Written by Shooooz.
—
Objectivity is in the eye of the beholder
Look closer
Those who can afford to pretend to be objective
are those who can pass as default
Those who can’t are assumed subjective
and emotional to a fault
Still lost?
Okay
Aristotelian logic is the basis of rational thought
Based on arbitrary rules that decide what’s defensible and what’s not
Now, Western scholars laud him as the man who singlehandedly brought
Systematic reason into the world to govern our thought
But suppose that you don’t fit the mold,
suppose that you are Black and bold,
or subscribe to ancient wisdom told
to your parents by their parents by their parents
in a country where it doesn’t get cold
Suppose you know certain things to be true due to knowledge of old
Or just because of what your life’s experience has showed
And suppose with all of that, you take heart and stroll
To a podium on a stage to debate
And the topic of debate concerns your children’s fate
And suppose your opponent is well-schooled in Plato
And suppose that their logic is hard and it’s cold
And suppose that you know their logic is unsound,
or based on assumptions that have no moral ground
But you haven’t been taught how to turn their words around
And expose the lies pouring out of their mouths
Now suppose you’re a little bit triggered by it all
And you start to let your mask of composure fall
Well now you’re overreacting, you’re emotional, that’s all
I mean, what did anyone think? You’re biased, after all
So let’s break this down
First off, none of Aristotle’s work would currently be known
If not for Muslim scholars saving it post the sack of Rome
Which makes it absurd that the White world today
uses it to attack our religion
Looks down from rational superiority
and sees our scholarship with derision
When we were the ones cultivating these methods
while the West was still figuring out
That wearing garlic and burning women
wasn’t going to drive the plague out
Now Aristotle himself believed that knowledge is based on perception
But he birthed the idea that reason is the highest of human conception
So 1,600 years ago, a man put forth the thought
That reason is a virtue, the highest one we’ve got
And virtue, according to Aristotle, is an inborn disposition
Achieved by those who live their lives in the proper human condition
Now rational thought will tell you that that’s a value judgment
Objectively no better than valuing chastity or refinement
Or saying that certain actions will lead to an eternity of perdition
But Western thought has deified this value by arbitrary definitions
Placing it outside the reach of subjectivity and outside the reach of questions
Making it, instead, the eternal questioner
Cleared of the implicit biases in any logical construction
Allowing it, the value judged highest by Western liberalism,
To make judgments on the validity of values from other world traditions
Wielding logic and rationality like some kind of intellectual bludgeon
With which to beat the “lesser races” into intellectual submission
Silencing voices of color and women
as “irrational,” “emotional,” “subjective”
Allowing Whiteness to be the default experience
and making the White perspective
Into the highest valued object because it’s the most “objective”
Which is why a Latinx judge is unqualified to hear a case about immigration
Why a Black jury can’t be objective about a police officer’s guilt or exoneration
Why I could never be president because I’d be clouded by my religion
But a White person can be the judge of anything
because their biases are normalized as truth
And we must respect their emotions,
because their emotions come from their biases
And their biases embed their rationality
which is more or less their God
And the first amendment guarantees freedom of religion
But only applies when that religion is either evangelical Christian
Or the absence of religion, justified by superior reason
So thinly veiled attacks against me are justified by my logical inferiority
But if I hit back,
it’s a senseless attack,
unbacked by any defensible position
All a product of a mission to elevate Western liberalism
To a state where its validity can never be questioned
Because it is championed by the White man,
that is, the default human
Who has the exclusive ability to humanize POC and women
A divinely conferred ability to confer humanity
On people who are lesser due to rationality
Which is itself a product of their nationality
But by all means keep on claiming
that this mode of mental framing
is “objectively superior”
I’ve been brainwashed long enough to take it for the truth.
So powerful. Loved it so much!!!!!
Seriously ??
Objectivity is objectivity i.e. the lack of bias one achieves objectivity by acknowledging the existence of bias within the systems and people and addressing them.
One hell of an arrogant assumption or presumption that because you can’t others also can’t.
Absolutely beautiful and as A.F. said – “Powerful”!. Love your unapologetic style of poetry!
I love this. It’s amazing – powerful, bold, strong!
I’m a graduate student in philosophy and work primarily with Aristotelian ethics, so this drew my eye and I am so moved by your words.
Thank you.
I agree , the hierarchy of power main objective is to remain a power. Predjudice is permanent the opposition will remain an underling due to intellectual planning. Never to succumb to a descention of status only to arrange positioning.