Positive Identity: The Next Racial Movement
The Founding Paper explaining Positive Identity’s next generation approach to creating positive race relations
Positive Identity at ThePositiveIdentity.com (TPI) is an independent new movement for race relations in America. “TPI” seeks to spread media and stories of positive race relations to turn our current state of negative racial division into one driven towards positive unity. TPI approaches racial identity through a moral maxim of “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself” which is forward-looking, timeless and universal. This moral maxim informs not only the media we share, but how Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native and White people should see each other and themselves. With ThePositiveIdentity.com serving as the platform, positive race relations media is sent through the TPI social networks to be viewed and shared. Perception drives action and positive perception will lead towards positive action. Which will lead toward more positive perception and thus a feedback loop will occur. Considering how social media heavily influences perception and has a global reach, this has the potential for incredible large scale change toward creating positive unity.
With the big picture in mind, we will now break down the elements of Positive Identity piece by piece. Consider this the “Founding Paper”.
While the ideals of Positive Identity are optimistic, the current situation is nightmarish. Since tracking began in the 1990s, race relations are rated to be at their statistical worst . Americans of all racial backgrounds have rated race relations as very/fairly bad and by large majorities . However the majority of Americans don’t talk about race thus making it a problem most people aren’t trying to solve. Considering there is now a record number of hate groups operating in the United States, it’s clear that this can become catastrophically worse. On top of this, race is being used maliciously to weaponize people against each other in our current political tug of war . Lastly, dark fatalism is beginning to set in as people feel that no new figure or movement can exist for unity . Further, since many of these reports in 2017 America has gotten exponentially worse. While the situation seems impossible, we believe in people because we have seen humanity overcome the impossible before.
Positive Identity is a movement that is driven not by the worst of us, but our best. While race is the focus, TPI aims to go even greater by transforming the fundamental way we see each other and ourselves.
The maxim of “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself” was chosen for several reasons. Firstly is that it entirely fits our goal of seeing the best of others and ourselves. Additionally it’s a timeless ideal that has existed for thousands of years. It’s also considered a universal good among all identities, cultures and belief systems. Lastly love has been the proven force to overcome hate , make the world better , and bring people together .
With this moral foundation, we gather stories of people of all races in America showing love in doing good for each other and humanity. We aim to be inclusive so the stories will encompass people from all classes and identities of society. Ultimately the stories will be good things that people of any race can do themselves to inspire the reader to do good as well.
The stories and content we gather will then spread to people through our social media networks. Social Media is now the human race’s most powerful mechanism for sharing information , and thus perception . Just how important is perception? See Perception is Reality #1, Perception is reality #2, and how social media changes our perception .
While most view this in marketing terms to sell you something, we view it as something that can lead to powerful human transformation. People statistically respond the most to positive information, information that shows them positively, and to information that can fix a problem in their life. Because of this, TPI’s content will have a highly sharable nature. When Positive Identity is working perfectly, TPI supporters will be motived to share this content and virally change perception by spreading these stories. How true is this? We had a test Facebook group for several months that had sky high levels of engagement and sharing in relation to the average Facebook group. Ideally people spread these stories, are inspired to do these things themselves, and then more positive stories are created.Ultimately, a self-perpetuating system forms that not just helps to improve race relations, but how we as a human race fundamentally take action with each other.
With the understand of how TPI works, we’ll elaborate on where it stands in society and other philosophical factors that guide how it works.
TPI exists in our societal culture as a new racial movement. Yet it also supports current racial movements as well. TPI aims to bring attention to the incredible trailblazers and thinkers that have made great progress in race relations by spotlighting the beneficial things they do for every community. However TPI is an outsider organization not affiliated with any current movement. TPI doesn’t have any pre-existing funding, political backing, nor support from any other entity. Only through grassroots fundraising does TPI manage its existence. TPI is completely independent, but exists as a supporter for the positive contributions of all others.
Other race oriented organizations focus on the important task of how to deal with the racial injustices of this world. TPI supports this and expects you to be informed in their work.
What TPI does differently than others is that it looks toward the good that is happening in the racial sphere for primarily Asian, Black, Hispanic and White people. Whether it is good things people are doing within a racial identity group, or good things that are being done between communities, TPI focuses on the good. While other organizations work on what we need to reject and the problems we have to fix, TPI centers on what is working and what we’re striving towards.
What is also different about TPI is that there isn’t advancement or empowerment for one group but for all groups. To do this Positive Identity delinks the “default” status and the “other” status from how we may have seen Asian, Black, Hispanic and White identities and beyond. Instead it views them in the same psychological and philosophical state as an identity and community capable of good and evil. With the perception for individuals and communities to be in same and equal terms. In the current racial environment there is an imbalance as default and “normal” status are given for some of the above communities, while ghettoizing and “otherizing” occurs for other identities. If you see one group as a community and the other as not, effectively you create an unstable power and morality structure. And an unstable relationship.
While TPI may seem like a response or reaction to the current racial climate, we consider it a realization. TPI is instead the fulfillment of the universal goals of a society where we’re all created equal. Through that image we create positive unity and racial harmony for all.
To create harmony and equality, we must not just see each other as the same but create a core moral philosophy to guide “how” we see each other and ourselves. As we work on our perception, we will evolve and change to meet the needs of all involved.
Evolution is a key piece of how TPI will approach media. Currently the primary focus is on the major four Asian/Black/Hispanic/White communities/identities. How people respond will inform how to expand into story and media sharing for other communities and identities as well. Which will then guide how TPI needs to evolve to create that positivity and unity for all.
However it won’t be all sunshine and roses. There are sections of society that demand we don’t talk about race and that we must be colorblind. However growing evidence shows that this cannot be the case and that we must face race and what it means. Color-blindness is Counterproductive , How Colorblindness is Actually Racist , When you say you ‘don’t see race’, you’re ignoring racism, not helping to solve it . On the other hand, there are people who are racially conscious but take a destructive approach to race. They will take the focus on racial identity and use it as a hammer to hurt others in all manner of ways. Other movements may be afraid of this because of the fear of association with hate. However as the saying goes,”It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” Perception defines action and the more these agents of hate are exposed to their news, the more their perceptions will change and then their actions as well.
Transformation is the heart of what TPI does. While we seek to change perception we also seek to change our relationship with each other. Not as separated identities but as people on the same team. By supporting TPI and sharing its stories, people will see you not as an opposing force, but as someone on their side. The core of identities is based in the idea that identity must be created because there are different identities. We are different, and thus we are on different sides. To change this we seek to bond ourselves through the universal moral goods that people of all races believe. Morals that include and uplift everyone. Through this bond, we will create a unifying system that caters to the identity based nature of our time, but also for how identity can change and for a time when identity doesn’t exist at all.
When we look back on this from that future, ask yourself. Will looking at the best of and loving our Asianness, Blackness, Hispanicness and Whiteness be seen as a good? The answer is almost certainly yes. Because if we look back on history we see that the people who only saw the worst of someone because of their identity, are on the wrong side of it. So let’s change our story and become a society not driven away from each other by our evil, but driven toward unity by our good. And let’s start making that history, today.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThePositiveID
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Originally published at https://www.thepositiveidentity.com on December 8, 2020.
