July 10, 2022
by Mwizenge Tembo, Ph. D
Emeritus Professor of Sociology
In my message this morning, I will discuss the relationship between Critical Race Theory (CRT), Power, Humility, and Happiness in Our Lives. I will first define and describe these terms and conclude with how they may be related to our happiness.
We may not appreciate the significance of CRT unless we understand its brief history. This may help dispel some of the myths and controversy that surrounds the term today.
In the early 1700s Europeans began the search for race as Europeans increased sea exploration of the world in Africa, Asia, North and South America. They encountered many peoples that looked different from Europeans in terms of skin color, facial and other body features.
Swedish biologist Carolus Linneus in 1758 was the founder of the modern system of biological taxonomy that categorized all living things. Linneus created 4 groups of all humans: 1. Homo sapiens Americanus (reddish, choleric, erect) 2. Homo Sapien Europeans (white, ruddy, muscular) 3. Homo Sapiens Asiaticus (yellow, melancholic, inflexible) 4. Homo Sapiens Afer (black, phlegmatic, indulgent).
Later Anthropologists created categories that we might find offensive today: Mongoloid (Asians), Negroid (Blacks), Caucasian (Whites). Problems of race categories arose because anthropologists later found that all over the world people could not fit into these categories of phenotype or outside physical appearance. This problem exists even to this day as it is impossible to put all 7.7 billion people in the world into the specific few categories that we call “races”.
Racism is the belief that people who are white or have light skin as the most superior and that people who are black or have darker skin as the most inferior. The main idea behind Critical Race Theory (CRT) is that this racism which Europeans created has been around for centuries and is deeply embedded in institutions and our world view. The institutions in which racism is embedded include the family, the church, residential neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces. As a result racism will not be easily erased. For Example the book: “The New Jim Crow.” Explains this problem very well. To resolve racism we need fundamental changes in society. Racism is such a deep and normal part of our society that to most white people and many people of color it is invisible and normal; “normalness” of racism. The Fish which are swimming in water will never notice the water. This is how racism is such a deep part of our society that we do not notice it.
There is a common belief that slavery existed in the bible, in early Europe, in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, North and South America. According to his belief, there was nothing unusual about Europeans enslaving Africans in the United States or North and South Africa. This belief which I characterize as the equalization of slavery is misleading.These earlier forms of slavery were domestic slavery. The important distinguishing feature of the Atlantic Slave Trade was that it created for the first time chattel slavery in human history. This chattel slavery was brutal and connected to capitalism and the European Industrial Revolution. The Atlantic slave trade forcibly took twelve to twenty million Africans to North and South America starting from the 1619.
Perhaps the worst part about the Atlantic Slavery of Africans is that it created the powerful racial ideology that we live with to this day. European colonialism spread racism all over the world. The British introduced the racial ideology into the The Hindu Caste System in India in which the Indians with the lightest or white skin tone were regarded as superior and belonged to the upper caste while the Indians with the darkest skin were regarded the most inferior and were at the bottom belonging to the untouchables caste. All of this racial history created White Privilege which exists up to this day.
Power is the ability to compel other people to do what you want. There are different types of power. What is most satisfying and preferred is influence. Although you may have power over your children, for example, what you prefer is to have influence over your children through example. Influence in the most preferred forms of power.
Humility is a modest or low view of one’s own importance; humbleness. When I completed my Ph. D., I realized that I knew a very small proportion of knowledge in my field of Sociology. Contrary to what I had expected, I felt very humble. People who have too much power and feel they are experts and superior over everyone else are often arrogant and sometimes overcome by hubris; which is having excessive pride or self-confidence.
Happiness is temporary joy and lasting contentment. Indulging in eating too much food, too much sex, purchasing too many material possessions, and abuse of alcohol and drugs are never a true source of happiness. There are five major Factors of Happiness: 1. Control; having reasonable control of your life, 2.Optimism; having an optimistic attitude in life. 3. Meaningful Activity; the meaningful activity in your life could be a hobby or your work, 4. Faith; your faith need not necessarily be belonging to a major religion, 5. Close Relationships; the close social relationships may be workmates, family members, friends, fellow church members, members of your club, and other acquaintances. One of the major reasons why people who are poor may be very unhappy is that they may have very little control over their lives in terms of choices, having no food, no shelter, and no education. One does not need to have all the five factors of happiness in order to experience happiness.
Kaunda and Love
I bought President Kaunda’s book “A Humanist in Africa” when I was a freshman in college at University of Zambia in 1972. I could relate with intimate familiarity what he wrote about the nature of the African. The quote I found most profound in the book:
“The very attempts of modern societies to insulate themselves from suffering have resulted in a refusal of love, for the willingness to love and be loved makes suffering inevitable. And in the refusal of love, modern man feels pain without the possibility of transforming it into suffering. In trying to shut out suffering, Man only turns it into something useless and degrading.” (Kaunda, 1966, p.40)
Conclusion
A paradox is when we first do something that has positive results or benefits. Whatever that something is, too much of it at some point create problems or ceases to benefit us. This could be money, food, the number of children we have and many other aspects of our lives.
Living a life in which we confront problems that affect our fellow humans requires us to reflect on and understand our lives better. We need to understand the true history and meaning of Critical Race Theory. We need to know the socially acceptable meaning of power. We need to understand the important role of humility in our lives. We need to know the true meaning of happiness and some of the factors that might contribute to our happiness.
Knowledge of some of these significant aspects of our lives including paradoxes will likely contribute to our experience and expression of empathy, compassion, and love towards others. Perhaps one of the least recognized aspects of our lives in our technologically advanced lives today is our lack of realization that true or genuine love makes pain and suffering inevitable.
References
Aulette, Judy Root., A Global View of Race and Racism, New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. CH. 2: The Myth of Biological Races and the Social Construction of Race/Ethnicities, pp. 21 -41
Kaunda, Kenneth, A Humanist in Africa, London and Lusaka: Veritas, 1966.
The Mystery of Happiness. YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcT7wJgmYGE&ab_channel=johnj2428