Words are not born alone, they do not emerge from the silence of the world that wants to manifest itself, but rather planted by man’s inquiring gaze and later harvested to give meaning and meaning to phenomena and objects. Appearing in this way, from obscurity and doubt, words begin to reflect the truths that man himself is predisposed to accept. Thus, the look recognizes a flower and the mouth says its name. This name comforts, it is good for the spirit, but it is enough for the same look to see the thorn for the thought to take on other contours, as there are names, concepts and words that hurt.
Whoever says morning, afternoon or night is simply mentioning to name a phenomenon whose pronunciation has no greater relevance in the state of the person expressing it. However, intentionally pronounced words, said to purposely reach the core or condition of another, become like poisoned arrows that deathly affect the rational instinct of respect for others, which must be innate in man. Social pacification is suddenly shaken by a simple expression that can bring hatred, racism, prejudice, discrimination, xenophobia, intolerance, in short, the attempt to devalue the individual or a social group. .
What could be hidden, camouflaged behind the words? At first impression maybe nothing. But someone said you’re a little black guy with a white soul; that because he is black he has to know where he steps; that you and your race are no good; that it’s Princess Isabel’s fault for abolishing slavery; that you don’t know who you’re talking to; that there is religion and you beat the drum; that there is blood in your veins and you have tar; who lives and you hide; that he is just the driver of the car he claims to be his; that your CV is a background sheet; that to be rich you have to have stolen. Only people make such statements and only to people are they directed. But aren’t the speaker and the listener equally people, with the same basic qualities as man?
Prejudice, with racism as one of its variants, has already been spread even on scientific grounds. In 1758, the Swedish naturalist and physician Linnaeus, when establishing the classification of living beings, divided the human species into four subspecies: “genious, carefree and free” Americans, “severe and ambitious” Asians, “crafty and thoughtless” blacks and “cunning and thoughtless” Europeans. active, intelligent and resourceful.” He thus presumes the existence of superior races. In 1855, the Frenchman Gobineau launched a study concluding that miscegenation is one of the causes of the decline of societies and defended the superiority of the Aryan race. With an essentially racist bias, some studies indicate that black people have a greater tendency to commit crime, as the majority of prisoners have some degree of African ancestry. As scientific proof, none of this has any value, since beneath the skin the characteristics are common to all people.
However, what is undeniable is the fact that seeing others as inferior and negatively different continues to persist among many. The look repels, the body moves away, the mouth does not evaluate the depth of the expressions that can be said. But anyone who opens their mouth and says what they want, without measuring the consequences of their words, can make the mistake of wanting to qualify the other with what only belongs to them. Often, he attacks others simply to hide frustrations, to want to create an inferiority in the other that hides his own fragility, to show a power that he does not have and is nothing other than arrogance, stupidity and rudeness. Would it be discrimination to cite certain disgusting attitudes of white people, rich people or those who think they are that way?
For many, everyone is not equal even before the law. The alleged equality in the condition of citizens who should have equal rights and duties constitutes a mere legal-philosophical construction of insignificant applicability. No matter how much one wants to deny it, there seems to be a social pact in everyday life where differences must prevail so that society itself can sustain itself in a relationship between dominant and dominated and externalize itself in the acceptance of prejudice, discrimination and exclusion.
In this context, it is just beautiful – and simply that – to know that there are constitutional norms that preach the promotion of the good of all, without prejudice based on origin, race, sex, color, age and any other forms of discrimination; that the practice of racism is a crime punishable by imprisonment; that treatments that exclude each person’s sexual orientation are prohibited; that respect for human rights, in the context of the greater prevalence of human dignity, must be the rule of social coexistence and not the exception.
Constitutional norms, however, even though they have the character of self-applicability, do not have the power to reach the individual in their ethical, moral and human sense of being, factors that correspond to each person’s behavioral and conduct style. This lack of commitment between what should be and what actually is, is where the absurdities observed on a daily basis in the non-social relationships between “those who think they are” and those who truly are begin to prevail.
There would also be no point in saying that it is only the fault of the so-called white person who discriminates against black, brown and other colored people as a result of miscegenation, as the opposite also exists in the many Afro-cultural organizations that are spread out there. It may all be a question of who wants to be subjected.
Assuming that egocentrism intends to make written law and human law dead letters in relation to discriminatory practices, that Psalm 38, on the Brevity of Life, can resonate as truth in the mind of each one: “He said to himself: I will watch over the my actions, so that I no longer sin with the tongue.”