Anyone paying even the slightest attention to the media must be aware of just how polarized our United States of America are right now. I’m not enough of a historian to know for sure, but I bet our country is more polarized now than at any time since the end of Racial Segregation. We talk about Red States and Blue States, but the battle really isn’t between the States per se. Rather, it is a cultural thing with people on one side or the other despite what color their state may be designated.
Recently I wrote negatively about GetEqual’s complaint about the Obama Administration’s amicus brief regarding the Prop 8 appeal before the US Supreme Court. GetEqual, and many other activists make it all seem like, pass a law or something and everything will be just fine. I don’t think so. I think the cultural upheaval the country is going through will make any major change challenging. Consider the photo here:
The photo is of the Little Rock Nine being escorted into the all-white school in 1957, the year I was born. I look at this image and can not even imagine that Federal troops could be needed simply to allow children to ender a school only 55 years ago! However, I also look at this image and wonder, if the same could even happen today? Imagine- if the same thing were to happen today, what would be the outcome? I’d be willing to bet there would be mob outside the school and angry people firing upon the troops- willing to do anything to try and stop “The Government” from forcing a State to do anything.
Give it a try. Look at the image, and then consider what might happen if this were today in today’s political/cultural climate.
I don’t raise this to suggest that we don’t press for real change and Full Equality. Indeed, we must work for Equality harder now than ever before! Rather, I raise it to suggest that talking about Equality in abstract, theoretical, and logical terms will only get us so far. It is easy to say that everyone should be treated Equally! But how does that play out? What does it look like and getting from where we are to that point- those are the important things to be talking about.