{"id":7983,"date":"2000-08-15T21:22:00","date_gmt":"2000-08-15T21:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/?p=7983"},"modified":"2021-07-04T06:42:49","modified_gmt":"2021-07-04T06:42:49","slug":"february-colloquy-george-winkel-and-charles-michael-byrd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/2000\/08\/15\/february-colloquy-george-winkel-and-charles-michael-byrd\/","title":{"rendered":"February colloquy, George Winkel and Charles Michael Byrd"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 21:22:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: George Winkel
Subject: February colloquy, George Winkel and Charles Michael Byrd<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

February colloquy, George Winkel and Charles Michael Byrd<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rummaging in old e-mails I rediscovered this February 2000 e-mail colloquy. It is Charles Michael Byrd replying to my asking about Jean Toomer\u2019s characterizing \u201crace\u201d as \u201cverbal hypnotism.\u201d This threads our discussing some timeless, very central ideas, and I think maybe Multiracial Activist readers might find our exchange worthwhile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George Winkel wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

> Charles,
> Jean Toomer wrote: \u201cI would liberate myself and ourselves from the entire
> machinery of verbal hypnotism\u2026. I am simply of the human race.\u201d<\/em>
> http:\/\/www.webcom.com\/intvoice\/editor22.html<\/a>
> I feel these words might convey much more than poetry.
> > I am intrigued with Toomer\u2019s insightful suggestion \u201crace\u201d \u201cexists\u201d as a
> hypnotic suggestion (i.e., a \u201ctrance\u201d maybe?). I feel I arrived at this
> thought too (almost independently). Do you know if Toomer had more to say
> about this? Perhaps others have investigated the idea? Do you know?
>
[Charles:]
He most likely did have more to say about it, though I\u2019d have to reread the book \u201cThe Lives of Jean Toomer: A Hunger for Wholeness\u201d to be sure. Amazon.com carries it, and their quarterly reports tell me that a few others have purchased that particular book through them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0807115487\/interracialvoice<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[George:]
> I don\u2019t claim to know much about hypnotism. I took my undergraduate degree
> in psychology, but I probably learned more about the subject sitting in the
> audience watching a professional hypnotist named Dean performing his show in
> San Diego years ago. \u201cHypnotism\u201d is simply a name for the surprising power
> of suggestion. From childhood we hear suggested the \u201creality\u201d of \u201crace,\u201d
> and we inevitably receive the quiver of little stereotype arrows which get
> shot into each \u201crace.\u201d Probably all sorts of prejudices transmit this same
> way \u2014 by suggestion. But with \u201crace,\u201d elements of physiognomy that can be
> seen, pointed too, generate a reinforcing suggestion of substantive reality.
> All of this is repeated (reinforced) in various forms throughout our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Charles:]
Yes. It is reinforced every time the President of the United States talks about improving \u201crace\u201d relations or some civil rights spokesman talks about tension between the \u201craces.\u201d These individuals hold positions of authority, and the average person views them as opinion leaders who wouldn\u2019t possibly lie to them about something this important. It\u2019s like anything else. We believe what we\u2019re told until we open our eyes and see a higher truth. I\u2019ve always believed that those of \u201cmixed-race\u201d are least likely to embrace this hypnotism, because it goes almost completely counter to their personal situations. \u201cMixed-race\u201d people \u2014 especially those who are phenotypically more \u201cwhite\u201d while being called \u201cblack\u201d \u2014 are kinda forced by this society to maintain open minds, to develop their intellectual curiosity. We tend to be the first to see the game for what it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[George:]
> I am thinking about possibly a distinction between \u201cracism\u201d and \u201crace,\u201d with
> the latter far more culpable. In a nutshell, \u201cracism\u201d is probably a fear
> response, ranging to repugnant bigotry. But \u201crace\u201d is \u2014 frankly \u2014 a
> mental disease. And of course, it underlies racism and everything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Charles:]
I like to say that \u201crace\u201d is a belief system, almost like a religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[George:]
> The symptom of this mental illness is deluded belief in the existence of a
> set of distinct categories into which everyone must fit. Of course, the set
> of categories are what we call \u201crace.\u201d In fact there are no categories \u2014
> only smoothly ranging natural variations in our human physiognomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Charles:]
Exactly. It\u2019s like the old, worn-out yet still appropriate example which follows. Let\u2019s say it was possible to line up every single human (all six billion) on the planet side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder, starting with the lightest all the way to the darkest. Now, let\u2019s also say that it was possible for you to walk down that line looking each person in the eye, from number one to number six billion. Would you be able to detect any discernible difference in skin color, hair texture, nose width as you proceed from human being to human being? Of course not! Would you be able to tell where the \u201cwhite race\u201d begins and ends, where the \u201cblack race\u201d begins? Of course not! The media, however, has so brainwashed us that we only \u201csee\u201d representatives of the extreme ends of the color continuum. The average person wouldn\u2019t want to waste time thinking about what I\u2019ve just typed. He\u2019s too comfortable with what he\u2019s been told since childhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[George:]
> (I suppose mixed-race people are perceived as mixed categories in this
> delusional world of \u201crace.\u201d But it\u2019s hard to visualize, since the
> categories depend on indelible separating lines. Does this problem drive
> One-Droppers? A special name helps: e.g., \u201cEurasian,\u201d \u201cMulatto,\u201d etc.
