Both-ers

The not-so-discreet racism of the Birther Movement, a subsidiary of the Tea Party in the U.S., was based on questioning President Obama's legitimacy as a native-born American citizen. It came out of the disgruntled Republican campaign of 2008, which tested the general racism of the voting American public, which was predominantly white in racial terminology.

Last evening I watched a pre-Presidential-Debate program on PBS. Its topic was race in present-day United States. The  program was well produced. Very artsy. It had the basic Ken Burns interview style, framed by backgrounds of stunning video and still photography. Its interviewees were articulate and interesting.

I came away from the documentary with a mixed message. One message was, "We are on the threshold of a browner America where racial issues will be neutralized." The other message was, "Old white people are getting in the way of racial harmony." While both of these messages may contain a kernel of truth, I was listening to the understated message, "We of racial minorities still expect white people to treat us with special deference and privilege because of our race."

My partner returned home yesterday afternoon with a subway anecdote which seems related. A young brown man was bragging to his brown friends on the subway that he scared the white people at his job by threatening to shoot a dysfunctional copying machine with his handgun. He was amused because they got upset by his jesting remark. He was amused, he said to his friends loudly on a racially integrated train, because "white people are so gullible". 

There are those in any minority or majority community who want privilege based on the color of their skin. This is racist, no matter what the color of the person. A society may decide to give privilege to people of one race over another for political or historical reasons. This is still racist. 

Enter the both-er. This is a person of any color who preaches equality and justice, but demands special racial privilege. This is the person of a racial minority who has open racist hatred of the racial majority, while expecting that racial majority to grant him special privilege based on past transgressions. This is the liberal of the racial majority who preaches racial equality and lives in a gated community which is segregated by the economic privileges of the majority race. 

I am all too familiar with both-ers in my own LGBT community. These are gay/lesbian people who bemoan their lack of equal rights in general society but live in gay-ghetto isolation without doing any activism for equal rights in the general society. These are the affluent gay men who remain in the closet in high-paying careers while expecting deference within the gay community because they are affluent. 

"Having it both ways" is an old descriptive of someone who is manipulative and insincere in order to exploit for their own advancement or comfort. The both-er is a person who lives in reaction to his/her environment, rather than living proactively in his/her environment. The both-er wants respect without having self-respect or respect for others, regardless of race. 

Being a humanist, in my opinion, entails being proactive in my environment despite racial, political and social barriers. Always reacting to the environment to get what I want would be immature and cowardly for me as I envision what it means to be a humanist. Knowing myself and my environment in order to improve both is what I see as my role as a humanist. Birthers and both-ers alike do not contribute to progress. They are too busy trying to settle grudges from a cloudy past.