“In every age ‘the good old days’ were a myth. No one ever thought they were good at the time. For every age has consisted of crises that seemed intolerable to the people who lived through them.”
– Brooks Atkinson
“The only good thing about the good old days is they’re gone.”
– Dick Gregory
Recent statistics have shown that women, especially women of color, are most likely to wear masks. An article suggested women of color are so used to having everything about their appearance policed, even their natural hair, that being asked to do something reasonable does not feel like that big an imposition in comparison. Most resistance to masks comes from the demographic least often told what to do; privilege, at a glance.
Of course this is nothing compared to the events of last week. As a parent and educator, the last thing I ever want to see is a teenager roaming with a deadly weapon, but a teen was recruited by a white supremacist Facebook group and driven across state lines by his mother to attend a protest with the intent to kill. The protest related to an unarmed black man getting shot in the back. When police saw this obvious minor who could not be in legal possession of his weapon, they did not ID and arrest him. Instead they gave him water and thanked him. When he walked away after shooting and killing people, they let him go. He has since been arrested, but some people are praising him and raising money. They show pictures of him cleaning graffiti (so?), but classmates said he threatens those that don’t support an admired politician. You can’t pretend your concern is law and order if you support his unlawful behavior.
Over and over, someone is wrongfully killed, and some people perform dizzying feats of mental gymnastics to justify it. They defend abuse of the 1st and 2nd Amendment even as they deny others not only their 1st and 2nd Amendment rights (the criticism of Breonna Taylor’s partner for firing at presumed intruders, Philandro Castile’s lawful gun possession) but also 5th-8th Amendment rights. And then there’s Tamir Rice, a child shot on sight for playing with a toy gun at a playground.
August 28th marked the 65th anniversary of Emmitt Till’s murder in 1955. To put things into perspective, my mother would have been 5. This is not ancient history. It’s also one of the events that contribute to defining the nation, whether we like it or not. As the saying goes, facts don’t care about our feelings. The country was founded on a slave-based economy. Slavery in the US was race-based. Law enforcement had its origins in capturing slaves. The founders knew slavery was at odds with their vision of freedom, but left the problem to later generations to resolve. Following the Civil War, opponents found new ways to maintain supremacy through Jim Crow laws, historical revisions, redlining, and segregation.
Today we’re witnessing closures of polling stations in diverse communities, efforts to undermine the USPS, and an overtly racist (and sexist) campaign targeting the fears of an outdated 1950s suburban housewife stereotype. I’ve talked about children having a greater risk of being victimized by someone they know. This is true of crime in general. The most common form of violence against women remains intimate partner violence. Incidentally, there is a higher rate of domestic violence in families with law enforcement, but the data is fuzzy due to conflicts of interests and informal practices. Many departments do not have a policy in place for domestic abuse by an officer. Those that do favor counseling over disciplinary action, even though counseling can be counterproductive. Nobody is made safer by romanticizing historical periods that normalized domestic violence and racial discrimination or by denying the existence of systemic problems that perpetuate these issues.
We need to acknowledge ways the past informs the present. I recommend Ava DuVernay’s documentary, 13th. I’m generally not a fan of documentaries because they tend to be dry and boring or tacky and sensationalized (ugh, no Moore), but 13th is a thoughtful, engaging examination of the 13th amendment as a means of preserving slavery. It includes a powerful montage that juxtaposes historical footage against a speech about the “good old days”, and what we’ve always known that phrase to signal. Some dismiss DuVernay as a better storyteller than director, but I think she makes strong creative and technical choices. There’s a scene in the historical drama Selma that maximizes the emotional impact of a devastating event while treating victims with grace and dignity. If anything, her critics are picking up on the way she infuses her work with humanity instead of her ego, unlike many celebrated “auteurs”.
And what is a director if not a storyteller, anyway?
We also make choices in how we process experiences through storytelling, and whether or not we question the stories we’re told, and remain truthful with ourselves and others. Some change the story in the telling of it; others seek to change the story going forward through their actions.
