The “shithole” and the Jackals
Back in the day, as a kid, I read a story. It stuck with me forever (not just because- warning, it was disturbingly graphic, but also because of how relevant it remains).
It went something along the lines of this (once again, disturbing content):
A ravenous Jackal scavenged for scraps on the forest floor, fruitlessly, until it came across this: A dead bear with a dozen arrows piercing its underside, laying belly down, on top of a dead man who was clearly a bow and arrow hunter and was killed by the bear with a bite to the neck following what was clearly an encounter fatal to both parties (one could easily assume the hunter shot arrows at the bear from close range as it advanced, on hind legs, before getting the hunter by the neck).
Next to the hunter and the bear, lay the hunter’s bow — made of wood, with extremely sharp and pointed ends, bent in high tension and held together by bow-string made from sheep-sinews.
In euphoric mania, abandoning all thought, the Jackal neither carefully dragged the man out from under the dead bear to feed upon, nor patiently cut through the bear’s thick back skin, instead, yanking the bow off the ground, sticking one end of the bow into its mouth to awkwardly chew on the string, snapping the string, releasing the tension in the bow and causing its throat to get impaled from within.
Why is this so graphic, or even relevant?
It is probably graphic because I’ve got issues. As for relevance, four days ago, the “leader of the free-world”, in the white-house, in a meeting with lawmakers, decided to say out loud what plenty of his ardent supporters secretly believed all along, which, for those not paying attention, was along the lines of: “Why do we let in people from shit-hole countries when we could bring people in from countries like Norway”.
Considering how unlikely it is that this man, given his historic rants, would be waiting with a smile and a bag of candy, for, say, black or brown immigrants coming in via Sweden or Germany, its obvious that he really meant: “Why do we have people not white in skin color come to our precious land when we could instead only allow white people? And, of course, some of the asians, because who else will do all the work for us, otherwise?”
Personally, I’ve great reverence for the likes of Albert Schweitzer, Theodore Roosevelt, Chuck Feeney, and so many more, plenty of who are white in skin color. I revere them, though, not because of the nations they originate from or the amount of melanin-pigment in their skin, but for their intentions, accomplishments and consistency in character that made this world a better place to live in, for the rest of us. But, to this day, many disagree with this train of thought because, apparently, nothing matters more to them about a person, than having white-skin - regardless of whether we’re talking about an alleged child molester or a saint, although, very apparently, to these same people, no other race of people deserves such a privilege.
So, how does this wild rant all tie together?
Being offended, hurt, humiliated by said comments, while understandable, isn’t really of any use. Every moment the media spends gleefully repeating that the “President said shit-hole countries” on national TV, whiles away a moment that could’ve been spent on reflecting on and preparing to deal with the fact that even 70 years after Hitler’s death, the world is clearly plagued by the same evil that envisioned a “Master Race”.
Without reflection upon reality, there is no room to discuss how to make this world a more sane and collaborative space. Over the years I’ve seen/heard enough immigrants in the U.S. who’ve either clearly given up on (or sometimes slander) their native lands. While I don’t point this out in order to justify why an orange-haired-pumpkin saying what he said, I do it to state that it is enough reason to not lose one’s mind, yet.
People have an opportunity, like the Jackal that had the find of its life (ironically, quite literally, because it died), right in front of it.
We can debate why so many people still cannot tell that skin-color means almost nothing save, probably, for having varying degrees of blisters under summer sun, after buying shady $0.99 sun-screen in a moment of parsimony.
We can try to come up with practical solutions to open the eyes of those who’ve blinded themselves to reality - refusing to give up the view that, say for instance, Black people are inherently lazy or criminal (not once acknowledging crimes such as the black wall street).
Focusing on the word “shit-hole” trivializes the matter, and having pointless arguments is like shoving the hunter’s bow deeper and deeper down our Jackal throats, ignoring the opportunities that lie around us, and refusing to see that the bow-string could snap as early as 2020 unless humanity picks itself up from where it has gotten itself.
