Liberals, Allies, and Other Misnomers
In This Issue: Editor’s Letter: “Liberals, Allies, and Other Misnomers,“ “Diversifying Citizen Science Projects,” “The Country That Cried Wolf,” “Calling all Poets to Tapestry,” and a Japanese proverb.
The latest version of The Color Purple is touted as a “celebration of sisterhood” by some, which is certainly a major theme in the movie, but what still strikes me the most is how sad Celie’s life is for several decades. Unfairly labeled as dumb, ugly, and lazy by her father and then her husband, Celie accepts these labels rather than fighting back like the women around her do when mistreated.
Memes, self-help gurus, and the like will tell you to ignore what others say about you; how you should focus on your virtues and feeling good about yourself. It’s what Shug and Sophia do in the movie and it’s a lovely idea, but the truth is that most of us are influenced by what others say about us — particularly when short, succinct labels are used, and especially when those labels carry sociopolitical implications.
The meaning may vary based on who applies them and to whom. Sometimes they make you feel better, and sometimes worse. They may make you question your values, or simply make you defiant. Oftentimes they’re even self-applied, whether accurate or not. But words are important, and our identities frequently coalesce in reaction to these terms. Having a label makes it seem more . . . real.
You know the words: progressive, liberal, ally, libtard, snowflake, atheist, left-winger, right-winger, religious right, conservative, evangelical Christian, extremist, blowhard, racist, bigot, misogynist, white supremacist, sexist, homophobe, and a few I can’t even type . . . it’s a long list, with new words added regularly.
What Qualifies as “Liberal”?
I am not a fan of labels; as a general rule, I fear their power, but especially that of those listed.
Although I’ve always voted in one direction, I’m a registered independent. As those who follow me know, I’m also not a fan of the term “ally” because too many people do those one or two good deeds and then wear the moniker like a medal forever, a kind of virtue signaling. Being an ally should be an ongoing commitment to helping those who are oppressed or even, at times, endangered, and doesn’t require a label. This isn’t to say you need to commit every waking moment to it, but that one time you spoke out for your one Black friend does not an ally make.
I used to think the term “liberal” was realistic. It requires, at a minimum, generally voting on the Left and supporting individual rights. Believing in gender, race, and LGBTQ equality, if not perhaps also equity, reparations, and the like (which seem to fall more under the umbrella of “progressive” these days — left of the Left, if you will). Liberal means caring about your fellow human beings, regardless of what you have in common, following the example of Jesus and other religious icons, whether the liberal in question is religious or not. Not perfection, because we are human after all, but working to be the best and most fair people we can be.
As the right keeps moving further to the right, however, and as America has become so politicized, people feel the need to declare themselves definitively “right” or “left,” right or wrong, one or the other. Liberal has moved to the middle, and progressive — which would have been labeled common, everyday liberal in the 1960s — is seen as extreme.
Are We What We Say?
The result of these moves disheartens me and dilutes the very heart of liberalism. You can’t really depend on liberals being, well, liberal!
Read the complete article at Our Human Family.
NEW THIS WEEK
Diversifying Citizen Science Projects
For this project, outreach through partner groups produced a more representative set of volunteers.
Recruiting participants for a citizen science project produced a more diverse group when people were signed up through partner organizations, such as schools and faith-based organizations, than when they joined on their own. We used this approach to recruit volunteers for Crowd the Tap, a citizen science initiative that crowdsources the locations of lead plumbing in homes.
We signed up 2,519 households through partner organizations, in addition to 497 households that signed up on their own. We recruited households from all fifty states, though the majority came from North Carolina. Our project was initially funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, which led to nationwide sampling, but additional funding from the North Carolina Water Resources Research Institute led to prioritizing sampling in North Carolina.
We recruited 2.2 times more Black participants and 2.3 times more Hispanic or Latino participants through partnerships than we did through individual sign-ups. This allowed us to assemble a group of volunteers that more accurately represented the U.S. population. In addition, 11.2 times more lower-income participants took part in Crowd the Tap through partner organizations than on their own.
Read the complete article at Our Human Family.
The Country That Cried Wolf
Humanity, it seems, has gotten to a place where people must prove, often in the face of vile shouts and intimidation, the validity of their experiences. The right to call one’s own experiences what we perceive them to be is not guaranteed. Arguments of reason have been replaced by arguments of extremes. Not to mention, the backdrop often being public forums that have evolved into gauntlets that too often put people in “gotcha” spaces, not of their creation. Mistrust has filtered into our discourse, pushed by agenda-furthering messages. The manipulation of information, a billion-dollar endgame, infects our embrace of shared values. Polarizing postures morph into realities to be defended and defeated. Critical thought is no longer expected, much less valued, modeled, and demanded.
Tragically, people’s life experiences, their joys as well as their traumas, are being defined by agenda-laden extremes. It’s worse than telling rape victims they asked for it. Worse than telling victims of racial injustice they’re playing the “race card.” As a society, we too often marginalize others without regard for who they are as people. We double down when our assertions are countered instead of listening reflectively. Delivering well-crafted “red meat” sound bites to move audiences towards self-affirming cheers echoed from well-hoed ditches is paramount. Messaging, data manipulation, trolling, fake news, and now AI-generated imaging are employed, eclipsing voices coming authentically from places seeking rational decision-making and adult conversations.
Take the hot-button words antisemitism and genocide, for example. Today, these words push people to take sides in a war where daily loss outdistances any prospect of hope.
Read the complete article at Our Human Family.
Calling all Poets to Tapestry!
Tapestry is a new section of Our Human Family devoted to poetry that celebrates both our similarities and our differences, but most of all our shared humanity. It’s poetry that seeks to recognize the contributions from . . . foster racial equity and allyship for . . . and support inclusion of marginalized people into the beautifully varied fabric that is America.
You might remember “Equal People,” a special month-long poetry “series” we ran several times (2020 series); now we’re making poetry a permanent, ongoing part of the publication.
At Our Human Family, we believe people can change when we want to change, when we believe change is possible, and when we know how to change. So we want to give people the tools to become better human beings, the people we were created to be, and poetry is a wonderful way to reach people — whether you’re a reader, writer, or both.
Tapestry’s writers can be of any skin tone, gender, sexual identity, age, nationality, and profession. You can be an avid poet who’s written verse for years, or someone game to give it a shot for the very first time.
What you should share in common with other Our Human Family writers is a love for humanity. You should be familiar with the rich contributions of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to America.
Submissions will be accepted starting immediately. We look forward to reading and sharing your poems!
Clay Rivers and Sherry Kappel
Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor of Our Human Family
