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... ...Universal Declaration of Human Rights, December 10, 1948 -- "A Cause for Celebration" ... 'Demands of Dignity' 'Demands of Dignity' <DEVELOPING THE DISCOURSE ON OUR DECEMBER 1Oth DECLARATION>
On-Line Edition of the Book by Ed Aurelio C. Reyes Appendix 5-- B: Dear Whites, I Am No Racist! |
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CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK: Response
to the Spanish Response Response to the American Non-Response Demands of Dignity
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Chapter Five ------------------------
Appendix 5-B Dear Whites, I Am No Racist [This is the Author's Introduction to the book, The White Man's Burden: From 'Call of Duty' to Sense of Shame, written by Ed Aurelio C. Reyes in 1996 and published by Vicarish Publications in Manila that same year.] RACISM
considers entire groups of people inherently inferior by reason of their
race. Impelled by economic
interests and cultural chauvinism, the White Man conquered the non-white
peoples of the world, and obviously racist attitude justified that the
latter simply be ignored completely, or, worse, dispossessed, forcibly
converted, enslaved and even killed. While this book indicts the White Man
as the personification of the historical phenomenon of global colonialism
which has plagued Humankind for the past half millennium, it is not
racist. It curses the collective deed and greed of colonialism, and
highlights History's own curse on the doers and their kind--a sense of
shame over an infamous legacy--but it also holds that the present-day
descendants of White colonizers can cleanse themselves of the stain by
opposing in word and in deed the logic of colonialism. At
the same time, it seeks to impart information on the indigenous great-ness
of the native populations that were colonized, annihilated, nay
exterminated, by colonialism. Such
information glaringly belies the premise of the White Colonizer's racism,
that the non-Whites deserved, even needed, to be colonized so they could
be civilized and uplifted, the chauvinist view that the non-Whites were,
in the words of Rudyard Kipling, "half devil and half-child." This
work does not seek to impute the impropriety on any single, much less on every
single, White man, whether personally known or unknown to this writer.
It might interest the readers to know that I hold quite a number of
Whites in high esteem as cherished acquaintances, even beloved friends.
They do not relish the contrast in the standards of living between
their own respective rich countries and impoverished countries like my
own, knowing well that the historic reason for such discrepancy is nothing
they can be proud of. In their very own respective and respectable ways, they have
opposed the logic of colonialism and of its perpetuation in contemporary
forms. All of them have shown
a keener interest in the Philippines and a deeper love for Filipinos than
I have observed in many of my own compatriots. Olof Lindstroem of Sweden; Alba Viotto and Hubi Wuersch of Switzerland; Ruth Lehmann and Jorg Schweeger of Germany; David Robie of New Zealand; Daniel Schirmer, Sr. Mary Grenough, Robin Broad, John Cavanagh, Don Goertzen, Liz Andress, Fr. Art Shea, Jenny Franco, and Cecilia Hofmann of the United States; Fr. Shay Cullen of Ireland; Els Bressers, Fr. Edgar Koning, Fr. Ton Danenberg, Carien Olbers, Frans Kleine-Koertkamp, Ian Bouers, and Fr. Bernard Roosendaal of The Netherlands; Paul Mincher of Britain; Cathy Beecham of Australia -- I cannot name them all here because the list is really long. And this list is ever growing. Whenever I meet a new White face on the street, in a party or across a conference table, I see no reason to assume that he or she is a flag-waver for colonialism. Ever an optimist, I tell myself that the new acquaintance can very well become another addition to my growing list. At the same time, I have learned not to assume that anyone I meet with black, red, yellow or brown skin opposes the historical phenomenon that has heaped insult and brought incalculable injury to their respective races, nations and tribes. After all, some of these have even worked as henchmen, partners and apologists of White Colonialist domination and its logic of racist greed and plunder. Indictment of the White Man's colonial crime is no racism. It is in fact an indictment of racism. I hope the readers of this work would agree with me on this point, and join me in this Pete Seeger song recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary (which I have also translated into Filipino): Because
all men are brothers, wherever men may be, One
union shall unite us, forever proud and free. No
tyrant shall defeat us, no nation strike us down, All
men who toil shall free us the whole wide world around! My
brothers are all others, forever hand in hand, Where
chimes the bell of freedom there is my native land! My
brother's cheers are my cheers, yellow, white or brown; My
brother's tears are my tears, the whole wide world around! Let
every voice be thundered, let every heart beat strong; Until
all tyrants perish, our work shall not be done. Let
not our memories fail us, the lost years shall be found, And slavery's chains be broken the whole wide world around!
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Demands of Dignity THE HARDCOPY EDITION, in about 180 regular sized bookpaper pages with full-color paperback cover (retail and wholesale prices). FREE ACCESS FOR ALL to the ON-LINE EDITION until February. 4, 2009, 110th Anni- versary of the Fil-Am War. .(read details).
APPENDICES: App 5-A: Open
Letter to the American People App 5-B: Dear Whites, I Am No Racist! App 5-C: Mark Twain's 'The War Prayer'
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