Tom Hanks & American Racism
March 15, 2010
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Posted by Michael S. Langston
As a part of the marketing push for the release of a new HBO Miniseries titled The Pacific, Tom Hanks, an executive producer of the show, has been making the interview rounds.
The new series, Mr. Hanks tell us, will be different from traditional war films in that it will include American racism and terrorism. Quoted in an interview with CNSNews when asked about his racism comments (here):
…I have talked to all sorts of people who have, in the vernacular, used incredibly racist terms about the people on the other side of the fence, and we can see all the time that comes over in the regular news media from their side, from the other side, terms that can only be viewed as racist…
Now I don’t disagree with Mr. Hanks at all in that war vets from today and yesterday tend to still hold disdain for their once mortal enemies and that they do in fact use “racist” terms and in the course of war, some have committed acts which when viewed on the sidelines can appear inhuman.
However, Mr. Hanks continues:
But let’s just take the word “racism” out of it and put “ignorance” instead, because it’s, racism, is a mere virulent form of what that ignorance is….
& here’s where Mr. Hanks & I part ways, because what he describes isn’t “ignorance” any more than any other normal emotion is ignorance.
Don’t misunderstand me – racism is one of the lowest forms of thought in existence, but using dehumanizing and racist terms during war shouldn’t necessarily be on the same continuum because it’s foundation is not one of hatred, but one of survival.
When society, asks of its people, to go to war, face death, whether for the just cause of self-defense or the noble cause of stopping the ongoing Holocaust, they ask a great deal. While historically this might not seem true, we know that humans are not born with a desire to kill other humans. Taking a human life, even in self defense for most people is difficult and fraught with psychological consequences.
One of the ways societies, military units, and even individuals prepare themselves to take human life in war is to devalue it through language. The use of racist terms is one of the consequences of this behavior and serves as a coping mechanism for those asked to kill.
Additionally, the term itself is meaningless, so long as it be negative and collective. If I think about individual combatants, they become more human than if the group is just a bunch of ________.
Even during the beginning of the Revolutionary War, our freedom fighters would pick fights with armed British soldiers, get fired upon, then make claims of oppression & murder. The most famous example being the “Boston Massacre“.
A mob fully angered provoked armed sentries who fired in self-defense.
One of our founding fathers, John Adams, successfully defended the 6 soldiers against trumped up murder charges. The press and many average citizens saw the enemy that was the British solider as a terrorist and themselves as saviors of freedom. Stated simply, for most people, we were the good guys and they were bad guys.
& the same happened during WWII. Even with noble and just causes, we tried to dehumanize the enemy in an attempt to reconcile the need for war.
Mr. Hanks continue:
“I’d like to think that as our time has gone by and as Americans have found themselves in 2010, ignorance is being replaced by a certain amount of enlightenment and racism is going to be replaced eventually by an acceptance. It’s just taking an awfully long time.”
Here again, I agree with Mr. Hanks. Racism is a childish ideology, but so long as people on this planet want to do others harm, we will need to be willing to do seemingly unbearable things to stop them. As has been stated many times over, freedom is not free.
Let’s just hope that the certain amount of enlightenment Mr. Hanks discusses includes a basic understanding of human nature, combined with enough humility to not judge others as “ignorant” when in reality all they are trying to do is reconcile their desire to see others live compared to the actions required of them when called.
Categories: Celebrities/Celebrity Culture, Critical Thinking, Military
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Tags: Boston Massacre, Celebrity Culture, Critical Thinking, Founding Fathers, HBO, John Adams, Revolutionary War, Tom Hanks, WWII
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