Black and white

I have just returned from a week visiting relatives and attending a nephew's graduation in another state. I took a regional flight from my local airport to a major national and international hub, and then a rental car to the smaller regional city where they live. Along the way, I saw a lot of posters and billboards, and commercials on commercial and cable television and tv programs, I do not normally see. I now understand some of what is driving the right and far-right grievance in this country.

You see, I didn't see any white males in any of the visual imagery. No apparent middle-class white males, no working-class white-makes, no successful white males, no white male doctors or cabin crew or army cadets. No apparent white heterosexual males, no white fathers with their devoted wives and adoring 2.4 children.

While I insist that much of the right and far-right rhetoric is reprehensible and indefensible, I do see the validity of an underlying, and generally poorly-expressed thread. All my career, I have advocated for and insisted on providing opportunity, and the value of representation. I have received plaudits for appointing male preschool teachers, female high school math teachers, non-white, non-Christian and gay teachers and teachers with disabilities. Every sports program had the same number of boys' teams and girls' teams. Boys and girls took the "life skills" classes whch included some cooking, changing tires and balancing check books! I believe I have walked the walk. 

However, this effective erasure troubles me. The original arguments behind representation were, "That person looks me" so I too can be a doctor, and "15% of the population looks like this" so too should actors, spokespersons and people in commercials. By going too far in the other direction, we have not only added fuel to a fire. We have added accelerant. We can't make the screeching on the right and far-right go away, but we should not be adding legitimacy, no matter how thin. 

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