Transcendence: Diversity

The idea of diversity is an outgrowth of a need to readjust/balance the scales of justice/equality and power. While a society may be capable of acknowledging the need for change and balance, the search for a stable definition of the term that captures the readjustment is difficult.

For diversity has implicit in its current application the management of the concept by those in power. Power’s choice to respond to agitation and activist initiatives with the application of diversity as opposed to violence and brutality is worthy of praise. It is a choice they have made within the interest of society; yet, the response serves the interest of power itself and is subject to the pitfalls of consciousness which come from a superior position. It is possible to manage diversity without truly understanding it. Even in the face of the application of diverse ideas power is still subject to ask the question, “How can diversity help me increase my power?”

From the top, the question may be mute. Diversity for the powerful, especially when implemented in response to activism or agitation, can easily be interpreted as a loss of power. The impetus is fundamentally conservative. The move towards diversity by those in power generally takes the form of a mandate for diversity given by society’s law, or a response to decline which indicates the law of nature that creates decline when something moves past its point of growth. In the latter case, riots in the street, mass protests, strikes, and initiatives demanding diversity are a reflection of the prior management of power as much as they are signs of the changing consciousness of those in an inferior position.

Those in power imagine themselves to have existed without diversity. Part of this is true, and a question of the time; but part of it is maintained by active suppression of alternative perspectives. Too often the best is proscribed to what is already known as best, even when it comes from a quarter not held to be so. The confusion around “talking white” is a perfect example. Effective communication is not linguistically specific. Standard English is a sign of English power, as much as it is a sign of effective speaking. The power of the language exist independently from the culture that has made that language powerful and its position in the world; however, this insight is rare. Understanding the power of proper use of language as a diverse concept that exist in all societies is not guaranteed to those who have the power to mandate how others speak. In the context of our society (American or African American), to assert that this is “white”, or to assert that those who think it is “white” are mis-led, or to assert that speaking the language of those in power is not a valid skill, are all assertions that miss the point.

The complexity of the brief scenario is a sign of how reductive we often become in the face of diversity. In many scenarios what exist is substituted for what is right and good. To put it another way, what is proficient and effective is substituted for the process that transcends the manifestations. No doubt, those who begin the empire are often more well versed in the transcendental nature of the process that creates all things, than those who come after. Or perhaps, a better way to state it, is that a society is only as good as its ability to balance the transcendental process with the cultural manifestations. When the majority of a society respects the manifestations more than the process, or when few members of the society understand the process, the balance of progression shifts to decline.

These ideas are extremely important in relationship to African American culture, where the history of the American Civilization has seemed resistant to locating evidence of the transcendental process in African American culture. The negation of African (and by extension African American culture) is designed to convince its members and the rest of the world there is no transcendental process in operation. In the absence of the transcendent, the category is regulated to one worthy of oppression. Power, force, or brutality can be used to bring them into the empire, precisely because the adaptation of the “superior culture”, in the absence of transcendent qualities in their own, offers them a sure path to the better-or the best. If we return to the “talking white” English example above, a dangerous connotation is that perhaps effective communication within African American dialect is a valueless trait. Here a dangerous presumption is that there is no mastery of African American language that is evident to those outside of the culture. Though hip-hop has, I think for the most part, handled this; we are still a long way off of African American children being instructed in African American language as a first language. For many the move towards the standardization of African American language is an absurdity.

This conflict between the power African American language speakers experience in their own community as they communicate through language without the rules and constraints assigned to language in the larger society is the true diversity. The use of the language persists because it serves a purpose within the community that the more formal language cannot. It is neither, resistance or rebellion, whose power is a natural outgrowth of the culture. These speakers, for the most part, know and submit to the reality that they must use another language to get a job, or operate within the larger society. However, this need does not render their use of their own language obsolete. The use of African American language persists in spite of arguments and debates as to the validity of the language. This hidden source of power lying even in the context of a seemingly inferior position is the true diversity.

