I am a white, Republican, straight, Christian male who lives in rural Oklahoma. Now that I’ve got that out, I’d like to tell the few of you who remain (countless others have fled away in fear, no doubt) that I am not the embodiment of evil. Really, I don’t jest. I know what you are thinking, and no, this is not some cunning plot for me to take your land and forcefully convert you to my religion.
The assumption these days is that if you are like me you are practically born with a silver spoon in your mouth and that your success is practically guaranteed by the structure of our society. What is more, common knowledge would have you believe that such an individual as myself is wholly incapable of understanding what your life is like. This is especially true if you happen to be a homosexual, feminist or an ethnic minority. You and I (again, according to common knowledge) are as alien to each other as conceivably possible. I’m sure that you’ve been told that if you sit next to be in a coffee shop the sheer vastness of my own sense of superiority and self-worth would instantly combust you into flames.
That is a complete and total load of horse crap.
I know that you don’t think so, but hear me out. First of all, I would like you to consider the innumerable experiences that every person has in their life—there are millions upon millions of personal interactions that each of us experience. How then, are you able to account for all of my experiences and know with certitude that I have not had at least a minor experience that is similar to those that define you or define the difficulties that you face in your life path? The simple answer is that you can’t. To do so would be to act in the greatest measure of egotism and arrogance. We cannot account for all of each of our peers’ experience no more than we can trace the life of a drop of water. Now, certainly each of us may or may not have an experience with racism or sexual discrimination, but each and every person has an experience somewhere in the hazy depths of their memory where they were wronged because of a personal trait, be it physical or ideological. The gist of these experiences is the same.
We have forgotten the true meaning of the word equality. Equality once was a concept of level-footing and equal opportunity. Equality now is a perverse rendering of this concept. Instead of focusing on equal opportunity and fair chances we are geared towards equal results. That is not the same thing. In fact, by pursuing equal results we corrupt our purpose to the point that we have in our efforts created the very thing that we sought to forego, inequality. This concept is one that is extremely controversial and I have no delusions that I will convince you of what I am advocating. Nonetheless, I would like to demonstrate this concept to you with an example. Equal opportunity would be me running a marathon and starting at the line with everyone else at the beginning of the race. Equal results would necessitate that I (a large, slow, clumsy oaf) should begin the marathon 100 yards from the finish line. Now, I wouldn’t want to do this for numerous reasons (the least of which is that I hate running). Firstly, I would be altogether denying real competitors their deserved victory. These individuals would have been the people who lived to run, who practiced daily and who had the will and determination to win. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t do this for any reason. In the end, pursuing equal results in our society is the same thing. Let us, instead pursue equal opportunity.
White men in our age are far too often portrayed as Rhodes dominating Africa, or as the sneering, greedy industrialist who seeks only his own gain. This is by no means the truth. Humanity is shared experience. We all have experiences that we can share to find a common ground. That is how progress is made. I recently revisited Ayn Rand’s writing on racism and found myself nodding in agreement as I read. You may or may not view Ayn Rand with any love, but I would highly suggest that you read her thoughts on the subject. The overall theme of Rand’s view can be summarized thusly: “Racism claims that the content of a man's mind (not his cognitive apparatus, but its content) is inherited; that a man's convictions, values and character are determined before he is born, by physical forces beyond his control” (http://freedomkeys.com/ar-racism.htm). Rand also contends that racism is a form of collectivism. In essence collectivism assesses human worth, value, and bases societal actions around the group. The problem is that such a group is composed of individuals. It is the individual, not the group that we must examine and assess in our daily ventures. If we accept Rand’s concept of racism as a form of collectivism it is apparent that by assigning the white, male, Christian, and heterosexual demographic a specific personality (or set of beliefs) then we ourselves are guilty of racism. Even though I am a member of the demographic I am wildly different than my peers. I love poetry, sing to myself all the time, quite enjoy musicals, and really don’t find sports that interesting. How well does that fit into the schemata of the white, male, Christian, heterosexual? It doesn’t. That is because such schematas are inherently flawed. If you take anything away from reading this, let it be the following:
WE ARE ALL INDIVIDUALS
NO ONE IS EXACTLY LIKE US
OUR VALUE IS DETERMINED BY WHAT WE DO
Now that I have spoken my peace I would like to say that you are welcome to disagree with me, and I still would like to sit down and have a cup of coffee with you.
