The Problem With Minorities
Throughout history, identity was and still is one of the main breaking points that tear communities apart, causing tensions and rifts that sometimes escalate into verbal or physical violence. There are plenty of examples. Slavery and racism, misogyny and objectification of women, homophobia and persecution of ethnic minorities. And it happened everywhere. Egyptian pharaohs enslaved Jews, Roman emperors persecuted early Christians.
Spain was virtually cleansed of Moorish culture after the Catholic reconquest in the Middle Ages. When the former Al-Andalus was recaptured, the Great Mosque of Cordoba was redesigned into a Catholic cathedral that preserved elements of Moorish architecture like the minaret. Important Muslim achievements were hushed up or forgotten.
The artist and polymath Ziryab was a successful reformist, who reinvented social routines and habits by introducing a three-meal daily diet or inventing early forms of toothpaste and deodorant. Even though we use all of this in our daily lives it takes a bit of research to trace it back to him. And of course, the Holocaust is the most famous example of troubles minorities are continuously exposed even nowadays.
While we support women’s rights by campaigning and dissecting the issue in academic circles we forget something we were witnessing on our own doorstep for centuries. Practically up until yesterday, or to be more precise, the fall of the great monarchies of Europe like France, Russia, Italy and the transformation of British Empire into tabloid fodder in the 1980s, women were used as a political currency.
Queen Victoria strategically married her own offspring into European monarchies as a means of political allegiance. Empress Maria Theresia of Austria had Marie Antoinette marry Louis XVI, the heir to the French throne. The princess wasn’t welcomed too enthusiastically at the court of Versailles, but love wasn’t in the contract anyway and both parties in it were probably aware of the fact.
Sometimes, it was pre-arranged before adulthood. I don’t think these young women had any say in the matter. Apart from occasional happy coincidences where it was a genuine emotional bond, like the last Romanovs. Unfortunately, Nicholas II was much better at writing love letters to his wife than at the business of politics. Which led to the Revolution and downfall of the Russian Empire. Catherine The Great is an exception because she assumed full control the Russian throne through her own efforts and extensively invested into her own education, a rarity for women in European courts at the time.
It’s very stressful to be a part of minority communities, because so many activists take it upon themselves to fight your own battles. Sometimes it’s just an another notch one someone’s humanitarian CV. Natalie Portman famously wore a designer cape to the Oscars embroidered with names of women that were unjustly omitted from nominations for best directing. Unsurprisingly, it turned out that in her own production company the only female director was Portman herself. You know what girl? If you’re so adamant about your sisterhood, why don’t you hire one of them?
Who the hell gives activists permission to speak on behalf of a whole community? I don’t remember the LGBT community hiring Ellen DeGeneres as their official spokesperson, yet she seems to behave like one. And there’s Lizzo with her body positivity shtick. Honey, we don’t care for your affirmative attitude to our fat pads. We don’t care what Sean Penn thinks about Vladimir Putin. And we certainly don’t care for Leonardo DiCaprio’s ideas about climate change since he delivers them with his private jet. This reduces minorities, diverse by nature, into monoliths that fit specific expectations and purposes. Like a side gig to their celebrity supporter’s main job: pretending to be someone they’re not.
Celebrities stick to social issues like moths to a flame. “Look at me! I don’t spend all of my free time lounging on the Amalfi Coast! I’m a good person! I build schools in Africa and adopt third-world kids! (unless they’re white)”. Of course, it’s much more subtle than that but you get my point. People with real-world problems shouldn’t be treated as tokens for those in the position to help them. Because they don’t need pity or photo-ops. They need education, more opportunities and jobs. They have their own working brain and their own voice. But in a world where celebrity lingerie or skincare products represent inclusivity, the woes of average Joes don’t stand a chance.
Symbols can be a counterproductive burden to communities, especially since they can be twisted and abused in wrong hands. Originally, the swastika was an ancient Eurasian symbol representing prosperity and good fortune. When Hitler decided to re-brand it, well, you know what happened there. And it didn’t bring good fortune to anyone, apart from the privileged few before they helped themselves to a cyanide pill to escape the gallows in Nuremberg. Those that are used as scapegoats for someone else’s claim to political power need more and need better. Clickbait rarely translates into truly meaningful changes.
There’s a reason why the fight for victims of sexual abuse in Hollywood was shaped the way it was. Styled as hashtag with “Me” instead of “You” it reeked of a self-centered individualism, opportunism and hypocrisy. Don’t be offended or surprised. In the new world order, everything is about Me, instead about Us.
A moral selfie, dressed up as an activist discourse that can be boiled down the very thing from which it took its name. A hashtag. Problems of harassment won’t disappear, but the global PR machine is busy looking for other fish to fry. In the 1990s it was war-torn Bosnia, afterwards global terrorism and the immigrant crisis, then human rights in the Middle East and finally, the red carpet in Zelensky’s war room.
We need to find a solution between these mutually exclusive extremes. The same goes for any other field because the middle ground has become a political terra incognita where no one wants to go lest they lose the way back to their populist supporters. That’s why communities must do everything they can to reclaim their own narrative before someone else gets the opportunity to use it for their own goals. I don’t remember what the famous Live Aid was exactly about. What I do remember is Freddie Mercury in a white tanktop and studded leather arm band playing Bohemian Rhapsody at the Wembley. You too? No need for a hashtag.
If this is truly the case, fringe communities are just charms on the bracelets of the rich and powerful. They’re granted a bit of spotlight the amount of which equals bits of food that fall on the floor as an accidental treat for your pet. In a weird situation like that, they have to rely on someone else’s eagerness to share, which creates pressure and anxiety that impact much more than just your work.
The age of illusions, image and projection has created a thick smokescreen hiding our own Wizard of Oz. And no amound of ruby red shoes will take us back to Kansas. I’d prefer a ride back to the future in a red DeLorean instead. Over there, to the end of the rainbow, somewhere in a lullaby. Do not despair, for now I will go full Deepak Chopra on your ass: there’s no rainbow without a rain. Only the luckiest souls descend back into earth without a stain. Ok, I’m out of rhymes. It’s tea time in England, and I prefer thyme.