At the root of the questions of diversity is the idea that it is a question, or option. We think one can choose to be diverse. For those in power (superior position) this is the case. As we stated at the beginning, diversity for them is a question of management. One may choose to acknowledge the diversity of others, or to ignore/repress it. For those in an inferior position, things are shrouded in a mysterious acknowledgement that exist outside of debate and arguments about what is right and proper. There the diversity serves a very human need, that the larger culture does not.
For those in positions of power diversity is a gambling of the odds of power today against tomorrow. One may very well win the bet, but by the time one has arrived at the crossroads where the power of those underneath becomes essential to the management of today in a tangible way the decision has already been made. America has reached this crossroads numerous times, and what we know as American Civilization has given up sufficient response. The truth of this statement can be found in our continuing existence as a country. Though it also important to note the History of African Americans, Native Americans, and other minorities suggest the reservoir of potential energy the country has yet to recognize or integrate into the fabric of society is vast.

The expression of circumstances in time is not a constant. Flaws in knowledge are not harmless. Within the realm of the humanities in particular, the existence of the empire at the expense of other’s humanity suggest that there is no defining science of humanity capable of stopping abusive uses of power. Here the ideas of oppressive power become testament to truths we make which can in turn be used to justify themselves.

The real question is, “How do those who do not believe in diversity suffer from lack in the absence of the concept?”

Of course any question given by the weak or those in an inferior position is doomed to interrogation by those in a superior position. A page from Black Man street tactics will easily reveal the problems. If an officer stops me and ask me, “What the fuck am I doing?” He has immediately signified to me that it is not the time for me to speak freely; precisely because he has spoken to me in a way I would easily find offensive. So are the dynamics of power. To often they exist outside of debate. For debate in this situation most always escalates the issue. For an angry man in a powerful position does not debate, they use force. In fact their anger, is a sign of their capacity to use force. The weak rarely wear their anger, and are well aware of the tactical faults from their position. Anger from a weak position exposes one to potential hostility. It is a vulnerability.

However, time may serve the weak well. For the observation required by their position produces a potential for future action that is based on what can easily be suggested as hidden, but in reality is what those in the superior position refused to see. Now, the question posed is, “What vulnerability does the person in a superior position expose themselves to, by failing to understand a weaker position.”

In this regard, the whole history of slavery is testament, not to the abuse of power; but more so the absence of a true understanding of it. This requires meditation.

African Americans, perhaps more than other Americans, believe in America because in spite of our treatment the country has continued to exist and excel. In many regards this belief, is akin to belief in the devil and the power of evil itself. For the step beyond one’s conceptual negation is not a step at all. Put another way, if you do not think or treat me as a human being-then what sense does life make to me? It is a plunge into the abyss. In short, there is nothing after accepting ones negation.

To clarify again, we really don’t believe in this. For one cannot really be human and believe it. One is merely oppressed by thoughts and systems of negation. These thoughts cloud the mind, but do not control it. We are not our thoughts. We are truly something else. The conflict stresses and taxes the individual internally, but is not sufficient to stop the power of life itself. Obviously one can take their own life, or succumb to destructive means; but still life persist. Even in situations of destruction(decline) one adds meaning and power to the collective whole. Under oppression diversity becomes a secret, held by the minds and spirits of those who are oppressed.

If we return to language though, we can see the hostility one encounters when presenting the diverse idea. The use of diversity could very well prevent you from obtaining a job you applied for. Of course this is “wrong”, but what does it matter. If one occupies an inferior position, they must adapt to the situation accordingly. Arguments and debates do not suffice. One must first obtain the necessary skills, and then proceed to transform the world around them. This response is the natural law and lesson applied to those occupying an inferior position. It is an extremely valuable skill, which is identical to the impetus that leads to civilization itself. It is the law and rule of acceptance of ones conditions with a sight towards the transformation of it. It is hope, faith, and perseverance.

In the same way we manage the police officer on a dark night when his pistol is loaded with his hand clenched over it, we know to watch what we say. Only in the realm of Ebonics, or the way African Americans speak, only through a diverse knowledge of its manifestations, codes, and rules, could someone understand how we never really said we believed in any of this.

Instead, we have acknowledged the inferiority of our position and decided to survive in spite of it. The movement is so grounded in our humanity, the portion of us that determines this often exist beneath the realm of language.

While the process can be labeled as resistance, it is truly beyond that. For resistance suggests there is some force opposed. Force is contrary to the time. The absence of force in these situations actually occurs through non-opposition. The reality of the superior position is not worthy of opposition. Instead, it is interpreted as a reality that exist in conjunction with the time.

On the other hand, the dilemma for those in a superior position is usually engaged by way of benevolence. Benevolence implies an acceptance of alternatives originating from a weaker position as one occupies a superior position. No doubt this is a good thing, but there is the chance that it can be applied without understanding the true power of the weak.

