COMMENTARY | In a culture that favors me for positions of power just because of my skin color and gender, I am ready to be a follower instead
The most enduring artifacts of the human species are our genome and our ideas. Epigenetic research shows propensities for addiction, anxiety, depression and fear conditioning are passed from one generation to the next. “Hurt people hurt people” is more than a clever phrase. It is a biological fact.
Love, however, is how we thrive in spite of inherited vulnerabilities. It is the aim of every major religion and the most enduring theme in art. It is like a rose: We all know the scent but cannot adequately describe it. Love, not power, is our greatest adaptation.
Early-20th-century anthropologists believed Neanderthals were a brutish, unintelligent species and were hunted to extinction by the more intelligent Homo sapiens species. This theory held traction in the scientific community because of overt, pervasive racist ideology. However, Homo sapiens are 99.84% genetically identical to Neanderthals, and modern genetic analysis shows people in Europe and Asia have 1-4% Neanderthal DNA. Homo sapiens and Neanderthals coexisted for about 2,000 to 5,000 years, leading most experts to conclude that the two species interbred. Sex led to the preservation of both species. Modern humanity succeeded as a result of diverse interdependence, not the extinction of “lesser” people.
The idea that my family is more important than yours – that my country is better – is a persistent and compelling fallacy. The Nazi regime was responsible for the deaths of 17 million innocent people in the Holocaust, in addition to 5.5 million of their own countrymen in combat. It began with economic depression and the fear of scarcity. Hitler, ostensibly a democratically elected president, used an extremely conservative economic strategy to rebuild the German economy. He greatly limited avenues of trade with other countries and built up the military. By shunning the world, Nazi Germany prospered, at first, but then eventually disintegrated under bigotry and nearly took humanity down with it.
Nazi Germany is not the only example of tribal narcisissism, nor even the worst. Racism is deeply entrenched in the American identity. In the English language, black is associated with evil and white with virtue. Two hundred years of legislation have been strictly tailored for the benefit of wealthy white men. Policymakers have inherited the notion that we are better by birth and, therefore, destined to conquer.
The resurgence of overt, xenophobic nationalism in the United States is narrow-minded, destructive and all too familiar. The United States makes up only 4.27% of the world’s population, yet we are responsible for the wartime deaths of 20 million to 30 million people since World War II. We generate half the world’s solid waste. Additionally, the U.S. holds 25% of the world’s prison population, 40% of whom are African American with an annual income 41% lower than the national average prior to their incarceration. We’ve also imprisoned more than 10,000 children in immigration detention centers in the last year. The U.S. is following the precedent of other collapsed empires, yet may succeed in pushing us to extinction where others have failed. Privilege – unearned advantage afforded at birth – is padding our coffin.
Like Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, we are on the brink of catastrophic climate change – this time due to our own hubris. And if the human species is to survive, we need to abandon fear-based tribalism. White people, especially men, need to assimilate – to abandon our privilege – and partner in the survival of the global community. We will either witness the extinction of privilege or the extinction of humanity.
In a culture that favors me for positions of power just because of my skin color and gender, I am ready to be a follower instead. Healing what we have broken starts with being willing to simply entertain the possibility that other people have a different experience. It is time we really listen and understand what people of color, women and LGBTQ+ among us are saying. They are the frontline prophets foreseeing the doom we are pushing them to, and we are next if we do not heed their warning.
I imagine the future will be wild and it will not belong to me; a place untouched. Footprints will be remembered by the soil and not blotted out by pavement. No construct or conceit will obstruct this beautiful, confounding country. Every living thing will have a voice there, undivided by categories. No man’s command or decree will be heeded. Only silence will have the final say. And yet, perhaps there will be a city. Perhaps there is a place for people, unlike anything we’ve ever seen or imagined. I am certain it won’t be mine. May it be our legacy; no longer bound by appearance or label. The meek shall inherit our dream or nothing.
This series is a first-hand account of the struggles and successes of overcoming trauma, mental illness, addiction, homelessness and more.
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