> Then the mixed person can be fitted back into a subcategory of the \u201crace\u201d
> system.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Charles:]
Liam Martin says that \u201cmixed\u201d people use \u201crace\u201d more as language than anything else. I don\u2019t know that I agree with him 100%, and I do agree that \u201cspecial names\u201d can actually exacerbate the problem. Different people, however, come to this table with varying levels of consciousness, and I believe some are better served in the shortrun with one of these \u201cspecial names.\u201d Others have totally transcended \u201crace\u201d and reach for spiritual enlightenment. Jean Toomer was such a person. So, at least within the context of a website like IV, you try to understand that we\u2019re not all at the same level, and you try to accommodate those who are just waking up from the hypnotic trance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[George:]
> Of course millions of irate citizens will deny with their dying breath being
> \u201cracist,\u201d and perhaps they are not. Another word for it, though, is
> \u201cracialism\u201d (meaning belief in inequalities between \u201craces\u201d). My point is
> you can struggle in your mind \u2019till the cows come home trying not to be
> racialist, and never banish the hypnotic suggestion \u201crace exists.\u201d Indeed,
> \u201crace\u201d exists for the purpose of implying inequality, difference,
> \u201cdivisions,\u201d etc. The bottom line is: hell with \u201cracism,\u201d it is \u201crace\u201d that
> has to go. (Don\u2019t worry, you can keep your eyes.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Charles:]
Yes. It\u2019s the notion that I\u2019m constantly trying to drive home to people \u2014 deconstruct \u201crace.\u201d Once you do that, everything else collapses on it\u2019s own, because there\u2019s no longer the underlying support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[George:]
> Perhaps modern mankind is especially vulnerable to hypnotic suggestion of
> \u201crace\u2019s\u201d existence. For one thing, it has a reputation of scientific bona
> fides. Certainly the Government assiduously collecting, tallying, and
> involving itself with \u201crace,\u201d also stands in the way of our debunking the
> myth. But it seems to me the respected institutions of our society have the
> standing to all deny \u201crace\u201d with one voice, and be believed. I feel sure
> the same power of suggestion can be used to break the spell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Charles:]
Agreed, but they also have too much invested in maintaining that spell. That\u2019s not likely to happen anytime soon. It\u2019s also what infuriated me about Clinton\u2019s much ballyhooed \u201cRace Panel.\u201d IT didn\u2019t achieve a damn thing, and Clinton deliberately missed the golden opportunity of a lifetime to stand in front of the cameras and tell America exactly what we\u2019re talking about. Being the consummate politician that he is, though, he remembered that the Democratic Party needs to be able to count on receiving 90+% of the \u201cblack\u201d vote in every election, and so he opted for talking about \u201cimproving race relations.\u201d What a crock!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 21:22:09 -0700 (PDT)From: George WinkelSubject: February colloquy, George Winkel and Charles Michael Byrd February colloquy, George Winkel and Charles Michael Byrd Rummaging in old e-mails I rediscovered this February...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":347,"featured_media":7987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[223,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-george-winkel","category-reader-forum"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Letters-to-the-Editor.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p89tuq-24L","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/347"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7984,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7983\/revisions\/7984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}