On the Meaning of Freedom
Adding my definition to the others
Many folks are finding the need to define freedom these days.
Paul Ryan, for example, defines it like this:
He might have meant “wealth” when he meant “freedom,” but whatever.
Andrew Sullivan, on the other hand, defined it like this:
I heard of Andrew Sullivan for the first time when this excerpt of his writing started popping up all over the place in my Twitter feed. The response was mixed: half the people were totally on board with this sentiment. “Listen to Andrew Sullivan! Finally voicing what I’m feeling!”
The other half’s sentiment can be summed up as, “Listen to this white guy, finally feeling what people of color have been feeling since the beginning of time.”
I could see both sides, and I started wondering why that was. I like to think I’m open minded, but rarely have I completely and totally understood both sides of a potentially divisive sentiment so well.
It finally dawned on me today.
For immigrants, especially those fleeing from places with oppressive governments, real freedom means having the option of being politically inactive.
So in a sense, I completely understand what Sullivan is saying: fleeing Iran meant fleeing a place where government policies didn’t affect every aspect of your everyday life. The freedom of wearing a headdress (or not wearing one) is the freedom of knowing that whatever you decide to do with your head that morning is up to you. You don’t have to think about it. It doesn’t weigh down on your heart every second of every day. Your clothing choice isn’t a political statement.
On the other hand, I also understand the point of view of people of color, who’ve had to deal with every form of covert and overt oppression and racism known to man. Because unlike many of my Iranian brethren, I consider myself to be a person of color.
An aside newsflash for many white folks out there: people from the Middle East are considered white. You know all those “check your ethnicity” boxes on forms and such? Well, people from the Middle East are technically categorized as Caucasian.
Why am I bringing this up? Because many Iranians I know (I won’t talk about other folks from the Middle East, because I don’t know as many of them) have completely internalized this Caucasian categorization. They pretty much think they’re white. They don’t see that we’re still brown folks to people of European descent. They don’t fathom that something like a travel ban could affect them. It’s a heady mix of denial and need for acceptance that is at times difficult to watch.
So when people of color were all in Andrew Sullivan’s business, saying, DUDE welcome to our life…I got it. Because I have been pulled aside for special questioning at airports when people see that I was born in Iran. (Yes, before any bans by this administration.) Because I was once denied a job as a camp counsellor, when the interviewer asked me where my name was from, and then followed up with, “But are you white? As in what complexion are you?” (It was a phone interview.)
But where am I going with this? Ahhh yes, the meaning of freedom. For me, it would mean not feeling the need to write posts like these when I should be sleeping.
