Friday
Moderator
Racism & bigotry as understood by Western standards is not what applies here, it doesn't work by Zimbabwean standards. You'd have to take into account inter-clans & inter-tribal & tribal & collonial and government + rebel forces influences on all of that to get even remotely close to what's going on in Zimbabwe, and that's still nowhere near the picture of what's going on, but are bits that are researcheable online from materials publicly available.
It may not be on the forefront of daily life but I have found that racism and bigotry are universal. It's all about power and control.
<chuckling> 2 different truths.
@Bill & @Cashew... What You & Cashew are talking about, as I read it, are the different paradigms of how we organize ourselves that are back up in that novel. What do we look to first? What holds the most weight?
The parallel is how much is race (sex, religion, etc.) important in the Senate & House? It may be a thing, but what people look to FIRST is "Are you republican or democrat?" Only after your tribal affiliation is sorted, does any of the rest matter... Except on an individual basis.
Same durn thing happens in microcosm with police & military (& sports teams & etc.). When you assess a scene on the fly, does your mind first split people into race, etc... Or does it split into police v civvie? On a football field, is the guy running next to you wearing your colors/on your team or the other team? Battlefield, ditto. First split is us v them. Next split is useful/danger/in-the-effing-way.
When tribal stuff is forefront, yeah, racism (or any other ism) may be a thing. But it's waaaaaaay down the list of what is considered important / is only important maybe after everything else. Like when people are shooting at us, no one cares if I'm a chick. They care, first off, that my rounds aren't coming at them. Then they care that I'm hitting what I'm aiming at. When it's just other dogs, that I'm a chick may be important. But add in Navy/Army/Airforce? They don't side with them over me. Add in combatants? They don't side with them over Navy/Army/Airforce. Add in civvies? In order for the ISM to be an important thing, first the tribal stuff has to be sorted, when you're dealing with tribal/clan paradigm.
((The parallels are a little weak, though. Cause these are affiliations we choose, not that we're born into. Out West, we still primarily organize ourselves by nationality/ sex/ race, etc. So even when we pledge our allegiance & take oaths & fight/bleed for our own? We've still got the larger whole present. Even if the motherf*cking marine corps is the best damn fighting force in the goddamn world, and they're mine, I'm still a part of this larger group. It's a tribal affiliation, but not as deep a one as cultures that use it as their primary identifier.))
I would say that organizing ourselves is a human condition. That lock steps both truths.
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