Regression

Did I miss something? Did we just go back to pre 1964, while I was not looking? We desegregated, right? We have been working tirelessly throughout the decades to make sure we stop classifying and labeling people with insensitive nicknames. We removed words that were crassly used, from polite society, right? So, why the heck are some states reverting to racial insensitivity? The most disturbing are the states that have started the charge of regression.

California, a bastion of progressive ideology, a state where most of its population champions racial diversity, where its movie industry promotes social issues through actors, people admire, respect, and even fan worship. So what is the deal Cali?

I recently saw that the beautiful state of California, with its iconic landmarks and showy glitz, sunny beaches, and beautiful people, had implemented certain monickers for its amber alerts. You’ll be shocked what they are, so take a seat, or you may fall over.

Apparently, the golden state noticed that when amber alerts were issued for African American or Native American children, their oh so inclusive citizens, were not interested, as much as when non African or Native Americans amber alerts were issued. So, they thought it was a good idea to have new alerts. They instituted the ebony alert, for African American children, and the feather alert for Native American Indian children.

I don’t know on what planet that is acceptable, or why it is not being challenged by anyone. Why? This is a problem that will begin as a tiny nicety, out of deep concern, only to steam roll into serious regressing of mentalities, we and they, have tenaciously removed from our culture. It is outrageous and Californian’s should be speaking up! Since they are not, I will.

Let me ask. If we are okay with these two examples, of racial discrimination and labeling, what is next? Is having a dot alert, okay for Indians from that country? What about a slant alert, for asians? Wait, maybe we need a queer alert for homosexual missing children or people, and tranny alert for transitioned or actively transitioning children. How about a EBT alert for poor kids or adults?

This is sickening on so many levels, I would need to write a book to define the depths of degradation and consequences, it proposes.

Amber alerts were created to alert the public to missing children, the very and most vulnerable of our citizens. It was instituted after a little girl in Arlington, Texas, Amber Hagerman, was abducted and later found murdered.

In 1996, the AMBER alert system, the American Missing Broadcast Emergency Response alert, was created so the public could remain vigilant, so any witnesses to any part of an abduction, and anyone with any knowledge of the possible perpetrators, would inform the police. It was to, hopefully, find these kids, before harm could come to them. That is a noble reason and cause.

Amber alerts have had some success. With over three thousand children in situations involving abductions, one thousand three hundred, children have been recovered unharmed. It is a very good thing.

With its success, states with a large majority of elderly, began instituting silver alerts. Having lived in Florida, one of those states, I saw people with dementia or Alzheimer’s go missing. Since they often cannot remember who they are or where they are, this was a good addition, after all these men and women, were not children. Amber did not fit the situation, age or vulnerability status.

I am not criticizing that kind of descriptor, though it could have been better named. Silver is often a term used for the golden years of life. Why they didn’t just call it a golden alert, is beyond me.

This trend in differentiating color in alert types is a problem. Any thing that points out a separation of people is not good in general. It makes those little tiny incrementally permissive seclusions acceptable. This in turn, allows for the ball to begin rolling to worse. You leave a crack and soon you have a fissure.

When I heard about this the first time, I was not just shocked, but angry. Why are we still thinking in these terms? As I did research on the issue, I saw that there are over 40 different kinds of alerts. The federal government instituted the AMBER alert system, but individual states have implemented their own additional alerts.

I don’t have a problem with some, because they don’t use a racial or similar slur in distinguishing differences. Purple alerts, for people with disabilities, blue alerts for suspects of injuring or murdering a police officer, Ashanti alerts for adults, clear alerts for kidnapped adults or adults in life or death situations, are all fine. There is nothing disparaging in those names or colors.

My issue is with the others, the insensitive naming to describe any sector of our population. Ebony alert, used in California, is designating that the child taken is “black”, not “white”. I won’t say African American, because they could be Nigerian, Gambia, Moroccan, French, etc., you understand my meaning. These labels for our races and or color are ridiculous at best.

I have written on the fact that there are no such things as black or white people, just as there are no people that are red or yellow. Every single living human being is a variation of brown, period. If we could always start any issue, on that basis for humanity, we would be much farther along in culture.

So, if the state of California, noticed people were disregarding alerts on black children, they should have dealt with the issue of a continued mind set of racism, period. Actually adding to the problem, makes no sense. Labeling a child as black to a racist, will not make him or her, more apt to be concerned or vigilant in the search. It does the opposite.

They see ebony and automatically will disregard it. Amber alert is more than sufficient. We understand it is a child, period. Then we read or listen for more details, because we all have a concern for ALL children.

A description of the child will undoubtedly be given, and the use of the child’s demographic is important. Without the “ebony” label, at least those bigoted people will listen and read further. All they have done in the states that have done this or similarly, is offer a point of dismissal. Racists see the word and disregard it, waiting for one that says white. It borders on criminal, in my view. Before you all jump and say who needs their help then, the kids do. They need all hands on deck.

I also want to address the ‘feather’ alert in Californian, and the turquoise alert in New Mexico. Let me give you and maybe them a history lesson.

First of all, not all American Indians, wore feathers, for any reason. Out of over 500 tribes in our country, at most a dozen tribes used feathers, in dress, as war bonnets, or even rituals. That’s barely two percent, yet we have pegged every American Native as the wild west version of indian. Thanks Hollywood! Another win for idiocy.

Out of the tribes that did use feathers in any form listed, it was the plains Indians that used them. Tribes in the northeast, southeast, and west (Californians), did not. That is a fabrication by an indiscriminate movie industry. Last time I checked, New Mexico and California were not a plain states, so ‘feather’ makes no sense.

Our Native American population fought long and hard to remove negative use of their culture in names. The Washington Redskins needed name change (see the actual human color wheel), the use of the tomahawk chop in sports, was also stopped. Ya, you got it, not all tribes had those either. Northeastern tribes did use them, and it certainly spread to other nations throughout the states, but most did not use or have them. Thanks again, Hollywood.

Turquoise, the name New Mexico uses for their Native American alerts was most definitely used in the southwest. The Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, and Pueblo, highly prized it for protection and for their rituals in worship. Not all used the stone, even though a majority did. It is not the worst or most egregious of labels, but segregating their population at all is the issue. They are people, children, pure and simple. The argument I made for ebony, in respect to the ‘red’ peoples, applies here as well.

Here is my point. We have to do better. There should be no, them or us, that group or this group, black or white, or dots and feathers. There should only be ‘we’, children, adult, handicapped or disabled, and even elderly. Those labels speak to a vulnerability, not color or race. The use of age old misappropriation of artifacts or symbols to label an entire collection of people is absolutely wrong.

If this is the extent and distance we have to go to get us to pay attention and care for one of our people, we have a lot of learning to do.

Maybe, the states that felt they needed to do this, so their citizens would care about the issues at hand, should consider re-educating their people. Maybe they should concentrate on why they don’t care, and fix that instead.

If we are still looking at ourselves in terms of us and them, there is not a “we, the people.” The founders, didn’t feel they needed a label other than that. Maybe, they were more advanced than we are.

Incidentally, I am not going into that part of history. I know the taking of this nation from the Native tribes needs a voice, I’ not addressing that particular thing here, but I am aware that it needs more and more discussion.

#inclusivity #culture #everyone #society #Americans