Sinking in how racist the Church made me

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Not Buying It
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Sinking in how racist the Church made me

Post by Not Buying It » Thu Aug 11, 2022 6:20 am

Yesterday I was helping to lead a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion activity at the institution where I work which involved a lot of sharing of personal experiences. I had never shared this with anyone at work, but I told everyone how I was raised in a religion that taught me that people were born black because they had been less righteous in a prior world, and it struck me forcefully how the Church had inculcated me with horribly racist ideas at an early age. They deny ever teaching that now, but that's a bald-faced lie, its referred to in the 1949 First Presidency statement, things don't get much more official than that. True to form, the Church now tries to gaslight members into thinking the Church wasn't the source of this pernicious teaching - but I didn't just make that up on my own. Besides, it's pretty obvious the Book of Mormon teaches Lamanites were cursed with dark skin due to their wickedness so they wouldn't be "enticing" to righteous white Nephites, which is racist as...fetch.

Friends, any of us who once believed in the Church have some racist baggage kicking around in our brainpans we may be more influenced by than we realize. I've known that for a long time, but it never hit me quite as hard as it did yesterday. And before any of you insist you've shed all that and there isn't a racist bone in your body, I'd remind you that the conditioning goes deeper than any of us realize, and most people are more racist than they think they are - I am pretty sure I am. Most people who do racist things don't consider themselves racist.

I think it is fair to say that none of the participants were particularly impressed by what the Church taught me about race.
"The truth is elegantly simple. The lie needs complex apologia. 4 simple words: Joe made it up. It answers everything with the perfect simplicity of Occam's Razor. Every convoluted excuse withers." - Some guy on Reddit called disposazelph

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alas
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Re: Sinking in how racist the Church made me

Post by alas » Thu Aug 11, 2022 8:07 am

This is so true. The church taught as doctrine that blacks or anyone with any African blood was less valiant in the pre-existence. And it implied that these less valiant were more likely to be less righteous on earth, so watch out cause you can’t trust them at all.

For anyone who claims that they have no prejudice, well, they lie because fear and distrust of anyone who isn’t “my tribe” is instinctive. So, there is instinctive dislike for anyone who looks different, of sounds different, or acts different. Fear, dislike, distrust are built in emotions for anyone who is not part of the tribe.

My experience is kind of not typical Mormon because both my parents were nonbelievers, quietly so but still both had totally quit believing. But they maintained appearances of the happy Mormon family. my mom couldn’t admit it to herself, let alone out loud. My Dad was very quiet about religion, except once in a while he would say something blasphemous. But they forced us kids to go to church and once in a while went themselves, because …well, battle ax grandmothers. I didn’t understand until adulthood how much my parents were still controlled by their controlling, demanding mothers. (My dad completed his PhD in law and he didn’t want to be a lawyer in any way shape of form, but he did what mama demanded) My mother had read No Man Knows My History before I was even born, and she hated everything about how the church treated women back in the 1950s. So, anyway, there were zero Mormon teachings at home, but going to church was mandatory. In fact, at home, antiMormon stuff slipped out every so often.

That particular doctrine was challenged and even mocked by my parents. They both had close black friends/neighbors when they were living in Salt Lake City, so maybe they had over come their own prejudice, but they taught against prejudice toward blacks and my mom was pro-civil rights in the 60 and I swear if she had been in Alabama instead of Utah she would have march with Martin Luther King.

But before you think that I an denying that I might be racist, my parents were prejudiced as hell toward Mexicans. So, I grew up with terms like “wet back” and worse, so I was taught to hate and distrust both Hispanics and Catholics, because most Hispanics were Catholic. My mother wouldn’t allow me to be friends with one girl in my neighborhood, because she was Hispanic. The only Catholic I was ever allowed to play with was a cousin and I am sure is she wasn’t family it would have been forbidden. She wouldn’t let me get my ears pierced because “only Catholics and hookers get their ears pierced.” So, even now, at 70 years old, I have to work on acceptance of Hispanics.

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Linked
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Re: Sinking in how racist the Church made me

Post by Linked » Thu Aug 11, 2022 8:09 am

100%

After reading the 1949 First Presidency statement about Black people, the thing that struck me the most was how messed up their justification was. They basically said "We treat Black people badly because they deserve it." And the racism doesn't stop with Black people. An older white TBM guy was pontificating on Hawaiians being incompetent in a story about a weird landing at a Hawaiian airport this week. And the isms continue, my DB and BIL covered racism, sexism, and homophobia in 15 seconds in a conversation last week. My head spun with how fast they were able to hit all 3. My BIL is working on starting his own business, his stated reason: so he doesn't have to hear any more "stupid Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion bs anymore."

I suspect that at this point the isms are more of a conservative white America thing than a distinctly mormon thing. I'm sure there are some unique parts of the mormon isms, but the general movement is much larger than the mormon church.

I am trying to be better about racism, and I think I am getting there, but it's an unfortunately long process. And it's disappointing every time I realize another way I have been failing. It is difficult to do anything particularly helpful in a very low diversity area like Utah. Anyone have any proactive suggestions?

ETA - Alas' comment about Hispanics reminds that Utah is NOT a low diversity area. I was wrong. I will be better.
"I would write about life. Every person would be exactly as important as any other. All facts would also be given equal weightiness. Nothing would be left out. Let others bring order to chaos. I would bring chaos to order" - Kurt Vonnegut

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Not Buying It
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Re: Sinking in how racist the Church made me

Post by Not Buying It » Thu Aug 11, 2022 10:15 am

Linked wrote:
Thu Aug 11, 2022 8:09 am

ETA - Alas' comment about Hispanics reminds that Utah is NOT a low diversity area. I was wrong. I will be better.
That is something I need to work on as well. I sometimes tell people where I grew up everyone was white, but that isn't true, we had a small but visible Hispanic population in Idaho. But to most of us they "didn't count". We used derogatory terms to describe them all the time when I grew up. I know some of the things I still need to purge myself of on a semi-conscious level come from that.

It is true that I absorbed a lot of white dominance messages just growing up in the U.S., but I got an extra layer from the Church with its racist nonsense about blacks being less valiant in the pre-existence and Native Americans have darker skin because their Lamanite ancestors were wicked.

(Ever wonder why they call it the pre-existence? You existed, you were there, you fought against Satan and that's why you were born into the Church. It isn't a pre-existence at all, its more accurate when they call it pre-mortal).
"The truth is elegantly simple. The lie needs complex apologia. 4 simple words: Joe made it up. It answers everything with the perfect simplicity of Occam's Razor. Every convoluted excuse withers." - Some guy on Reddit called disposazelph

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