I, along with two of my children, have been watching One Piece for a while. Having just finished the seventh episode in the live action version, I am encountering a familiar story. We have the fishmen denying the rights of humans as the result of humans having denied the rights of fishmen. Oh, the cycles — everywhere the cycles. This has been a motif throughout history for people. Oh, not with fishmen. That is just our imaginations extending current behavior into worlds of fantasy.
In each war, the “other” becomes less than human. They have to be. No one sane would attempt the murder of their own children and family. That is the path of self-destruction and annihilation. But the other tribe — once they are no longer our cousins and part of the family of humanity — they are fair game.
Ways to Divide
There are lots of methods used for this division and people are somehow easily enticed into believing them. One of my uncles brought home a wife, of Japanese birth, from his travels in the Navy during World War II. Since it was after World War II, she was not subject to the concentration camps and theft of property that US citizens of Japanese ancestry were subject to — but she encountered resistance and active discrimination. I never saw her get angry and she always just smiled and continued along.
But she was probably already used to dealing with discrimination — against women. It hasn’t been that long (less than 50 years) since most women in the US had to have a male’s (husband, father, guardian) signature on any paper to buy property or get a credit card. It is still bad. Many women, still believing in the “traditional” subservience of women to men, continue to vote for misogynistic legislators. (“The Handmaid’s Tale” is possible — with the active support of women.)
Within the US, there was initially dehumanization of the First Nations. They were called “savages” although the conquerors of the Americas committed far more savage acts. But, the tribes of the First Nations were not human so it was okay. Then the importation of blacks, as slaves, via European and African traders. They were even less human since property has no rights and it is perfectly fine to sell off a chair (child) from the set around the table (parents). Even after the 15th Amendment was passed, people actively continued to treat blacks as a lesser variant of human and, often, still do.
There was decimation of the Ainu population on the Japanese islands as they were overcome. “Fifth line” (named for the line number indicating nationality on USSR passports) Jewish people were murdered by Stalin and the Jewish population was even more horribly reduced by Hitler in the Holocaust. The citizens of Gaza have been severely culled in recent clashes. And there were the mass Armenian murders. And tribal conflicts in Africa. And so on and so on. Humans seem to have an amazing capacity to dehumanize others.
If I have left out your specific discriminated-against division, I apologize. There are just SO many.
Gender, skin color, religion, ethnicity, which side of the railroad tracks, political beliefs. Humans seem to be able to divide ourselves in all kinds of ways. I wonder whether we will be able to behave better if we encounter (or recognize) sapients from other worlds or galaxies?
The United States; a Nation of Immigrants
In the United States, we are all immigrants or descendents of immigrants. Actually, in the Americas, it seems that none of us originated in the Americas. The First Nations are believed to have crossed to the Americas via the Bering Strait and via boats from Polynesia and Africa.
But, even though we are all descended from immigrants, we currently seem to be embroiled in controversy about how long ago, and from what countries, our ancestors have immigrated. Who is valid, and an appropriate human, and who is not.
Consider the current President of the United States. Two of his wives are immigrants. His mother was an immigrant, His paternal grandparents were immigrants. Certain changes in laws, under consideration, would remove the citizenship of several of his relatives. At best, the following of correct immigration procedures for some of his relatives is unclear. At worst, they were situations that did not follow proper procedure at all.
Somehow, in spite of the history of the United States and the Americas, it seems that how and when we arrived is now more important than the many contributions immigrants have always made and continue to make. It is just one more rationale for division.
Transient division and the category of “whiteness”.
Although the concept of race is an imaginary set of categories that was created to justify colonialism and slavery, the definitions are variable depending on the politics and power structure of the times. The category of “white” is the name given to those who are currently included within the power group. In the 1960s, there was a great uproar over the candidacy of John F. Kennedy because of his religion (Roman Catholic). Those who hated him said the Pope would take over the United States. Roman Catholics were not “white”, then they were. People from Ireland were not white — then they were. Same with Italians.
It hasn’t always been explicit. But there are often signs (literally) that show “IRISH need not apply”, “NO CHINAMEN”, or (mostly in other countries) “NO Palestinians”. Of course, we were not happy with those of British ancestry (many of the “Patriots” were also of British ancestry) during the Revolutionary Way but, with such close ties still, it was more of a “civil” war than an “us versus them” war. Our current occupant in the Oval Office (called, by colleagues, “the biggest slumlord of New York”) was fined, along with his father, multiple times for the practice of “redlining” in the 1980s. Redlining draws borders to segregate according to race, or some other characteristic. This practice officially ended in the 1990s and 2000s but I suspect it still exists.
In each case, justification continued by making the other group not-human — particularly when a powerful person says they come from “shithole countries”.
The family of humans
There are a lot of feelings about the origin of humanity. They started from a couple called Adam and Eve. They evolved from a sequence of beings represented by “Lucy” discovered in Africa. They started from an unknown ancient ancestor in China. In Norse myth, Ask and Embla were made by the gods from a couple of trees.
I am not going to try to say what is “right”. It really doesn’t matter. The one thing that all origin stories have in common is a beginning from a long-ago couple of beings. In a way, it is a “chicken or egg” type of story — as there may have been OTHER couples in addition to the couple that origin stories say were the beginning. It doesn’t matter. There was a beginning. And it continued.
A need for expansion of area, plus an inherent curiosity, moved groups of people around the globe as human population grew. As they settled into each area, small differences popped up as they adapted to their new area. But they all came from the same beginning and they remain family. Family doesn’t always get along but we try to make it work.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all remember that “we are family” is not just a song made famous by Sister Sledge?
Please share, or restack, if you find this discussion valuable. Thanks!
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