East Is East, and West Is West

 

I was recently referred to, without malice, as “white.” Nevertheless, I resent the term.

It is dehumanizing to think of people in terms of race, as if we were animals. And nothing could be more cartoonishly superficial than to classify people by skin colour. 

We must also ditch our meaningless purely geographical term “Asian,” which absurdly lumps Koreans with Dravidians with Arabs.

Whenever I go to a Catholic mass, around me are people of all the skin colours you can imagine. And this is my true community, my home. These are the people I have most in common with, and feel most comfortable with; not some random person I meet on the street who has skin the same hue as my own. Let alone some pale face in Turkey or Xinjiang. It is absurd to identify me as “European,” as well. I was not born and have not lived in Europe. I am not “white,” or “European.” I am “Canadian” and “Catholic.”

It is as if, in our scientistic frenzy, we are determined to deny the influence of religion or the existence of culture.

Rather than identifying people by skin colour, which is meaningless, or race, which is dehumanizing, we should classify people by culture. Culture is real.

There are four great cultural zones on this planet: Christendom, Dar al Islam, Hindu India, and the Confucian East. No doubt there are others, less significant, and quickly being assimilated, in Sub-Saharan Africa. And there are smaller anomalous groups like the Jews, the Parsees, the Roma, and the like. These zones are coming together and becoming more similar, with improved communications; but they still real.

They have to do with the basic premises on which the society is built, on which people interact, and on which life decisions are made. With judgements of value and of what is right and wrong.

One can further subdivide: Catholic culture is distinct from Protestant culture, and Orthodox culture is distinct from either. Sunni Islamic culture is distinct from Shia Islamic culture.

We need to be more aware of them, because there can be problems when they mix. Planes can fly into buildings. When they interact, there are no understood ground rules.

This has nothing to do with racism. This has to do with comparative religion.