What makes America such a strange dilemma is the first of it. For African Americans the first is double. White Americans are first here, which serves as a constant, since the country’s inception; and then second, first in the world in an international sense. In other words, the Western World/America rules the world. As a result, diversity can only be viewed as an extension of bigness of spirit.

Bigness of spirit is an essential trait of leadership. Without it, one cannot manage those in an inferior position. However, as shown with African Americans, one is prone to, or capable of making a wide range of errors. Within the realm of diversity these are often made light of. The violation of laws, and bad publicity are lightweight considerations when one considers the true stakes of the empire. Again, if we look at African Americans and see ways they are trapped into believing in America by position and language; we can also see whites are trapped into not believing in America by position. Our billion dollar bailout may be one of the easiest examples. Obviously empowered men and institutions assumed we would survive as they ate as much as they could eat. The only thing which could allow such waste, is inherent belief in ones superiority-a false belief that power has know regulator outside of what men say and do. To not be able to see your own foolishness is a danger more prominent in the powerful, or at the least, the range of destruction is far greater. Far greater, precisely because it can still be executed even when the premises are false. For those in an inferior position, the police, the grocery store attendant, and other random members of society will check you. Sometimes they do it because you are wrong, other times they do it because you are in a weaker position. The distinction is a knowledge the weaker are far more prone to obtain.

It is as though the weak understand the practicality and farce of systems better than the strong. The understanding positions them to one day build more effective systems. They can do this within the interest of the society they live in, or seek to do it on their own.

While the weak can dream of the time forward, the strong can imagine “God is on their side”, and that they can’t lose.

Again, the distinction is a matter of law as compared to intelligence or power. The essence of power, is the degree to which one is line with natural law. When it comes to matters of the human spirit, African American slavery is a Western testament to the notion that there is no governing law of nature that precisely protects humans from destruction by other humans.

It is a strange thing. For the dictators breathe and take in oxygen in the same way the impoverished do. Nature does not punish in ways that are immediate as the action of humans. Nature punishes in time. It’s laws are reconciled, according to their importance and by the time they show up in the present as consequence it is inevitable.

If we return to a police officer who decides to use brutality to manage an encounter, it is well within his rights, though in the end, he has given up something else.

Brutality has its own laws. Those in weaker positions suffer those consequences dearly. Those in stronger positions are some time able to get away with things, the weaker positions cannot. These are tactics, not steadfast ideas. There are always differences. Life is diverse beyond argument.

The advantage of those in an inferior position is adaptation to the strong, and the path of least resistance. Though weak has its obvious disadvantages, one advantage is the ability to know when and were resistance should be applied. For resistance in the face of a greater force is futile and stupid. Those in a stronger position apply power to resistance, and because they have power are successful. Success is not a measure of right outside of right in relationship to the desired success.

The turning point for the powerful always occurs when they encounter an opponent of superior force. Then the shifting of the tables demands those same skills they have been least likely to cultivate, be employed.

It is also important to note, that under normal conditions, when the balance of power is close to evenly matched, cultural relations-knowledge of the language, customs, and practices of a community are the tools for negotiating relationships. The true diversity occurs in places where there is some sense of power balance. For it is power balance, not the conceived humanity or benevolence of those in power that humble one to value the skills and tools of others. Need is the true teacher in these cases. The superior mind is capable of sensing this need from a superior position. Even the inferior mind can sense this need from an inferior position. The superior mind is capable of sensing that to be in an inferior position is to have to answer to someone’s impression of right, not because of truth, but because of the power dynamics.

As a practical consideration, Chinese and African American cultures serve as a framework for the above concepts. In the instance of China, China moves closer to a balance of power with the U.S. every day. Perhaps even more important, given their history and the continuity of their civilization, their approach to the power of the U.S. must be diversified from the response of, for instance African Americans. For African Americans are certain of the power of Americans and the West to the point of assuming the power to be a constant; while , it is highly likely, Chinese Civilization considers the power an aberration, or century or two error. A quote from Henry Kissinger the Washington Post in October of 2011 clarifies this perception. Kissinger served as National Security Advisor to Nixon and is widely held as the man responsible for establishing international relations with China after over two decades of diplomatic isolation:

In much of our literature, China is now described as a rising country. No, Chinese thinks of China as a rising country in 18 of the last 20 centuries. In 18 of those centuries China was the most powerful country in the world. Then there was an aberration in the Chinese mind and experience of the 19th and early 20th century in which China did not catch up with the Industrial Revolution and was temporarily weak. The Chinese think they are reclaiming the place that has historically been China’s (Kissinger AA2).

