Is a culture of racism and sexism destroying us?

Today it’s all about going green.  We are told how important it is to protect our planet’s resources and if we don’t then we soon  won’t have any left.  We are told to reduce our carbon footprint, to use energy saving globes in our lights.

We are often hearing from certain quarters about the dangers of global warming which are being caused by harmful emissions.   

When watching the news we see how weather patterns have drastically changed throughout our planet and how destructive they are.

We see famine and flooding causing great suffering.  And it always seems to be those who can least afford it who are hit the hardest and lose the most.

If we have so much to lose and if we are aleady in the process of feeling Mother Nature’s wrath.  Then why are we doing so little, why are there not more of us out there trying to save our planet from self made annihilation?

We often say that the biggest polluters are large corporations.  So lets focus on these corporations.  Many of them are American, British and European.  And what will come as no surprise is that they are run and dominated by white males. 

To understand white male corporations we need to understand white male culture.  White male culture is based on hierarchy, domination, everyone for themselves, elitism,  sexism, racism, selfishness etc.

All of these come together to form white male supremacy and privilege.  If you  believe you are part of a master race you will then believe that your ways and choices are the correct ones, you are immune to making wrong destions and other people’s views are wrong and inferior.

White male corporations are about white male power and privilege.  White men believe they are entitled to this power and privilege and should someone try and let them see just how harmful their ways are they will flatly reject it.  As a superior race and gender they believe that is their right to make such choices.  And reject everything else.

Without a doubt white male culture is extremely harmful to the entire planet and if we do nothing about it we will be destroyed.  Mother Nature is certainly making us aware of this.

White male culture should not be allowed to exist on this planet as it is too dangerous.  It needs to be totally destroyed and laws need to come into existence to ensure that it is never able to resurface.

To destroy white male culture we need to destroy white male power.  White men are not only the most privileged group of people on the planet but also the most powerful.  Their corporations are one of the bastions of their power.

Through much hard work and sacrifice feminists have managed to implement  affirmative action or positive discrimination with  the intention of ensuring that everyone in the corporate world would be  given the same opportunities.

It can be extremely daunting  if you are an African woman at the bottom of the corporate ladder in a company completely controlled and run by white men who see you as something totally inferior to them and probably consider you nothing short of a sex object.  Something that they can  use for their enjoyment. 

Positive discrimination was to ensure that if you had what it takes, you could work your way up the corporate ladder without sexism, racism and perhaps even homophobia holding you down.

The question we need to ask is how effective has positive discrimination been in a white male dominated environment.

Let’s just briefly have a look at Australia.

Back in 2008 columnist  Susie O'Brien in today's Herald Sun  said

Quote

DISCRIMINATION against dominant white males will soon be encouraged in a bid to boost the status of women, the disabled and cultural and religious minorities.

Such positive discrimination -- treating people differently in order to obtain equality for marginalised groups - is set to be legalised under planned changes to the Equal Opportunity Act foreshadowed last week by state Attorney-General Rob Hulls

... Equal Opportunity Commission CEO Dr Helen Szoke said males had "been the big success story in business and goods and services".

"Clearly, they will have their position changed ..."

... the proposed changes go much further, allowing the commission to inquire into discrimination, seize documents and search and enter premises after attempts to bring about change have failed.
Businesses and individuals would be required to change their ways even if a complaint had not been received.

Action could be taken where an unlawful act was "likely to occur", not just in cases where discrimination has taken place.

Unquote

Today Australia is no diffent from the UK, US and Europe.  It is still totally white male dominated.  Sexism and racism are still very much alive and kicking down under.

Seems like the whole thing came off the rails.  This does not really surprise me considering what and who they were trying to take on.

And let’s not forget Britain’s own Harriet Harman who tried to enforce positive desrcimation in the UK.  During her tenor she came under immense attach from the MRAs and their supporters.  Today she is part of the opposition.

So has positive descrimation actually worked?

Apparently not.  See Derek Thompson’s article

 White Male Corporate Boards Getting More White, More Male

Article starts here

In 2004, white men held seven out of ten board seats at Fortune 100 companies. One boom-and-bust cycle later, those boards are even whiter and include even more men, according to a new report issued by the Alliance for Board Diversity.

Here's the story in picture form:

The Huffington Post makes the fine point that corporate boards are whitening while the general population isn't:

[Between 2004 and 2010], the share of Fortune 100 board seats held by black men dropped from 7.8 percent to 4.2 percent. White men gained 32 board seats, while black men lost 42. And, the total number of Fortune 100 board seats held by all women, Latinos and Asian Pacific Islanders grew by just 45 seats.

When the alliance broadened its research from the Fortune 100 to include Fortune 500 companies, it found that there was not a single Latino female board chair of a Fortune 500 company in 2010.

In the last decade, 98 percent nation's population growth was due to increases in the black, Latino and Asian populations. Together, women, racial and ethnic minority men already comprise 66 percent of the nation's population.

The story gets even starker when you look at board directors only:

This tells me that white males are still very much in control of the corporates.

We now need to ask ourselves, do we want to continue living with sexism and racism.  Do we want to continue living in a world dominated by white males who only care about themselves even if it means destroying the planet.

Or do we want to destroy white male privilege, supremacy and culture before it destroys us.

As positive action has failed we are either going to have to drastically up the antics or find a new effective approach.