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Why Anger Is A Solution (And Compromise Isn't)
9 years ago
we are living in an era of great change in America. our nation is at a cultural crossroads, and a multitude of different ideas are all vying to control the vehicle we're traveling it on. do we embrace progress, or do we turn around and drive ourselves back into the age of fear and hatred? if we do choose to go forward instead of backwards, in what way do we go forward? do we take the fast lane, propelling ourselves into a bright future to secure equal rights and justice for our most disadvantaged citizens? or do we instead settle for the beaten path, taking our time to gradually punch the brick wall of ignorance down with our bare hands?
personally, I think the time for compromise has passed. we who suffer discrimination for our sexual orientation, our gender identity, our race, our sex, our financial status, our disability, our religion, have had to compromise for far too long as it is, and with disproportionate leverage and power, we have seen ourselves having to give up far more and receive far less from deals made. politeness doesn't work. business as usual doesn't bring justice. when the Civil Rights Act was passed and signed into law, that didn't happen because black people asked nicely and played by the rules. it took revolution, and was met with extremely violent backlash. when people say that getting angry isn't a solution, I have to disagree vehemently; getting angry is the ONLY solution. what isn't a solution is waiting our turn in a rigged game.
the years of 2012 through 2015 were a hard-fought battle for marriage equality, that saw many heartbreaking gains and losses along the way. people in love were married, and had their marriages annulled. states threatened to sanction anti-gay segregation, and even to execute same-sex lovers. time and time again, states had marriage equality turned down, or had it passed only to be repealed or halted immediately afterwards. and this battle went all the way to the highest court before our victory was achieved.
but even now, that battle isn't over. despite the historic ruling, states continue to circumvent or outright ignore the law. just last night, the state of Georgia passed an unconstitutional anti-gay bill allowing businesses to discriminate against LGBT, and even against all protected classes in the 16th Amendment. the state of Kentucky has passed a law segregating opposite-sex marriage licenses from same-sex marriage licenses. the state South Dakota has passed a law regulating people to use public bathrooms based on assigned gender instead of gender identity, and enforced with a genital inspection.
all but one of the candidates running for republican nominee for president of the United States has sworn an oath to overturn the Supreme Court marriage equality ruling from Obergefell vs Hobbs, and three of the candidates (including one who is still near the top of the pack) have made public campaign appearances at events hosted by radical anti-gay christian pastors where sermons were given declaring homosexuals deserving of the death penalty.
the leading republican candidate has repeatedly cited KKK websites to make anti-black, anti-muslim, and anti-mexican remarks and propose laws that single out members of those demographics and deny them equal rights and justice in the name of safety and American nationalism. doing this has only increased his popularity, which says a lot about America's racist culture.
social media has been used with alarmingly increased frequency to organize honest-to-God pro-rape anti-feminist meetups among misogynists online. a woman has been sentenced to over a decade in prison for having a miscarriage. and women everywhere have been receiving death threats, rape threats, and having their home addresses revealed publicly by online harassers for daring to turn down offers to meet up on dating sites.
a white supremist gunman walked into a historic black church in the state of South Carolina, prayed with the congregants, and then shot 9 of them to death with an automatic rifle in the hopes of starting a race war. in the aftermath of this mass shooting, a contentious battle is still being fought over the confederate rebel flag and it's place in our country. it has gotten to the point where people on social media are flag-filtering their profile pictures with the confederate rebel flag to protest it's removal from South Carolina's capital building.
and an armed militia of racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, islamiphobic, conservative christian insurrectionists have stormed and occupied a federal building in an attempt to take over the government.
we need to stop wasting time, and actually take action. we need to stop silencing victims, and actually stand up in their defense. we need to stop insulting those who call out the hypocrisy and cowardice of the status quo, and instead listen to the voices of the oppressed. people are dying over these issues. our lives are worthe more than politeness and professionalism. our lives are worthe more than the comfort of the privileged.
