I’m a white, middle-class American. I attended a large, rather progressive high school in Central New York. In 1982, I had a creative writing class, and the teacher (we’ll call him Mr. W) was simply the finest teacher I ever had.
He was also gay, but in 1982, such things were not discussed openly. A number of asshole students would go out of their way to tell me that Mr. W was “a fag,” or worse. (My thought was, “Who cares? He’s a great teacher.”)
Moving forward in time, society got a bit better for the gay community. My city had pride parades, and duck races to promote fighting racism, and more. I took my young children to all of them.
Flash-forward to 2011, when my younger son ALSO had Mr. W for an English teacher, and ALSO thought he was fantastic… but in the intervening years, the school had formed a Gay/Straight Alliance club, chaired by Mr. W (now free to be openly gay) and Ms F, a straight English teacher. My 18 year old son joined the group as the only straight student.
‘Round about that same time, I took my older son on a pub crawl through the city for his 21st birthday. We STARTED at a popular gay bar, because the drinks were cheap and the music was good. Neither of us felt uncomfortable (nor did we feel that we were making the standard clientele uncomfortable.)
I and my kids are all straight. (I know… amazingly, all this exposure to “gaydom” didn’t convert us to some “perverted lifestyle.”)
Along those same lines, none of us are racist. I proudly fly a “Black Lives Matter” banner at the front of the extensive garden that is my front yard, and my younger son rented a limo for his prom, which he shared with Somalian friends from school.
My parents taught me that “people are people,” and I passed that learning down to my children (as, I am sure, they will do to the next generation when the time comes.)
These days, ALL of us (AND my ex-wife, my present wife, my mother, and my friends) kind of gasp in incredulity at the hatred that now permeates a huge portion of this country. It would be EASY (though perhaps too facile) to blame Trump for all of this. It’s not just Trump. It’s a lurking thing that has been morphing into its present virulence since the days of “manifest destiny” and the destruction/ subjugation of the Native Americans, or, later, “Irish need not apply.” The ideas of “illegal” people in this country, anti-Black sentiment almost 160 years after the Civil War, denigrating Puerto Ricans as non-American, blaming Asians for Covid (or jobs shipped overseas), or “replacement theory, ” or, well, the list just keeps growing… ALL stem from the “FACT” that White Europeans OWN this country, and the “FACT” that this was “God-given” to ONLY White Christians since the 1500s.
Would that our society could move forward, say, five centuries or so.
I will continue to believe that good people far outnumber haters, homophobes, racists, and idiots. It's just that these knuckle-draggers and troglodytes get the attention- for all the wrong reasons.
I’m a white, middle-class American. I attended a large, rather progressive high school in Central New York. In 1982, I had a creative writing class, and the teacher (we’ll call him Mr. W) was simply the finest teacher I ever had.
He was also gay, but in 1982, such things were not discussed openly. A number of asshole students would go out of their way to tell me that Mr. W was “a fag,” or worse. (My thought was, “Who cares? He’s a great teacher.”)
Moving forward in time, society got a bit better for the gay community. My city had pride parades, and duck races to promote fighting racism, and more. I took my young children to all of them.
Flash-forward to 2011, when my younger son ALSO had Mr. W for an English teacher, and ALSO thought he was fantastic… but in the intervening years, the school had formed a Gay/Straight Alliance club, chaired by Mr. W (now free to be openly gay) and Ms F, a straight English teacher. My 18 year old son joined the group as the only straight student.
‘Round about that same time, I took my older son on a pub crawl through the city for his 21st birthday. We STARTED at a popular gay bar, because the drinks were cheap and the music was good. Neither of us felt uncomfortable (nor did we feel that we were making the standard clientele uncomfortable.)
I and my kids are all straight. (I know… amazingly, all this exposure to “gaydom” didn’t convert us to some “perverted lifestyle.”)
Along those same lines, none of us are racist. I proudly fly a “Black Lives Matter” banner at the front of the extensive garden that is my front yard, and my younger son rented a limo for his prom, which he shared with Somalian friends from school.
My parents taught me that “people are people,” and I passed that learning down to my children (as, I am sure, they will do to the next generation when the time comes.)
These days, ALL of us (AND my ex-wife, my present wife, my mother, and my friends) kind of gasp in incredulity at the hatred that now permeates a huge portion of this country. It would be EASY (though perhaps too facile) to blame Trump for all of this. It’s not just Trump. It’s a lurking thing that has been morphing into its present virulence since the days of “manifest destiny” and the destruction/ subjugation of the Native Americans, or, later, “Irish need not apply.” The ideas of “illegal” people in this country, anti-Black sentiment almost 160 years after the Civil War, denigrating Puerto Ricans as non-American, blaming Asians for Covid (or jobs shipped overseas), or “replacement theory, ” or, well, the list just keeps growing… ALL stem from the “FACT” that White Europeans OWN this country, and the “FACT” that this was “God-given” to ONLY White Christians since the 1500s.
Would that our society could move forward, say, five centuries or so.
I won’t hold my breath.
Well said, David. Thank you.
I will continue to believe that good people far outnumber haters, homophobes, racists, and idiots. It's just that these knuckle-draggers and troglodytes get the attention- for all the wrong reasons.