Humanist meeting

I attended a meeting of Humanists in Palo Alto today. As far as I can tell their only web presence is this meetup group. They seem to meet once/month on Sunday morning. That's a little too churchy for my tastes - aren't sleeping late and attending otherwise crowded places on Sunday morning supposd to be advantages of eschewing church? At least it doesn't start until 11am.

A speaker gave a talk on his perspectives on race in America. Like me, he grew up in the south. I'd estimate he's about 25 years older than me, so my experiences in the 80s and 90s were much different from his in the 50s-70s. But I did identify with some of what he said. He mentioned that he never considered himself a racist, and was raised in a family with (for the time at least) progressive ideals, but he now sees some racism in his own actions. I don't think I ever told a racist joke, but I heard plenty of them, and I'm sorry to say I laughed along with some. Even when I didn't laugh, even when I felt uncomfortable or offended, I rarely if ever spoke up in protest. And while I'm disappointed in my own behavior on this account, I am encouraged that society has progressed.

He mentioned The Tuskegee Experiment, a shameful episode in America's past, to be sure. He offered this to temper reaction to Reverend Wright's suggestion that HIV was invented by the U.S. government to kill blacks. Wright himself said "based on this Tuskegee experiment and based on what has happened to Africans in this country, I believe our government is capable of doing anything". I don't think the speaker meant to lend any credibility to Wright's claim, just to remind us of the pain and mistrust that experiment (which lasted 40 years) has caused in the American black community. I can see the point, but it's still a big leap from callous disregard to genocide, and there is no data to back up the HIV claim.

Some comments from the audience that I found interesting (the items in quotes are paraphrases":

• "Nationalism is a form of racism, both are forms of prejudice": That depends on what your nation stands for. The identity of many nations is tied up with ethnic and religious distinctions, but I certainly hope most democratic nations are capable of rising above that and standing for human rights for all. Discriminating against another nation based on their lack of respect for human rights is clearly different from racism.
  
• "Opposition to illegal immigration is a form of racism": I had to roll my eyes at this. While I'm sure many who oppose illegal immigration have a racist bias, there's at least one very good reason to oppose it ... it's illegal. People I know who oppose it have no problem with legal immigration, and do not advocate a racist bias for legal immigration.
  
• "Positive racism is almost as bad as negative racism": The idea here is that idealizing, or making excuses for, members of a particular race is almost as bad as denouncing them. I thinkthis is a really good point. Even though it's more complimentary, it's still a snap judgment that doesn't appreciate individual differences.
  

Even though I didn't agree with everything said, it was a positive experience and gave me food for thought. I don't know if I'll make it every month, but I plan to attend again.