Subject:	Re: Ethnic Scientologists…
Author:	keshet <keshet@cyberpass.net>
Date:	1999/03/28
Forum:	alt.religion.scientology
Msg-ID:	<7dk7hk$phj @enews2.newsguy.com>

Hartley Patterson said in <7djshf$efj$2 @news7.svr.pol.co.uk>:

Jim diGriz wrote:

Hey all!

I just came from my work… At my job I was having a small conversation with a co-worker… Anyways, he commented that he had never seen an African-American or Oriental Scientoloigst… So, he was thinking that perhaps the CO$ was racist…

The CoS is no more racist than any other organisation.

Ordinarily (i.e., with ordinary organizations) I would agree with you, but the Co$ is different.

Individuals within the CoS may well be racist, and as the the CoS has a very defensive attitude towards criticism such people may feel more secure in covertly expressing their racism than in organisations that have a pro-active anti-racist policy.

However, when such expressions do reach the light of day, there is no official denial or reproachment. Not even a comment from the ronbots. Isn't this an odd oversight by the Church that declares all men (women, too?) have equal rights regardless of color? It filters down from the top: David Miscavige is overtly racist, according to Jesse Prince in a radio interview last year. To me, this says "corporate bigotry".

Much has been made of L. Ron Hubbard being a racist. It would be fairer to say that he was a white American expressing the standard attitude of his generation.

And that wasn't racist? However, unlike the rest of his generation, who modified their attitudes over time, Hubbard's racism is forever codified in Scientology's sacred scriptures and therefore official policy for all good members of the Co$.

He supported the South African government's apartheid policies, as well documented at http:// www.solitarytrees.net/ cowen/ essays/ apartheid.html because his OT powers were unable to comprehend that apartheid was doomed to failure. Hubbard was remarkably ignorant about history, as 'History of Man' demonstrates, it being as full of factual errors as your average neo-Nazi White Race Supremacy crap, or your average von Danekin God was an Astronaut pseudo-Science gibberish.

Yes, there are are non-white scientologists. The CoS can tell lies to anyone. Gullibility is not confined to white people!

Keshet

--
email * http://www.solitarytrees.net/racism/ [email, link updated]
Where prejudice exists it always discolors our thoughts. Mark Twain

       

Subject:	Re: Ethnic Scientologists…
Author:	keshet <keshet@cyberpass.net>
Date:	1999/03/29
Forum:	alt.religion.scientology
Msg-ID:	<7dodpt$17pe @enews3.newsguy.com>

Attributions may be mixed up.

Steve A said in <371666f4.264623024 @news.demon.co.uk>:

<craig_hall@my-dejanews.com> wrote:

On Sat, 27 Mar 1999 14:31:57 GMT, Jim diGriz

Hey all!

I just came from my work… At my job I was having a small conversation with a co-worker… Anyways, he commented that he had never seen an African-American or Oriental Scientoloigst… So, he was thinking that perhaps the CO$ was racist…

I thought long and hard, but Still could never recall ANY minority Scienos… Am I nuts to wonder about this?

There is (was) a black Scientologist at the London org, and he didn't much appreciate my explaining to him what L. Ron Hubbard had to say about "Bantus" and black people generally, particularly in regard to his views that black people were significantly less intelligent than whites.

Hit a search engine with the phrase "my boy jamble" to find out what Hubbard was on about.

I've seen it spelled "Jambo" as well as "Jamble" (transcription from tape where Hubbard's pronunciation is not entirely clear?). You can find the story at:

http://www.solitarytrees.net/racism/jambo.htm

Or you can check out the URL in my sig: the "Scientology Racism" web site that I co-edit with Ted Mayett. We have not noted the Jamble story yet, but it's coming soon. I have also been a slacker in getting a couple recent racist bits on the site (they, too, are coming soon):

• Jesse Prince's radio interview from last year, in which he describes David Miscavige as racist and prone to using the "nigger" epithet.

• A "Sunday Sermon" from the old AOL fellowship board in which the Scientology preacher, ironically in a sermon on "tolerance", uses an illustration involving those people who disrupt the quiet of a library with their "ghetto blasters" and rap music.

• An ARS article about Jesse Prince in which the Scientologist poster invokes the hackneyed stereotype of the big-dicked black.

I can blow off the last item as an individual cretin's folly. The other two, however, are more serious. DM's racism, by virtue of its source at the very top of the organization, suggests that such attitudes may be pervasive in the cult and are quite possibly tolerated officially (why not? it's Source). The Sunday sermonizer is one such an example.

Keshet

--
email * http://www.solitarytrees.net/racism/ [email, link updated]
Where prejudice exists it always discolors our thoughts. Mark Twain

       

Subject:	Re: Ethnic Scientologists…
Author:	keshet <keshet@cyberpass.net>
Date:	1999/03/30
Forum:	alt.religion.scientology
Msg-ID:	<7dpcft$1j71 @enews1.newsguy.com>

Kristi Wachter said in <humanrights -2903991644310001 @racer.vip.best.com>:

<snip>

One of my main revenge picketers, Craig, is black. I've seen at least one black lady in the South Bay.