I will not be calm. I will scream and raise hell until my days are no longer spent wondering if the next time I walk into the bathroom I'll get beat up, or the next time I walk home at night I'll get shot or stabbed.
personally, I think the time for compromise has passed. we who suffer discrimination for our sexual orientation, our gender identity, our race, our sex, our financial status, our disability, our religion, have had to compromise for far too long as it is, and with disproportionate leverage and power, we have seen ourselves having to give up far more and receive far less from deals made. politeness doesn't work. business as usual doesn't bring justice. when the Civil Rights Act was passed and signed into law, that didn't happen because black people asked nicely and played by the rules. it took revolution, and was met with extremely violent backlash. when people say that getting angry isn't a solution, I have to disagree vehemently; getting angry is the ONLY solution. what isn't a solution is waiting our turn in a rigged game.
the years of 2012 through 2015 were a hard-fought battle for marriage equality, that saw many heartbreaking gains and losses along the way. people in love were married, and had their marriages annulled. states threatened to sanction anti-gay segregation, and even to execute same-sex lovers. time and time again, states had marriage equality turned down, or had it passed only to be repealed or halted immediately afterwards. and this battle went all the way to the highest court before our victory was achieved.
but even now, that battle isn't over. despite the historic ruling, states continue to circumvent or outright ignore the law. just last night, the state of Georgia passed an unconstitutional anti-gay bill allowing businesses to discriminate against LGBT, and even against all protected classes in the 16th Amendment. the state of Kentucky has passed a law segregating opposite-sex marriage licenses from same-sex marriage licenses. the state South Dakota has passed a law regulating people to use public bathrooms based on assigned gender instead of gender identity, and enforced with a genital inspection.
all but one of the candidates running for republican nominee for president of the United States has sworn an oath to overturn the Supreme Court marriage equality ruling from Obergefell vs Hobbs, and three of the candidates (including one who is still near the top of the pack) have made public campaign appearances at events hosted by radical anti-gay christian pastors where sermons were given declaring homosexuals deserving of the death penalty.
the leading republican candidate has repeatedly cited KKK websites to make anti-black, anti-muslim, and anti-mexican remarks and propose laws that single out members of those demographics and deny them equal rights and justice in the name of safety and American nationalism. doing this has only increased his popularity, which says a lot about America's racist culture.
social media has been used with alarmingly increased frequency to organize honest-to-God pro-rape anti-feminist meetups among misogynists online. a woman has been sentenced to over a decade in prison for having a miscarriage. and women everywhere have been receiving death threats, rape threats, and having their home addresses revealed publicly by online harassers for daring to turn down offers to meet up on dating sites.
a white supremist gunman walked into a historic black church in the state of South Carolina, prayed with the congregants, and then shot 9 of them to death with an automatic rifle in the hopes of starting a race war. in the aftermath of this mass shooting, a contentious battle is still being fought over the confederate rebel flag and it's place in our country. it has gotten to the point where people on social media are flag-filtering their profile pictures with the confederate rebel flag to protest it's removal from South Carolina's capital building.
and an armed militia of racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, islamiphobic, conservative christian insurrectionists have stormed and occupied a federal building in an attempt to take over the government.
we need to stop wasting time, and actually take action. we need to stop silencing victims, and actually stand up in their defense. we need to stop insulting those who call out the hypocrisy and cowardice of the status quo, and instead listen to the voices of the oppressed. people are dying over these issues. our lives are worthe more than politeness and professionalism. our lives are worthe more than the comfort of the privileged.
I will not be calm. I will scream and raise hell until my days are no longer spent wondering if the next time I walk into the bathroom I'll get beat up, or the next time I walk home at night I'll get shot or stabbed.
It's weird: all of these issues are incredibly important to me, and yet they simultaneously feel distant because I'm not American. Which is not to say I don't care, just that I find the extremes of American conservatism even more alien and baffling than most left-wing Americans. But I absolutely agree that for the foreseeable future we need to fight tooth and nail for our rights; there are hopeful signs that the diplomatic route can become more effective in the not-too-distant future (Obama's current chance to appoint a new judge to the SCOTUS; Berny/Hilary their potential to do the same; the deadlock-via-gerrymandering in Congress finally being up for grabs again in 2020) but in the meantime we cannot afford to lose ground or give quarter.
Ever since the Ferguson shooting I've been getting the sense that the American political right is becoming increasingly desperate and flailing, and I do not at all mean for that to sound like a good thing: because when these people get desperate they become dangerous, and they will not quietly concede defeat (inevitable though it may be). The fight for genuine equality is the epitome of things getting worse before they get better, and we are going to see a lot more shootings, arson, open discrimination and outright hate-mongering before things have finally decisively changed. Which is precisely why we must now be more vigilant than ever: because the harder we fight during this peak period of public bigotry, the shorter it will be.
I am really grateful for your words and support in this. thankyou so much, Your Majesty. I love you.