The Collective American Psyche Cannot Understand “Equal” Rights

For the past few months I have been making cultural comments. At this time, I would like to shift focus to American life and how it nurtures and perpetuates bullying. Almost every week we see a young person who has committed suicide because of bullying. I feel that collectively, we are all responsible for those precious lives that were lost. In many ways, the American way of life is liberating. We live in a competitive, supposedly meritocratic society where anybody with dreams, gumption, smarts, and a will to succeed can –well – succeed. That is the dream that America sells its own people as well as the millions who come here every year. In reality, America is driven by a race/sex-based economic system that thrives on exploitation of others at some level. To paraphrase Ishmael Reed, if the motto for Britain is the “sun never sets on the British empire,” in America that motto should be “there’s a sucker born every minute.” Historically, America was built by rebel forces and simultaneous exploitation. The Founding Fathers decried the tyranny of British colonialism while holding Black slaves at home. As Washington crossed the Delaware, some slave prepared for a long day in the fields building the country with manual labor. Following slavery, almost 100 years of Jim Crowism, exclusionary immigration policies, and heavy-handed militaristic tactics with Native Americans, America’s economic system remained meritocratic for some –mainly white men –and oppressive for others –everybody who wasn’t a white man. To date, this unevenness in our wealth distribution as well as our very skewed notion of who should participate equally in our government and economy block any deeper understanding we should have of Civil Rights and equality. In Thomas Jefferson’s Notes, he was very afraid that one day the tides would change and God would punish white people by one day making them the slaves and Africans the masters. I can safely say that during the presidential election, that fear still lingers and was made manifest by the proliferation of disrespectful and violent rhetoric aimed toward this president. I have never in my life witnessed so much disrespect towards the office of the presidency. The white supremacists have come out of the woodwork, and they are armed and dangerous. But I could feel this brewing ever since the 1990s with the arguments over affirmative action. In Americans’ haste to label, fight, and exploit, we boiled affirmative action down to a struggle of hierarchy, and the media stoked that fire. Some media personalities outright said that affirmative action would give minorities –especially Black people –unfair advantages over qualified white people. And when Obama got elected, personalities like Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh all but stated that Thomas Jefferson’s worst nightmare had come true! They accused civil rights activists of being reverse racists, and declared that President Obama would seek vengeance for the slaves using the office of the presidency. I have often wondered why Americans simply do not understand the notion of civil rights and equality –especially in a land that boasts of itself as a land of opportunity for all. It is because we cannot think outside of competitiveness and exploitation. The notion that one group simply wants to be on equal footing with the other and not on top does not register in our collective psyche. For instance, most feminists have never requested that women rule the country or that women be in charge of every job. Feminists simply say that if a woman lifts 50 pounds and a man lifts 50 pounds, the woman should be paid the same amount of money and given the same opportunities for advancement. After all, 50 pounds of cotton and 50 pounds of lead weigh the same. However, most conservative men have looked upon this demand for equal pay for equal work as an infringement upon male authority. Here’s another example: African Americans who fought for Civil Rights have never asked that African Americans be given a free pass for committing crime. We’ve only asked that the punishment be meted out equally. Why are Black men frequently given harsher sentences than their white counterparts for the very same crime? African Americans have also never asked that underqualified students be given college admittance and scholarships for subpar work. We’ve asked that qualified students’ application should be reviewed and not immediately thrown in the paper shredder because of the color of their skin.

When it is written out, the notion of equality doesn’t seem too difficult. It almost seems absurd that people have marched, died, and protested for the right to be treated fairly in the land of opportunity. But until Americans understand that not everything in life can be about competitiveness and exploitation, we’ll continue going around and around in a never-ending psychological boxing match for something as decent, simple and grand as equal opportunity.

Gender is Still THE Issue; That Old Vaginal Tax

My colleagues and I pride ourselves on being very liberal, intelligent and tolerant people. After all, we have chosen the humanities as our focus. We have chosen to become professors of humanities as our career paths. We have chosen to dedicate our lives to enlightening students to the value of others' cultures through literature. And let me just say, we did not do it for the money.

I said all of that to say this, I am guilty, I think, of being hypocritical. Though I consider myself to be very tolerant, there is one group of people I cannot stomach. It is the group of young ladies who call themselves "lesbians," who walk around with three sports bras on and shave their heads or wear cornrows. They sag their pants and walk with a wide stance like a male. Some of them even wear dildos at all times. I have seen them challenge men to outward shows of physical prowess, and heard about them beating their girlfriends...just like abusive men. They are not transgender. They do not want to become men. Yet, they want to be treated and looked upon as men, especially in their relationships.

Let me be clear, here...I'm not homophobic. I have many friends who are gay and lesbians. But the above group of "lesbians" really get beneath my skin. I have placed this group in quotation because I am questioning their sexuality. It seems to me, that these people are not really lesbians at all. Before I get a ton of hateful emails, please finish reading what I'm saying and think about it.

Maybe these women are not lesbians. For them, lesbianism is not a function of sexuality. I feel that these women suffer from plain old penis enny. Now, I'm no dummy. I know Freud and his theories have been thoroughly debunked by feminists, but I'm writing about what I see. I feel that these women are mascarading as lesbians in order to get the same respect they feel that men sometimes undeservingly receive in our society.

Everything from teaching, to nursing, to the WNBA is devalued in monetary compensation as well as respect because they are female-dominated positions. Have you heard RAP lately? Are there any female rappers out there? Surely, when RAP first started and was marketed by African Americans to African Americans, there were many female RAP artists. With RAP's explosion on the mainstream market, came the disappearance of female rappers.

Have we in America created an atmosphere conducive to penis envy and "lesbianism?" Perhaps the only way many of these women feel that they can be taken seriously as human beings is to cloak themselves in masculinity. Walk like a man, talk like man, wear a man's penis, and beat another woman like a man. Does that truly garner respect?

Let me take this out of the gay/lesbian community and make it national. I recently posted an article claiming that I'm waiting on derogatory remarks toward Michelle Obama from the Right. Less than one week later, Judge Sonia Sotomayor was introduced as Obama's Supreme Court pick. The vile hatred and claims of reverse racism coming from the Right has been repulsive...absolutely repulsive. This woman has been called racist, stupid, and affirmitive action pick by men of the Right. The women have been fairly silent.

Racism aside, I wonder how much of this has to do with Sotomayor's gender as well. After all, C. Gordon Liddy did imply that the woman's menstrual cycle would inhibit her ability to render justice. Beck refered to her as "hispanic chick lady." Dennis Miller did a crude impersonation of her as a female Spanish dancer. With all of this derogatory activity, I wonder how long it will take some sick joker on the Right to come out with a Sotomayor nutcracking doll. I recall the whole Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill fiasco. The amazing thing about that case was, his intelligence never came into question -only his sexual prowess.

It has been disheartening, as a young, Black, female aspiring academic to hear this kind of criticism thrown at a woman who became the editor of Yale's Law School Journal. It has proven to me, that the according to the Right, the American Dream is not only prohibited to those with skin of color, but also to those who happen to have been born with a vagina. And I can offer this word of caution to the "lesbian" community...wearing a fake penis won't make things any easier.