<sigh> Can we please stop playing "spot the black"?

As for persons of Asian extraction, although determining ancestry from surnames is fraught with peril, it's possible that Dr. Wong and his daugher Astara at the Mountain View org have Asian ancestry.

As others have pointed out, Hubbard wrote some racist things. However, they don't seem to be prominently featured in the materials Scientologists study the most, and in my extremely limited experience, the only racism I've seen in Scientology is that which individuals bring to it.

Dianetics (Zulus)
Fundamentals of Thought (yellow and brown people, African tribesman)
New Slant on Life (Japanese)

The PAB "The Big Auditing Problem" points out how thoroughly untrainable South African blacks are; the HCOB "The Scientific Treatment of the Insane" notes that Bantus need rehabilitation; "The South African Rundown" is the only process targeted at a specific ethnic or national group; E-Meter Essentials says "Bantus" are oddities; the Jo-burg Sec-Check lists sexual relations with "a member of a race of another color" amongst crimes like rape, murder, and bombing.

See http://www.solitarytrees.net/racism/deny.htm for further info.

There are also anti-feminist statements in Scientology — probably more anti-feminist pronouncements than racist ones — but again, these don't appear to have much of an effect on the behavior of individual Scientologists or the organization of orgs.

How can they NOT be affected? Sexism and racism are an integral part of Hubbard's world view and pervasive in his writings and lectures: Scientology's Sacred Scriptures. Scientology is a fundamentalist religion, demanding that its adherents accept Source literally, without interpretation or discussion. Though I generally believe most Scientologists are not bigots, the fact that Source condones such sentiments pretty much assures the continuation—and acceptance—of the prejudice.

Keshet

--
email * http://www.solitarytrees.net/racism/ [email, link updated]
Where prejudice exists it always discolors our thoughts. Mark Twain

       

Subject:	Re: Ethnic Scientologists…
Author:	keshet <keshet@cyberpass.net>
Date:	1999/03/31
Forum:	alt.religion.scientology
Msg-ID:	<7dsbr2$22ks @enews4.newsguy.com>

Kristi Wachter said in <humanrights- 3003991431360001 @racer.vip.best.com>:

Hey, Keshet,

Hay.

In article <7dpcft$1j71 @enews1.newsguy.com>, keshet@cyberpass.net (keshet) wrote:

<snip>

How can they NOT be affected? Sexism and racism are an integral part of Hubbard's world view and pervasive in his writings and lectures: Scientology's Sacred Scriptures. Scientology is a fundamentalist religion, demanding that its adherents accept Source literally, without interpretation or discussion. Though I generally believe most Scientologists are not bigots, the fact that Source condones such sentiments pretty much assures the continuation—and acceptance—of the prejudice.

Thanks for your excellent citations and your thoughts, which I agree with.

I'm being stroked.

I completely agree that Hubbard's racism and sexism are well-documented and extremely ugly, and that Scientology-the-corporation's failure to repudiate them indicates that, instead, they embrace them. (After all, they are part of Source.)

I'm just not convinced that the racism and sexism manifest themselves in Scientology itself

And I am convinced that they do, by virtue of the "hostile environment" (to borrow a phrase and warp the concept a bit).

(with the exception of bullbaiting sessions, where I'm sure sexual and racial slurs are favorite attempts to push people's buttons). Women and non-whites seem to face no discrimination in filling executive positions or in participating in Scientology in any other way. As one woman wrote to me in email, people are treated - or rather, mistreated (her words) - equally in Scientology.

How many blacks hold upper-management positions in Scientology? According to Jesse Prince, he was the only one.

JESSE PRINCE: "You know, and it's also ironic that they would target the African American community because the current leader of Scientology, David Miscavige, is a racist, a racist in extremis, as well as his South African companion, Norman Starkey. I was the only African American that I know of that ever achieved a high position within Scientology. And even then, I was continually subjected to racial slurs by David Miscavige and Norman Starkey to the point where we nearly came to blows about it."

-WMNF Radio, Tampa, Florida, 3 December 1998
<http:// www.xenutv.com/ radio/ radioactivity1998.htm>

Bigotry in the Co$ leadership, even if not expressed publicly, tends to permeate the entire organization, allowing casual remarks and prejudiced attitudes to go unchallenged. Silence indicates implicit approval. Source advocates it, management endorses it, members practice it.

I can't speak from first-hand experience WRT Co$ but I find it difficult to believe that, given this environment, prejudice and discrimination do not exist within the general ranks of Scientology. Racism doesn't have to be cross-burnings and lynchings; it can be—and often is—extremely subtle.

That said, I must say that I think your page is an outstanding resource,

Thanks.

and I hope, with your permission, to turn it into a flier soon, if that hasn't been done already.

AFAIK, it has not been done…you're welcome to do it if you wish.

Keshet

--
email * http://www.solitarytrees.net/racism/ [email, link updated]
Where prejudice exists it always discolors our thoughts. Mark Twain

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