Perfect Harmony

Back in the 1970’s, Coca-Cola ran a commercial with a group of people of all races standing on a hilltop singing in unison, “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony”. In 2021, Coca-Cola is training their white employees to be “less white”; white people must apologize for the color of their skin. Coca-Cola is no longer teaching the world about racial harmony; they have chosen to teach their employees racial division.

In the phrase, “be less white”, if one were to replace the word “white” with any other group identity, how would that go over? Is it okay to tell a black person “be less black”? Or a Hispanic person “be less Hispanic”? Or a gay person “be less gay”? Or a woman “be less female”? Those statements would be racist, homophobic and misogynist. They would be categorically rejected. No questions asked. Rightfully so. Yet, it is okay to tell white people to “be less white”?

This program was being taught during Black History Month, a time when we, as a country, were celebrating the history of black people, and encouraging black people to embrace their race, their culture, their heritage, their blackness. Yet, all the while, white people are told to denounce their race, their culture, their heritage, their whiteness.

Coca-Cola is not alone. New York Education Department implemented a program to “purge whiteness” from the city schools. New York City Schools Chancellor, Richard Carranza threatened employees who balked at his program, “if you draw a paycheck from DOE, get on board with [my] equity platform or leave.” Basically, he told his white employees, reject your race or you’re fired.

Naperville, Illinois public school system is shaming white teachers for the color of their skin in their mandatory “anti-racist” training program. “Anti-racist” Coach Dena Simmons proclaimed in the program that “our education is based on a foundation of whiteness” and that schools “are spiritually murdering” black students. He told the teachers, if you are not an “antiracist”, you are a racist, even if you believe “you are treating people with respect.” So, if you do not acknowledge that you’re a racist, then you are a racist?

Hollywood is also getting in the act of purging whiteness from its midst. Many prominent white Hollywood stars have come out and apologized for being white. I don’t know how they apologized for something that was totally outside their control, but they did.

If white people must reject their own race and culture, and be “less white” what are they supposed to be? More black? More Hispanic? More Asian? More Native American? But if white people embrace other cultures to fill the cultural void, wouldn’t they be committing “cultural appropriation” which is also deemed racist? So, if white people cannot embrace other races and cultures, and must reject their own, they will become a group of people with no heritage, no culture, no race because you can’t be white, but you also can’t not be white.

This is a figurative ethnic cleansing of white people. Literal ethnic cleansings always start figuratively, before they manifest into actual ethnic cleansings. In order for “good” human beings to kill other human beings, they must de-humanize them. They must take their humanity, make them lesser, make them the other.

This is what they are doing when they force white people to reject their whiteness. It is a proclamation that all that is white is bad; white culture, white history, white people. It’s all bad. It’s all evil. If they deny that is what they are doing, then why must white people reject their whiteness by being “less white”? Why can’t white people celebrate their whiteness the way other cultures in our society do every February, May, September and October?

Many of these “anti-racist” programs are teaching racism. They teach that white people cannot not be racist, while claiming black people can’t be racist. Which are both blatantly racist statements. This is evil stuff, and it’s seeping into our mainstream thinking, into our academia. Evil thinking produces evil acts.

The proponents of these programs will argue, the white race has a history of evil, as if white people are the only ones who have committed atrocities in human history? There’s no history of evil in the Black race? Hispanic race? Asian race? Crack open a history book on the genocides in Rwanda, Guatemala, Maoist China, Khmer Rouge, Armenia, Sudan, or the slavery of Barbary Pirates. Study up on the current slavery still occurring throughout Africa, the human trafficking throughout Central America, the treatment of the Uyghurs in Northern China.

But it’s only present-day white people who are held accountable for the past atrocities committed by those of their race, not Black people, not Asians, not Hispanics, even though some of those atrocities are still occurring today, and very few people are saying anything about them. And if people of other races were held accountable for the past sins of their race, it would rightfully elicit the charge of racism. It’s only white people who must denounce their race because of the sins of others of their race.

Every race of people has in its history a laundry list of evil. So, the practice of holding present-day people accountable for crimes of past members of their race, indicts us all, each and every one of us, regardless of skin color, ethnicity, religion. But every race also has a history of good, benevolence, generosity, innovation, creation, contribution, as well.

Which means we are not defined by our skin color. Never allow anyone to tell you what you are, who you are, or diminish your humanity in any way. Every human being is born with a divine spark, regardless of race or gender. Do not allow anyone take your divine spark away from you for any reason, much less because of arbitrary boxes they want to wedge you into.

You define yourself, solely by your thoughts, your words and your actions. Your skin color or your physical attributes do not define you. We used to know this. Your insides are much more valuable to the person you are than your outsides. It’s not even close. Those who want to diminish you, control you, dictate to you, want to focus on your exterior, and ignore your interior. They want to reduce you to lazy stereotypes and the sins of others who look like you because they do not want to see and understand the full breadth and depth of who you are. You are infinitely more than their narrow vision of you. Their denial of your humanity exposes the limits their humanity not yours.

The only way we can live in true harmony is when we are able to look beyond each other’s race, ethnicity, gender, and see the humanity inside that is common to all of us; the humanity that makes each of us unique individuals, but also connects us all. And it is only when we get to that place when we will live in “perfect harmony”.

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Judd Garrett is a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He is a frequent contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.