Chinese cultural actions are dictated by observance of the balance of power, as compared to succumbing to a sense of superiority. Kissinger captures this sentiment perfectly. The “rise” of China as a reclamation of past power is a radically different perspective than that commonly attributed to African Americans.

Afrocentrism, the ideological movement created by African Americans in the Post Black Power movement, encounters a different set of challenges. On one hand it is an expression of meeting aggressive action with aggressive action. The error is one of positioning and truly signifies an upward trajectory. Aggressive action from an inferior position is tactically unsound. In the case of Black Power and African Liberation Movements within the U.S. the example from these tactics came from other countries who managed to create dramatic changes through the use of force. The differences are detailed and worthy of a more lengthy discussion. Here we can simply say African American population numbers, combined with the entrenchment of racism are two significant components of our predicament that designate our position as inferior; but it also must be stated that an inferior position is not inferiority.

In essence, our limited scope of aggressive action was what our ancestors had already known. The same dynamics which regulated their position, regulated ours. The reason for the failure is the same reason they had never left or engaged in mass rebellious action. What is also important is the degree to which the aggressive action mirrors the initial myths of revolution created by the American colony in the beginning. Aggressive action for American culture is an odd thing. It is the spirit of the pioneer as a cultural trait. We want to find something we designate as unknown and conquer it. African Americans are Americans. Our cultural traits bear the signs of our ancestors work, along with the signs of the culture we live in. Many of us believe in aggressive action in the same way the larger society does.

African American culture’s move towards Africa as a spiritual homeland and civilization which influences our current condition is blurred by the past and active suppression of African American history and culture in educational systems and the negative portrayal of African American cultural traits as representations of culture that is not culture. While the move towards Africa offers answers for the mystery of who we are and also provides buffers for our self-esteem, the notion that a culture in operation millennia ago is the model for what we shall do today is far too abstract to take root in the larger culture. (Though it must be noted the philosophy of Afrocentricity, and the work of scholars like Molefi Kete Asante, John Henri Clarke, Asa Hilliard, Runoko Rashidi and others have done much work in this regard. The many who have read and studied the work of these scholars are testament to the profound work they have done to interject these ideas into the water flow of African American culture and transform the consciousness of their people.) In addition, the particulars of African American culture in relationship to West Africa, the scene of our extraction from Africa, is plagued by a series of difficulties. There, the notion of the white man’s responsibility is mixed with the degrees to which Africans and the continent were complicit in the affair.

The debates over the truth of our history, once one has received a trajectory and sense of the landscape is to some degree irrelevant. One must understand historical facts, so that one can locate oneself in the stream of current events. In addition, one must also be capable of calling in the experts when they are needed. The inability of many African Americans to do this is a direct result of our enslavement, degraded status in America, and the active suppression of our history.

However, there are also advantages. For black skill is an expression of our condition, and has required us to differentiate between futile and well warranted resistance. It has also given us an amazing sense of cultural adaptation. The notion that someone African American is not cultural diverse is almost preposterous. Our ability to code switch and master skills, linguistic concepts, and cultural qualities others doubt exist, while at the same time, understanding the need to master those skills and traits demanded by the larger society as signs of competency is unprecedented. What has given rise to these abilities is not superiority, but rather the reality of an inferior position. Position is not worth. Position is not a question of true valuation. Position is the lay of the land at the precise time of engagement. Inner worth, on the other hand, is a question of destiny, will, and perseverance. No group of people who have achieved greatness have avoided an inferior position. Much more probable is that they were tempered and formed by it.

The Israelites in the Bible are one example, but so are the contemporary Chinese. The condition of the People’s Republic in 1949 at the tipping point of the revolution is worthy of study. So are the following years with their dramatic upheavals and tragedies. In many regards the Cultural Revolution and Tiannmen’s Square say as much about China’s rising power as does their GDP. For lest we forget, Jim Crow, slavery or even the Klu Klux Klan all operate or have operated in American History for significant amounts of time. The notion that these violations represent their weakness is a cultural tactic that is used against weaker opponents to destabilize them, whereas in the case of contemporary China the violations indicate a sense of staying power.

