The Culture We Want
The brilliant Tracee Ellis Ross has a new TED Talk where she names a specific kind of women’s fury and its source: the seemingly innocuous ways in which men take women’s bodies for granted. She is calling out a norm that has been in place for generations, if not thousands of years. One that we have rationalized daily with our smiles and our insistence that we must be overreacting when we are treated as things. Ross puts it into deceptively simple words, “Our culture is shifting.”
One need only consider that the first black president was nearly followed by the first woman president to see that the culture shift is real. Unfortunately so is the backlash. A recent study on what motivated voters in 2016 supports what many of us have suspected. It’s pretty clear from the study’s title: Status Threat, Not Economic Hardship, Explains The 2016 Presidential Vote.
One positive outcome of the 2016 election is that we have begun the difficult task of naming and describing the status that is under threat. It’s hard to see from the inside — i.e., if you are a white person — , but recent trending events have helped to outline it. Two African American men arrested for waiting at a Starbucks without making a purchase; a young African American woman who had asked to speak to a restaurant manager was forced to the floor by police in such a way that her breast was exposed; a group of African American women were stopped by the police because they were taking too long on a golf course. And yes, they were members of the golf club.
These people were all occupying public space in a way that presumed their right to do so, to expect a certain level of comfort- a place to sit while waiting for a friend, to complain to a manager about a charge that was perceived to be unfair, to take some time and enjoy the day- even if it meant asking other people to wait a short while- and possibly also enjoy the day. These are things that white people overwhelmingly take for granted. Just as many men take women’s bodies for granted without even realizing what they are doing. These have been norms that we have all taken for granted. Not anymore. The shift is real.
Women are asking for a society where our bodies are truly recognized as our own. With respect to what we wear, our sexuality and reproduction, our basic right not to be groped or treated as a thing to be moved out of the way (see Ross’s TED Talk). African Americans are asking for a society where they can exist in public space without being seen as a trouble maker, or a criminal, or an inconvenience.
Some are worried about what this shift may bring. We can look at what it has brought us thus far: Tarana Burke (founder of #metoo), the Black Panther and Wonder Woman movies, and Beyonce performing with a troop of African American women violinists come to mind immediately. Is there room in our society for these things? For these people? Do we really have to ask?
The current administration is working furiously to stop the shift. Defunding health care, education, environmental protections, and restricting immigration and reproductive rights all work to maintain the status quo or to widen the gaps of exclusion.
This culture shift will not go away however. Together, we will create a society of inclusion, where people of color and people of all genders can occupy public space, or their own grandparents’ backyard for that matter, without waiting to be taken for granted as a thing, without fearing for their physical safety, without their golfing pace being challenged.
One of the best ways to do this is to elect people from underrepresented communities into office. Not only do they shape the policies that can either protect culture or prompt it to shift, but our elected officials literally represent us. Ideally they represent who we are, what we look like, what our life experiences have been. Let them represent the kind of culture we want to have.
Check out your local elections on Ballotpedia and research the candidates to see who best represents the kind of culture you want.
Jennifer Dodge is a white stay-at-home-mom who is tired of systemic racism.
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