A Cure for Racism?

There Seems to be a Place Mostly Void of Racism: The Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Mats.

You see, there is a place that exists in my life where the least amount of racism seems to be. If I compare all my circles: all the workplaces I have had, and friend groups I’ve been involved with, and hobbies I’ve done, and families I’ve known, and schools and colleges I have attended (three different ones), and teams I have been on (dozens), and clubs that I have joined, and even religious groups I have been associated with - no place compares to the jiu jitsu mats.

And I am not the only one to notice this. I have heard it brought up numerous times in many different academies all around North America.

Sure, there can be martial artists and schools that do horrible things - bad people who use their position to bully, assault, harm others, or be a bigot. But for the most part I have not seen that on the jiu jitsu mats. What I have seen is generally quite the opposite.

Overall, the jiu jitsu community is the circle that I have been part of that shares the most mutual respect for each other. I’m sure there are other communities like this - military, sports teams, and more. But for me personally, I have never experienced anything like the way it is on most BJJ mats.

As for racism? I can’t think of a less racist place in my life.  So maybe there is a lesson to be found there. Maybe something we can all learn from?

In nearly every BJJ Academy, each person in that room has held the other’s lives in their hands - literally. They have held chokes that could and would kill a human.  And you can’t have this kind of risk (with millions and millions of iterations worldwide) without an undeniable bond of trust.   Each person must follow a code, and that code starts with respect.  Respect for the art. Respect for each other. And respect for the safety of the room.

We trust that the other person is going to let go of that choke when we “tap out.” We also trust that they are going to be aware of how long they have been choking us for, and that we are still conscious and responsive in case we accidentally pass out. 

Without this respect people could die. 

In over 20 years on the mats, I have trained with every religion, every gender, ever skin shade, every political affiliation, every sexual orientation, and every ethnicity imaginable… and it’s beautiful how it all melts together.  This isn’t unique to our academy; this can be found at nearly all of them - including the other ones right here in Buffalo, NY.  

But it is more than that. Not only is there respect, there is something else.  Something harder to define. Something so unique that putting it into words sounds esoteric.  Yet despite the inability to verbalize it, it’s presence is undeniable. 

You see, in jiu jitsu we get to experience beauty in a way not many other people do.  We experience physical art in the form of combat with another human consciousness. It’s one on one. A dance with results.  No one else to blame, and no one else to give credit to.  Two people in a grueling yet intellectually complex battle that to anyone who has really studied can verify, is art. 

We physically experience art. 

And that art has a definitive end.  A clear winner and clear loser that is unaffected by social pressures, race, religion, or any other outside factors.  The only thing there is to be judged on is your art, your results, and your attitude.

So, maybe instead of worrying so much about our superficial identities, we could instead serve to look at what jiu jitsu has seemed to teach us. That our identities should really be about things like effort, overcoming adversity, deciding what kind of energy we bring to every room we enter, how vulnerable we are with each other, how creatively we can express to one another, how much empathy we decide to give, and how much authenticity we decide to have with ourselves.

When we set values like this, there is no room for racism.  

One last note and then I’m done talking about this, maybe forever.  I’m adopted, and don’t know my own race or ethnicity with any certainty.  I like to joke and say I am 1% everything.  Because who knows? Maybe I am.  But it is so liberating not being stuck in a label.  It is impossible for me to be hateful because I don’t know my own background. Sometimes I wonder how much better the world would be if we all were adopted and didn’t know our own backgrounds.

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As always the entire purpose of this is to connect with other solutions-minded people like yourself! For 4 billion years on this planet there were only single-celled organisms. Then one day they somehow learned to work together and make complex multi-celled creatures like you and me. Right now we are like those single-celled organisms. Our next evolution is finding how to work together, better. And that requires intent.

Please join the upcoming discussions in GROWTH MINDSET SOCIETY - the newly formed think tank Facebook group for solutions-minded rationalists like yourself, here.

Thanks for reading, you beautifully rational creature.

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About the author:
Josh R. Ketry - Director of Strategy and Systems - is an advocate for freedom, human growth, and human potential. A Brazilian Jiu Jitsu blackbelt and Academy owner. Growth Mindset student (for life). Entrepreneur. Writer. Philosophy fan. Long-time carnivore diet practitioner for autoimmune issues. Birder. Muskie fisherman. Photographer. No topic off limits. Thank you for reading! !