For China, it is highly unlikely that they will be unsuccessful in their goals to reclaim their position at the top of the power scale within the world. Diversity in relationship to a country that has similar power is not a question of diversity as we know it in the States(or perhaps the West), it is a question of cultural exchange. The market force, to borrow capitalist terminology, to become culturally adept is an extension of what one wants and needs in a particular circumstance, and the most effective way to get it. The closer the balance of power, the higher the estimates of casualties are in a violent conflict. Violence is a preferred tactic when losses can be minimized. An opponent’s power is the greatest deterrent against aggressive action, and cannot be regulated to the benevolence of the powerful. In almost evenly matched opponents, one must acknowledge the weak have increased their power. Though this may seem very simple, one must take into account the continuity of Chinese Civilization. If we return to Kissinger, our common assumption is that perhaps they are lucky, or, as someone stated in the past election, playing unfair. It could simply be, they know how to be weak when they are weak. In other words, they do not view weakness as inherent, but instead plot it on a timeline they construct for themselves. Perhaps, the acceptance of ones weakness is the first step towards strength.

In the absence of an all out victory against oppression and racism, African American culture possesses the ability to clearly assess power, culturally adapt, resist when it is advantageous, and know when it is the time to be weak, as well as the time to be strong. Even our greatest victories: such as the abolishing of slavery and the ending of segregation are stories whose tactics and strategies could not possibly read this way without an extensive study of African American History and culture. The unlikeliness of this occurring for many members of American society is an extension of the country’s regulation of African American culture to an inferior position and the absence of a true understanding of our history. Plainly put, who cares about African American History? No doubt many are certain, the underestimation of its value has proven insignificant in the history of the country thus far. Why then should there be concern over its value now?

Here we return to the logic of benevolence that is at the core of diversity thinking. One of the characteristics of American society (thus far), and colonialism for that matter, may be the almost insignificant nature of inferiors. This is conceptually what the genocide of Native Americans mean. In many ways we are as certain of this insignificance as we are of knowing the sun will shine. The genocide is a conceptual abstraction the country’s success proves as unworthy of our attention. To speak of these matters one encounters the language of victimization. As a concept with the realm of diversity, victimization implies the weak using their power to merely seek advantage as those in power have with an additional implication that suggest their weakness truly prevents them from achieving power as the strong have. The language of victimization is considered to be duplicitous and used to get something for nothing. The oddity is that the amassing of weapons as sign of power or the use of violence is not viewed in the same way. Meditation is required.

The inferior mind in a superior position will easily note the complement implicit in victimization when approached from a Western perspective. That mind knows that the weak did not have the power to stop them, and likes the idea of someone throwing a temper tantrum against them. The nature of the argument invokes benevolence: a way of being big enough to engage ideas you know to be inferior to yours and outside the balance of power.
The real question is when do the deficiencies spawned by abuse of power return in the present time? When does nature require the knowledge of the weak from you? For America, the question is about the ways in which the absence and inability to acknowledge African Americans and their history affects the trajectory of the country as a whole.

Though there can be arguments for others as symbols of the weak, the fundamentals of white supremacy as the superiority of whites, has cemented African Americans in the eyes of society, as the symbolic representation of the weak. Of course, we know that is not the case. We have been placed in the symbolically weak position. This distinction, which may seem small to some, is actually profound in it’s implication. Meditation is required. And to add, the weak position gives lessons and skills that are as profound as those given to the strong. The difference of course is the set of actions one chooses to take or not take, or the altered perception of those who inhabit the positions.

For the weak, the downfall is the sense of fault that comes from ones perception of their own actions. Fault as explanation of the position implies one’s actions are faulty and have led to the predicament. Again, meditation is required.

For the strong, on the other hand, the sense of fault lies in success being attributed to ones own actions. In these cases, the strong can make a decision to view success as a constant.

In conclusion, the resurgence of China on the world stage will demand many of the skills cultivated by African Americans as a consequence of our seemingly unfortunate position, be practiced by the society as a whole. In many regards, China’s rise on the world stage comes from our inability to comprehend some of the concepts briefly touched upon in this short essay. When visiting China as an English teacher, someone shared with me, that the Chinese have more people studying English as a second language, than there are Native English speakers in the world. Let’s add, what successful African Americans have obtained their success without properly speaking the Standard English. Then as a final note, search for requirements given to American citizens to learn Mandarin as we confront their rise on the world stage.