March Blog: 'Merca

‘Merca

Political commentator and television host Bill O’Reilly once said “The goal of higher education should be to champion the airing of all honest viewpoints. Nothing less is acceptable.”  Ironically enough, O’Reilly also had this to say during House Representative Maxine Waters speech about nationalism and Trump’s presidency, “I didn't hear a word [Waters] said. I was looking at the James Brown wig. If we have a picture of James, it's the same wig." The political discourse and general political atmosphere in America has become divisive and, at times, counterproductive. Although written approximately 33 years earlier, Audre Lorde’s essay The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House* provides valuable insight on how to navigate our turbulent, political landscape.

Throughout our life, we spend a lot of time trying to fit in. Whether it be “buying” into the latest fashion or technology craze, people have a need to feel unified and part of a greater whole. Often times, homogenization and exclusion are the end results. Rather than advocating for a position of “sameness”, Lorde calls for inclusion of multiple viewpoints as a method for increasing understanding and awareness amongst disparate parties; “Difference must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic.”  One example of creative differences is sparking change in the status quo can be found with bipartisan support for the American with Disabilities Act and the Children's Health Insurance Network (CHIP).

While Lorde specifically addresses the plight of women in her essay, (she states “As women, we have been taught either to ignore our differences, or view them as causes for separation and suspicion rather than as forces for change“) ideas of isolation and dissention are not solely unique to the women's movement. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were often seen at odds with each other even though both individuals fought for the recognition and acceptance of the African American narrative and experience. Within the LGBTQ community, undertones of animosity and internalized homophobia can be found between gays, lesibian, bisexuals, queer and trans identifying individuals. Within the African American community there is discord about the effectiveness of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Positioned 30 years earlier, Lorde was also aware of these problems when she states “Racism and homophobia are real conditions of all our lives in this place and time.” It would seem history has come full circle and progress towards creating moments of genuine dialogue about differing narratives has come to near stand still. Our current political climate has turned a tolerable “Eden” to a literal “white washed” landscape of overt racism and demagoguery. Between the Muslim ban, funding cuts for the Arts and Education, and lack of support for Environmental policies, to goal of the United States government should be the champion of all it’s citizens, not just the 1% or those who are ingrained in the dominant social norms and structures that govern our autonomy. Nothing less is acceptable.