Dark Matter

Have you ever seen the opening sequence to the reboot of “Cosmos”? It shows how certain objects in the universe are found repeatedly. Like a volcanic caldera is similar to the iris and pupil of an eye, or how the same shapes found in a fertilized egg are found also in nebulas throughout the universe.

And there are other concepts that appear elsewhere in the universe, like the Fibonacci sequence and the nautilus.

I have observed something in our own society that makes me think of my own understanding of what dark matter is.

I am no scientific mind, and I don’t claim to be one. But to find repetitive patterns in the universe as a member of the human race is either going to met with ridicule or reverence.

My understanding of dark matter is that it is matter proven to exist only because of measured gravitational waves. It cannot be seen or interacted with. But yet it’s there, a tightly wrapped onion with humans trying to get the first peel off.

Something that makes me think of that is something that I fucking hate.

Racism.

Sure, we know when someone is acting like a racist. They will don the white pointy robes, or say something completely out of line disparaging someone of a different culture or skin color, or do the arm raising gesture, ad nauseum.

If we were to look at racism as a spectrum, what would that look like? Of course, genocide would be at one end. But what would be at the other end where it’s faint hardly noticeable to the naked eye if you catch my drift? I mean, is it still racism but in a minute concentration? Where would the thresholds be? Would they differ depending on the aggressor or the one being victimized?

Is there racism that can only be noticed by policy, legislation, or other means of implementation?

You bet your ass there is.

Aside from the proverbial zeig heils and burning crosses, it exists also among those that hold office. Those that routinely downplay it or try to justify it with disproven talking points and mental gymnastics, it still fucking exists. Just like dark matter.

So to all of you who understand that causation does not equal correlation, to those of you who see a racist joke brewing from someone’s lips, thus putting that human in their place before they get that punchline out, and to those that realize that this will be a fight that will never end, all I gotta say to you is.

Thank you.

Fight the good fucking fight. If anyone tells you that you can’t take a joke. Or ever utters “how is that racist?” Or is being unfair to someone and you can totally see it and the aggressor is playing stupid. Let them have it. It’s a way of passive aggressive bullying and it’s gaslighting. It needs to be stopped in its tracks. Just like we have instruments sensitive enough to measure the minuscule gravitational waves, you need to be able to pick up when it happens because motherfuckers need to be stopped when they start with their gaslighting bullshit, and immediately pivot to things like “I have a friend who is _____ so how am I racist?”

Keep in mind that some bigots actually marry other ethnicities because it gives them a sense of control over their quarry (please refer to the ballad of King Dumbass). I know that because I had a very bigoted uncle marry my Mexican aunt and the things that are etched in my mind from so many decades ago of how he would talk about other ethnicities - you’d think he was a grand wizard.

If you’ve been blessed to never have been affected by racism, congratulations. Can you help make it so that it’s like that for everyone else? Or will this fall into the minute measurements of racism for all time by saying “it’s not that bad” or “the other day you were laughing about this and now you’re taking it personally?” Or the crowd favorite “you speak English well for not being born here.”

Again, all gaslighting anthems.

The cure for that is empathy. You know, the concern you have for other people’s points of view, the same word that is being vilified by those who feel attacked when they’re told not to act like a bigot.

The gratitude lies in knowing that being genuinely empathetic to someone who is under attack by someone else. Empathy allows you to be remembered for decades by the person being harassed.

Please, don’t be the guy/gal who villainizes empathy. It makes you stick out. If it may not offend you, that’s great. But there are others who do give a damn, and there are those people who don’t care per se, but still give a damn about the person being harassed.

Fight the good fucking fight, will you???