Tag Archives: Sufi meditation

More about Racial Tensions

Lupe Fiasco put it best. There’s nothing “supreme” about white people, and nothing inferior either. We’re like everyone else; we have our good traits and some impressive accomplishments, and we have our bad traits and shameful deeds. Just like everyone else.

The thing I liked about Mr. Fiasco’s statement is that while he acknowledges the failings of my tribe, he does not revile them. In other words, there is no threat in his words. No pointed finger of accusation supported with a curse of “I’m better than you” or a declaration of war. It is simply an observation, and an offer of a simple, practical, and very workable solution on how to fix the problem that is, in the end, an asset to everyone and a liability to none.

And I am not alone among my people in how I feel about this situation. Many simply don’t know how to articulate this. 

We are all still afraid. Like animals in an unfamiliar environment. Some of us – no color implications here – are afraid. And the worst part is that we have been conditioned to love and savor that fear. 

This fear will destroy us all.

My wife recently commented that one of the things she admires about me is that I’m comfortable with myself as a white man, and I have nothing to prove. Those who adopt racist / white supremacist ideals are not truly at peace with the fact that they’re white. They have an inner conflict of some kind or another, and have to bring others down in order to bring themselves up. Their hypocrisy and self deception would be pathetic if it didn’t drive many of them to acts of shocking violence.

There is an old Sufi meditation technique called muraqaba. It means one who observes, and involves looking at oneself from a perspective outside the self. One learns that one is not one’s body, tribe, nation, career, country, race, or even mind. We have these things, but we are not them. This would be useful in solving a great many social ills, and individual psychological-spiritual crisis.

http://thesource.com/…/lupe-fiasco-posts-dear-white-suprem…/