Are scientologists racist?
Firstly, I've never been involved with the CoS or anyone in it for that matter, but for the last fortnight I've done little else than do research into it. I didn't think it affected so many people.
The first thing I wanted to ask was, why are so many Scientologists from the USA? Everything I read about them, Lisa McPherson, Mark Bunker, David Miscavige etc., I was wondering why it involved only Americans. Other than the recent German ban, I hear nothing much from anywhere else.
I took a look at where Scientologists open orgs, and why is it that all of them are predominantly in countries full of caucasians? You'd think that religions would go to where people need help the most, namely Third World countries like India, China, Brazil, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Bangladesh etc. but of all those, I only know about one org in China. If a religion professes to save mankind, why then would you not go to the most populous areas of the world?
I did some more digging around, and I found these quotes from Hubbard:-
"[The Chinese] have neither the foresight or endurance to overrun any white country in any way except by intermarriage. One American marine could stand off a great many yellowmen without much effort.
A Chinaman can not live up to a thing, he always drags it down.
They smell of all the baths they didn’t take.
The trouble with China is, there are too many chinks here"
“One of the reasons they [the Japanese] have bad eyesight is probably these microscopic characters [furigana] which have many lines and strokes to them.& We wonder why they went mad and bombed Pearl Harbor when they knew they couldn’t win. That [the Japanese language] would be a reason.”
“The South African native is probably the one impossible person to train in the entire world; he is probably impossible by any human standard.”
Funny how he tries to spread his 'religion' in a place where there are more black people(natives) than white, yet he's only interested in the white people.
I figure it's probably an issue of money. The only reason he was racist was because he was only interested in countries which were prosperous. If only he could see Japan, China and India today, then he'd be kicking himself on missing out on a potentially huge 'market' of possible recruits.
Anyway, the whole point of the above rant is this. If Hubbard was such a racist, do all the followers of the CoS, follow his example and carry that racism over to themselves? Sure, it's not going to say it in any official text, but are Scientology kids brought up to be prejudiced? I'm pretty sure in predominantly white schools like Delphi surrounded by all that dogma, that a fair bit of racism would creep in.
The reason I ask, is because, like I read in Kendra Wiseman's story, is because she said that Scientology kids have an ingrained hatred of psychiatry and it's hard to get rid of and she's honest enough to admit that. Now she is obviously no racist, living in China and all, but how about everyone else? It's easy to say "No no, of course not!" but if you were to ask yourself that question honestly, what would be the answer?
If you permit me, I'd like to give you a profile of a real person that I know. Let's call him Gary. Gary's just a normal 40 year old white man, raised in a Catholic environment in USA, with a wife and two children. His day job's a plumber and he plays poker on some weekdays for fun and on the weekends enjoys a casual BBQ. Nice enough guy with a large circle of 50 friends with perhaps 2 close friends. Now, he's asked one day if he's a racist person, to which he defiantly says no, but here's some interesting facts.
Gary has no non-white friends. Sure there are aquaintances, but none that he spends any time with outside of work. Even his weekend BBQ's which have up to 30 people sometimes have nothing but white people. Gary doesn't like any "ethnic" food. Just the normal meat, vegetables and pasta. He's never tried or will ever try curries, tofu, fried rice, sushi, falafels, souvlaki etc etc. Pretty much anything that's not a 'normal meat' (lamb, pork, chicken, beef) or the assorted 'normal vegetables' is not a part of his diet. The only TV shows he watches are things like American Idol or Football. He doesn't know anything about any other cultures like the significance of Chinese New Year, Ramadan or Thaipusam. He has never seen any movie which would be considered a "foreign film", such as anything Bollywood or something like Cidade de deus, Raise the red Lantern, Shichinin no samurai(Seven Samurai) etc.
Though Gary doesn't openly appear like a racist person, I'd still say he is. He's not going to come out and say or do anything bad against non-white people and probably never will. However, you're telling me that out of all the different people, foods, movies, culture etc. he cannot find ONE thing or person that he likes? Out of sheer probability, there's bound to be SOMETHING you would not only like, but love, be it Saki, Egusi, Lychees or Jackie Chan. You're telling me that out of all that people Gary meets in life, he can't find one non-white friend to come to his BBQ that doesn't act like a white person? Come on.
I'd like to thank you for reading this far, and I'd like to say again how greatly I appreciate you taking the time to read this, but I've been wanting to write something like this to the CoS community for quite some time.
I'm asking Scientologists this question, whether you're still in or you're ex. Can you understand how much like Gary scientologists are or has Hubbard's influence failed to get that far? Can you honestly admit that you wouldn't have a problem with your son or daughter getting married to a Rwandan or a Cambodian? Or even perhaps yourself? When you think of going overseas for a holiday, do you think about going to China or Malaysia and not just France or the UK? Can you see yourself eating crunchy fried grasshoppers or hiking up Mt.Kilimanjaro?