Before you pass me off as some sort of jerk who wants to dismiss race, look carefully at the title. You will notice that it states that race is not THE issue, not that it is not an issue, but only that it is not the single issue from which all other issues stem. If you are surprised that anyone could seriously believe something that ludicrious, than you think in roughly the same way I do. It has, however, come to my attention that some do believe this idea, and the purpose of this essay is to refute this line of thinking.

The idea that race is the issue from which all other issues stem became popular somewhere in the last decade, around the time where sticking to a new age/liberal ideology became the accepted norm in many intellectual circles. It was decided by some that, for some reason, race was the issue from which civil liberties, freedom, justice, etc., etc., spring. I don't pretend to understand this line of reasoning, but it has something to do with the buzzwords of the nineties- diversity, tolerance, acceptance, and respect. I think it has something to do with the fact that equality is often thought of as specifically racial equality, and the 'intellectual elite' seems to have mixed up overall equality with racial equality- taking the easy way, and defining equality based on its most obvious manifestation, or, as the case may be, lack of manifestation. This is what I know about this concept, and now I shall hopefully refute, but at least show how this concept is counterproductive. To do so, I will use a piece I wrote as a part of a larger essay on diversity, and then attempt to refute the argument logically, and not simply in the practical sense this argument uses.

The idea that race is the core issue of all socio-political ideals creates a kind of racial hypersensitivity, which is detrimintal in a process, which can take anywhere from weeks, to months, to years. Now, racial sensitivity is a very good attribute for a society to possess- it allows groups to retain a sense of ethnic culture and a sense of racial identity, but if taken too far, it can be problematic in a major way, which, if started, has the potential for severe consequences. The first step in this sequence is the escalation of this racial identity to a sort of racial pride, which is very common, and not usually problematic by itself. This is, however, a sort of patriotism, and patriotism is almost accompanied by and bloated to become its ugly cousin- nationalism. For those of you who don't know, nationalism is patriotism blown far out of proportion- it causes hatred of other nations that are not one's homeland, and a sense of superiority, disabling ones ability to learn or grow from anything created by someone of a different national origin than ones self. This racial pride, or patriotism if you will, can grow to a disproportionate level and become a sort of racial nationalism. This creates a sort of superiority in the group that has been 'empowered' by the system of centralizing race issues. This superiority creates more divisions among racial groups, and leads to a very good likelihood of people from a specific ethnic background to kindle at best a hostility, and at worst an outright hatred of other groups. This has created a kind of reverse racism, which is the converse of what these 'elite' were trying to avoid, but to my poor unenlightened mind, seems just as bad. This aforementioned idea of racial superiority among minorities is also a probable forebear to an idea of entitlement, and this entitelment is in turn sometimes accompanied by hatred of whatever the racial majority may be. This can give the minority the idea that they are entitled to certain special priveleges and reconciliation due to their race. The demagogues spearheading this kind of thinking conveniently forget, however, that a hundred fifty years ago their forebears were fighting against exactly this same kind of entitlement complex in the white majority. This reverse racism triggers resentment of the majority, creating severe tension- the majority hates the minority with a passion, and the minority hates the majority as strongly. As you can see, the centralization of race has potential to be disastrous if students are indoctrinated with it by their textbooks and teachers, and if the politicians pass laws with it in mind. I would go so far as to say it has the potential to destroy most, if not all, of the noble and commendable work of the civil rights movements in this nation. Now, all of this is in no way an attempt to condone racial oppression or to squelch racial identity- racial oppression is one of the most despicable faces of the beast of oppression, and racial identity has led to great strength against oppression by many ethnic community as well as brought out many strong voices against oppression and corruption in all areas, not simply race.

Now, I will prove to the best of my ability that the reasoning behind the idea I am debunking is faulty. If race is the central aspect of all socio-political ideas and stances, than it stands to reason that racial differences exist and are extremely important. But this is what oppressed minorities have fought against for centuries, isn't it? Isn't the concept that races have strong boundaries that must not be crossed huge component of racism? People have spent years assaulting racial boundaries, and now the elite want them back up to support this ideal. If racial boundaries do in fact exist, than racism is perfectly plausible and logical, as there are inherent differences that cannot be overcome that a person is born with and are stuck with for life. All the reformers of the past 200 years must have been wrong- there ARE differences between races that cannot be overcome. This thinking is clearly wrong, as people have broken boundaries, and have broken the mold that the majority and their own group have created for what they can and cannot do. The stories of these courageous people have been told over and over, so you definetly know them. These alone show that the centralization is a faulty line of reasoning, and not a valid idea to be followed.