David Stamps: Race should not be confused with cultural identity

To The Daily Sun,

“Critical thinking is the application of logical principles, rigorous standards of evidence, and careful reasoning to the analysis and discussion of claims, beliefs, and issues.” – Wikitionary.org

Critical thinking is what a child does from the moment it becomes aware of itself and its surroundings: I think therefore I am. Without critical thinking a child would not gain mastery of its senses. In school, it is hoped that students use critical thinking as they progress. As adults, it is hoped we will use critical thinking as we grow and mature.

Looking back over human history, one lens is to see progress as a human evolution of critical thinking. Another lens is emotional thinking. Emotional thinking is the substitution of feelings for fact. I feel therefore I am. We definitely benefit from feelings. They are one of the foundations of art, music, and dance. Thus human history is a struggle between thinking and feeling.

Why does this matter? It matters because feelings can be manipulated. It matters because feelings can be used to overwhelm critical thinking. It matters because some people are very skillful at manipulating and energizing feelings of others in order to control them or to silence them. It matters because some will try to shut down critical thinking altogether.

Galileo Galilei was banned because he reasoned that the Earth orbited the sun during a time when the church claimed that the Earth was the center of the universe. He was not the first to think up that the Earth rotated around the sun. Nicolaus Copernicus thought so but remained silent in the face of the emotional thinking of the time. Fortunately, critical thinking won the day. Eventually Albert Einstein would challenge the Newtonian concept of the solar system and so on. In fact, the scientific process is based on critical thinking though often even scientists have to overcome emotional thinking.

Just so, the idea that light-colored or white-skinned people were superior to people with other colored skins was an idea promulgated during the 18th and subsequent centuries to justify colonialism and slavery. Eventually, critical thinking won the day. DNA and other sciences have conclusively proven there is no such thing as a white race: there are only humans with different genetic traits. Science teaches us that the genetics is a function of environment and heredity. Race should not be confused with cultural identity.

Unfortunately, we are left with a legacy of emotional thinking on the idea of race. Indeed the culture and relationships of everyone in America has been affected for the last 400 years. This is an objective fact that no amount of bluster, bullying or bellicosity can change. The best we can do, all of us, is to use our critical thinking to understand how we got here and what we can do to move forward. There are no simple answers but denying discussion of critical race theory is not an answer.

David Stamps

Laconia