“You
never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of
view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” These crucial
words of advice were delivered by the character Atticus in Harper Lee’s
immortal novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
The character’s timeless message about the fundamental need of all human beings
to have empathy for others is not only one of the central themes of the novel,
but also a message that is as essential for our present society as it ever was.
These words are very persistently echoing in my head today after reading the attached
article that talks of a school district in Mississippi that has decided to
completely ban this novel.
Published in 1960, To
Kill a Mockingbird, a piece which some have heralded as one of the greatest
masterpieces of American fiction, recounts a tale of insidious racial
inequality within a small Alabama town. This novel, which was meant to expose
the savage brutality that is often spawned by social inequality and to promote
the importance of compassion and empathy for all of humanity, imparts lessons
to its readers that are absolute in every generation. Why, then, would a school
district ban this book? The only real explanation that we are provided in the
article is from the school board vice president, Kenny Holloway. He states very
simply that the book “makes people uncomfortable.”
Holloway’s words resonate profoundly with me because he
reflects an attitude that I am seeing quite frequently in our society. For
Holloway and many of his peers, keeping students from reading a novel about
racism would spare them the discomfort of being reminded of the social
inequality that has been pervasive throughout our country’s history, thusly
causing them to ignore the vestiges of this injustice that still exist today.
This mentality is so prevalent in our present society that it seems that I
never go a day without hearing a statement, such as, “There was never a problem
before we started talking about it,” or my personal favorite, “Inequality doesn’t
exist any more.” At this point, I’ve become absolutely exhausted trying to
explain to others that purposely turning a blind eye or ignoring an issue doesn’t
cause it to disappear, in the same way that just because we are fortunate enough
not to see or experience an injustice does not mean that it doesn’t exist.
In my college days, I had always found the work of the
renowned child psychologist, Jean Piaget, to be absolutely fascinating. In Piaget’s
theory regarding child development, he believed that infants, before the age of
eight months, lack “object permanence.” What he meant by this is that small
infants have no concept of that which is not in their direct sight. For
instance, a small baby whose bottle has rolled underneath the couch and out of
his or her sight will perceive that bottle as being lost forever, for, in the child's mind, it no
longer exists. As bizarre as this may sound, I believe that this same mindset
manifests itself in many people long after infancy. It seems as though many
individuals feel that if they are able to ignore an unpleasant issue, that
issue will disappear.
I believe that this is why so many people have such an
antagonistic attitude toward people who try to speak up and protest against
social injustice, whether they are combating racism, misogyny, xenophobia,
homophobia, or inequality of any kind. It is that much harder for people to
perpetuate the myth that bigotry doesn’t exist and to remain in this
self-imposed ignorance if they are regularly seeing others protesting against
it. I think that this is why there were comments on two right-wing websites haphazardly encouraging people to drive their cars through protests for social
justice. (Somehow, mysteriously, these comments were promptly deleted from both
websites following the death of Heather Heyer after being struck down by a car
during a counter-protest in Charlottesville, Virginia in August.)
Furthermore, I believe that it is this same mindset that
has caused such an explosive controversy surrounding the posture that athletes
take during the National Anthem at sporting events. These past few weeks, I’ve
been seeing people seething, practically foaming at the mouth, because of these
athletes. Although I totally respect that everyone is entitled to his or her
own opinion, I never got the impression that this small gesture was meant as an
act of disrespect. It always seemed to me that these athletes, in their own way, are simply trying to use their platforms to call attention to the issue of racism on behalf of those who
aren’t privileged enough to have a voice. Frequently I’ll hear comments, such
as, “They’re disrespecting our flag and our country,” and yet, I often wonder
if, in their heart of hearts, anyone really believes this narrative. I often
wonder if, instead, the real frustration engendered by this issue is that it
makes it ever more difficult to misplace “uncomfortable” notions, such as
social inequality, if we have to be reminded of them when we turn on our
televisions.
For some reason, this whole concept always calls to mind
a comical anecdote that my mother often recounts from her childhood. When my
mother was little, she was one day playing in her front yard, and she somehow
managed to knock over and break one of my grandmother’s prized flowers from the
base of the plant. My mother, in a fit of panic and not wanting to anger my
grandmother, nervously came up with a plan. She took scotch tape and frantically attempted
to tape the base of the plant back together while piling up more soil around
the base to hide the tape. Needless to say, when the plant began to visibly shrivel up and wither, my mother had no choice but to confess to my grandmother what
she had done. Trying to conceal the problem on the surface did not remedy the
situation. The issue was much deeper, and the plant would have to be pulled out
from its roots.
Sometimes, I swear, I see people exhibiting this same
mentality that my mother did as a child in this story. So often I witness people
attempting to trick themselves into believing that if they shield a dark and
ugly truth from plain view, they can pretend as though it never existed. An old
proverb states, "There are none so blind as those who will not see. The
most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know.”
I
agree; what is more is that being willfully blind to something “uncomfortable” will
not cause it to disappear any more than banning a book on racism will erase
social inequality from existence. If we are to believe the character Atticus
that the only way to truly empathize with another person is to “consider things from
his point of view,” then we must not render having empathy for others impossible
by silencing them.
--Daniella Rossi
