If you have a few minutes, you might want to read this extraordinary essay by the famed film critic Roger Ebert in its entirety. But for now, I'll just select a few choice quotes:
I believe at some point in the development of healthy people there must come a time when we instinctively try to understand how others feel. We may not succeed.
I agree with this. But what prevents some of us from succeeding?
Ebert evidently went through that helpful developmental stage of trying to understand how others feel (commonly called empathy), because his essay begins on a very simple premise:
How would I feel if I were a brown student at Miller Valley Elementary School in Prescott, Arizona?
For those who don't know what he (or I) am talking about, a bit of background is in order:
A group of artists has been asked to lighten the faces of children depicted in a giant public mural at a Prescott school.
The project's leader says he was ordered to lighten the skin tone after complaints about the children's ethnicity.
That happened really recently, by the way, just in case you thought I was diving into the archives and resurrecting something from the '50s. No such luck. That's your 21st century at work.
Anyway, back to Ebert:
Not along ago I read this observation by Clint Eastwood: "The less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice."
From there, he expounds on those who lack empathy, and how they might have gotten that way:
How are they threatened? What have they talked themselves into? Who benefits by feeding off their fear? We have a black man in the White House, and I suspect they don't like that very much. They don't want to accept the reality that other races live here right along with them, and are doing just fine and making a contribution and the same sun rises and sets on us all. Do they fear their own adequacy? Do they grasp for assurance that they're "better"--which means, not worse? Those poor people. It must be agony to live with such hate, and to seek the company of others so damaged.
I highlighted the bit about Obama, because, DUH. But I think he pretty much nailed it with "Do they grasp for assurance that they're "better"--which means, not worse?".
Some people, for whatever reason, seek constant reassurance that they're top of the food chain. It's not enough that they do well; their peace of mind requires that others do more poorly than them. It's unfortunate that this not-very-complicated personality weakness influences current events to the degree that it does. It's almost like letting toddlers run things.
Did I say "almost"?
But that's your teabagger mentality, right there. Understand, it's not about their jobs being taken away, it's about their identity being taken away.
And what's that identity, you ask? In a word, superior. And nothing can be allowed to threaten that. Imagine the degree to which our current discourse is influenced by personality issues that should have been resolved by the age of five. Makes me want to throw billions at every child development expert in America, and have them re-apply for their grants after they've slapped the stupid out of some motherfuckers.
But back to Ebert. I couldn't conclude without including this remarkable anecdote he puts in at the end:
One day in high school study hall, a Negro girl walked in who had dyed her hair a lighter brown. Laughter spread through the room. We had never, ever, seen that done before. It was unexpected, a surprise, and our laughter was partly an expression of nervousness and uncertainty. I don't think we wanted to be cruel. But we had our ideas about Negroes, and her hair didn't fit.
Think of her. She wanted to try her hair a lighter brown, and perhaps her mother and sisters helped her, and she was told she looked pretty, and then she went to school and we laughed at her. I wonder if she has ever forgotten that day. God damn it, how did we make her feel? We have to make this country a place where no one needs to feel that way.
Ewww, icky. Again with the empathy.