History is a funny thing.
It teaches mistakes, shows the path to how we achieved our present and most importantly, it shows how things can change or stay the same.
While sitting in a dark movie theater watching The Help the weekend before this issue of Watermark hit the streets, I was captivated by the incredible story of the 1960s African-American maids at the center of the story and how they were treated by white society.
I was born in the 1970s long enough after the Civil Rights movement unaware of just how strained relationships between races were. Sure, I had studied the Civil Rights Act in high school and I was aware of how black students were treated when segregation ended. I’m not clueless. I’ve seen racism, even in my own extended family.
I’m also aware that racism exists in 2011. But it’s rare that I hear such stupidity shared as openly as it was in the film. I’ve never heard, as it was expressed in this incredible movie, a fear of catching some weird disease by simply letting a person of another race use your restroom or by embracing a person with darker skin.
After the movie ended my partner and I went to dinner, where I shared my love of the story and my surprise at the ignorance represented on screen. I said something like, It’s amazing how far we’ve come in 50 years.
As soon as the words passed my lips, I realized I had to correct myself.
In fact, we haven’t come very far at all. Just look at the pool of presidential candidates eyeing the White House.
Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry embody exactly what was wrong with politicians who battled against racial equality in the 1960s. They fear change and are convinced that their kind (heterosexuals) are superior to those who are different (the LGBT community.)
An acquaintance of mine, who has different views on politics than I do, always shares friendly political advice or warnings via Facebook. When I respond to this person about a politician’s stance on LGBT issues, the response is always something like, you have to look at the bigger picture. It’s typically followed by something related to the economy.
The problem with that retort is there is no bigger picture than equality.
Imagine if in the 1960s, John F. Kennedy was worried about the bigger picture instead of arguing for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Sure, the President had plenty of other issues to worry about the Cuban Missile Crisis, for example but he saw a need in his homeland that too many of our politicians today seem to miss.
I would hope that the descendants of any political figures who stood in the way of racial equality would be ashamed of their relatives’ mark on history.
In The Help, Bryce Dallas Howard plays Hily Holbrook, a Southern belle who is giddy with racism. With her 1960s hairdo, Howard resembles GOP frontrunner Bachmann. The only difference is the film’s fictional character uses hatred to target racial differences rather than differences in sexual orientation. (I should note that, in real life, Howard seems supportive of same-sex marriage, having attended the wedding of her publicist to his long-term partner earlier this year.)
Perry, who believes we can pray away the gay, is no different than the bus driver in the film who refuses to take his black passengers any further during a riot following the assassination of Medgar Evers. Both men see a segment of society as unworthy or beneath them. That’s a sad place for anyone especially a political hopeful to position themselves.
Too many people seem to forget that while we live in the present, we are making history. In 10, 20, or maybe 50 years, when a film is made about the LGBT fight for equality, an actress or actor will be asked to portray the likes of Bachmann, Perry or even Rick Santorum, who’s ongoing tirades against the LGBT community have already scarred his political future.
I wonder how political figures today will feel when their ignorance is portrayed with historical accuracy on the big screen and if they will still see the big picture as something other than equality for all.
