions of world history.

Curiously, even while the president of the United States still insists that there has been an emergence, in our country, of a "post-racial society," there have been pointed comments, flowing out of China, Iran, Brazil and Venezuela, about the global, racial oppression that has long been associated, by developing nations, with the U.S. and Europe. Interestingly, the U.S. decision to "boycott" the U.N. Conference on Racism sent a message that the country is not yet willing to face the changing, global, racial landscape, head-on.

And, now, the relationships between and among Western nations and "nations of color" are starting to shift.

If you think I'm kidding, take a look at what Courtney Rattray, Jamaica's ambassador to China said, for the record, when China signed a $138 million loan package with the economically desperate island nation. "The loan couldn't have come more on time and on more preferred terms," he said. Rattray went on to say that the economically challenged, and militarily less-imposing, Western powers, including the U.S., "don't have such an indepth understanding of the development aspirations of Jamaica, as does China."

Can you imagine such a loan being made or such a statement being issued 10 years ago?

As China continues to assert itself economically, especially in providing financial assistance to other nations, it's going to be interesting to watch how the 500-year-old concept of European/Western global supremacy, holds up.

It's also going to be interesting to see if people will continue, now that the economic and military paradigm has begun to shift, to aspire to European cultural standards.

Will African Americans continue, for example, to be so anxious to claim their "partial European heritage,” or will they begin to look for Chinese, Japanese and Mayan links in their genetic profiles?

From a pure, political perspective, I have absolutely no rooting interest in any of this, one way or the other.

It's just going to be extraordinarily interesting to see if our primary and secondary schools and universities, for example, will begin to offer fewer readings from Shakespeare and more from, and about, Miyamoto Musashi, Simon Bolivar and Chinua Achebe.

Will it be less important to know how to speak the "Kings English," or to be proficient in Arabic,
Swahili and Mandarin?

We'll just have to see.

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