“Qualifications should be the only thing that matter.”
“Why do we have to divide on the basis of race?”
“Isn’t it silly to keep talking about gender?”
“Why all the labels?”

Oh man, do I just love these questions. They always seem to float to the surface when someone who has been marginalized on the basis of gender or race would like to point out that perhaps living on the margins, you know, might suck a little bit.
Then, and only then, do people think it’s silly to talk about all these labels.

The same people who will largely declare the reason they don’t like Hillary had NOTHING to do with her being a woman are the same people who will exclaim you are ridiculous for professing you don’t want to vote for another white guy. Worse, they will allege that you are RACIST. You are SEXIST. You are the one talking about this out loud, so you are obviously the only one who has a problem with it. Sure, these same people have a long track record of only voting for white guys, but that “means nothing” – they were simply voting for the most qualified candidate. Every. Single. Time.

Sooooooo….. throughout history, only white guys have been qualified?

That was the issue?

I am going to go ahead and say: even if that is true, we still have a problem.

But that is their story, and oh man are they sticking to it.

It is kind of cute how predictable this is. Kind of.

Talking to a friend the other day I offered: “Well, that is your perspective as a cis-gendered male…” He asked what that meant, and I said it means you identify as the gender you were born as. His eyes got big. “So I have to have a label…?” I cut him off. “Careful. Are you saying you are the norm and everyone should be measured against you? Base zero needs no label?” Now his big eyes rolled back in his head. “Look I am just saying putting labels on everything just emphasizes the differences – it doesn’t help relations.”

Oh, I see. Now that you are the one with the label, it seems so restrictive, so inaccurate, so inappropriate, so unfair, so…mean.

“But, but…talking about it causes the problem. If everyone would just zip it, lock it, and put it in their pocket, we could all live in peace and harmony.”

Problem solved.

As it turns out, we are usually pretty cool with labels. Our panties only get bunched when there is an upset to the status quo way of thinking. That is when we get all: “Whoa. What is up with all these crazy labels?”

I was talking about Trayvon Martin the other day and was told: “Not everything is about race, Karen. He was a boy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

I’ll say. Wrong place and wrong time for sure, but we don’t think the fact he was black and wearing a hoodie had anything to do with it?

Is this really the story we are going to tell?

Huh.

In the United States, now that our government is beginning to get a bit more colorful and a slightly more female, we now see a diverse group of politicians throwing their name into the running for the presidential run of 2020. People everywhere are wondering if the US is finally ready to elect a woman and whether Cory Booker is too black or too white.

Of course, the refrain, manically shouted in the face of all this: “The most qualified person! That is all that should matter.”

Ah yes, the little “should” word. Perhaps it should be all that matters, but as we can clearly see, that is most definitely not all that matters.

If gender and race did not matter, we would have had diversity in politics way before now.
So, zip it, lock it, and put it in your pocket.

Tell your friends...