May 11, 2010

• American Identity

  I have two phobias.  One is static electricity.  I can’t stand that shit.  It boggles my mind that we can send a man to that big fucking rock in the night sky, that we can collide protons at hypersonic speeds at CERN, and that we can believe that Drake is a Canadian AND has street cred (read: Snow), but we can’t invent something that will negate static electricity once and for all.  It’s depressing knowing that I am a member of the most highly evolved species in the history of this planet, but a zap from the door handle to my office can bring me to my knees.  This is why I will never move to Las Vegas.  It’s too dry, which makes it a giant electrical generator.  That and because everyone in Las Vegas is a fucking asshole (except for Brandon Flowers and Lance Burton, who are genuinely nice people).

  My other phobia is myself.  Or rather, pictures of myself.  Everyone who knows me knows that I, for the most part, actively avoid having my picture taken.  And if my picture is taken, I actively avoid not looking at it.  I suppose the obvious reason for this would be that I have a poor self-image.  This is mostly true, considering that I cannot stand to look at myself in a mirror or window reflection.  But what I’ve come to realize is that I probably have deeper self-identity issues other than thinking I’m ugly.  I’m uncomfortable looking at ANY pictures of me.  This includes anything from the past, like high school yearbooks, photo albums, and baby pictures.  Furthermore, I don’t remember 90% of my life before seventh grade.  I don’t know why.  To me, my entire existence began sometime around 13-years-old, and even that is a little hazy.

  Many people have said that history is the foundation to the present.  If this is true, then I suppose my identity is spotty and incomplete.  I don’t know if this is a problem that many people have, but it’s an argument that I’ve seen many people make lately.  Doctors aren’t considered legitimate if they didn’t go through a decade college; gangster rappers aren’t considered legitimate if they didn’t grow up on the streets.  Their identities are based on what they’ve been through. 

  In 2010, there seems to be a national identity crisis.  This may or may not have been spurned by the election of Barack Obama, but you cannot deny that this is a politically charged era.  As such, many people have been harkening back to the Founding Fathers.  The Tea Party Movement, with their colonial-time outfits and whatnot, is dedicated to upholding the ideals of low taxation, small government, and personal freedoms.  They ferociously defend the Constitution and passionately want to take back a country which they feel was stolen from them.  In essence, they want to redefine America the way they feel the Founding Fathers meant for it.

  It’s hard to begrudge anyone who wants to defend the Founding Fathers or the Constitution.  George Washington and Co. fought for freedom, which is admirable.  And, as it turns out, the Constitution is a pretty good document that outlines a pretty good system of republic government, one that includes a bicameral legislative body and a system of checks and balances between the different branches.  The Founding Fathers and the Constitution are the foundation of America’s identity.  The Tea Party is right about this.  But they forget, or refuse to acknowledge, is that the Founding Fathers and the Constitution both violated civil rights, and these violations are also sewn into the fabric of America’s identity.

  It wouldn’t be fair of me to accuse Tea Partiers as being bigots.  Most of them have probably never uttered a racial slur, owned a slave, or denied a woman the right to vote.  I can accuse them of being hypocritical, though.  They feel as if it is their responsibility to uphold the freedoms defined by the Founding Fathers, but they don’t feel responsible for correcting the civil rights violations that the Founding Fathers institutionalized.  The facts don’t deny it.  Those living in poverty are mostly non-white.  Consequently, minorities have poorer public education than whites and have a harder time getting into universities.  Women don’t get paid equally as men for equal work, and a Mexican national has no right to exist within Arizona borders.  People sometimes say, “I didn’t own slaves or steal land, so why is any of this my problem?”  To this I ask, “You also didn’t fight in the American Revolution, so why should you be free?”  If it’s our responsibility to fight wars to defend the freedom that was given to us, then it’s also our responsibility to fight the war on the racism and sexism that was also given to us. 

  History isn’t selective, and neither is our identity.  The Founding Fathers gave us good and bad.  You can’t have one without the other.  This is why Tea Partiers are not believable Americans.  They only want the good.  Similarly, this is why Ice Cube will never be believable in family comedy movies.  He forgot that he was gangster.

  I don’t know much about my own past.  Perhaps it’s because I’m American.

  • 4:09 pm
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