Thursday, August 24, 2006
Congressmen No Longer Represent Us
Even as late as 2006, as hot-topic issues such as the fighting in the Middle East and immigration are discussed throughout the country, we continue to see elected representatives at the highest level making clearly offensive remarks with racist overtones. Most recently Senator Burns of Montana described his roofer as a "little man" from Guatemala and sounded rather condescending in discussing how he verified that his roofer was not an illegal alien. Just a few weeks ago Senator George Allen called one of his interns by a racially offensive term. A few years ago Representative Moran of Virginia stated that were it not for Jews who supported the invasion of Iraq we would not be in Iraq. And it was less than five years ago that Senator Lott was forced to resign after making statements to the effect that America would be better off if it was still segregated.
In a day and age where people are clearly becoming more enlightened (witness the success of the movie Brokeback Mountain less than a year ago), why do we continue to have a Congress that is composed of people with these kinds of views? Quite simply, the average age of all Senators and Representatives in Congress is 60 years old. That means the average person in Congress was born around 1946. In 1946 blacks were still sitting at the back of the bus. The Civil Rights Act was still almost 20 years away. So the average person born in 1946 grew up in segregated schools where discrimination was not only common but legal. Women stayed at home in the kitchen. Japanese-Americans had only recently been released from their internment camps. In other words, the average Congressman grew up during a time where discirimination was the norm.
I am not saying that these people are evil or racists or bad. Certainly it would be ridiculous to say that anyone born in 1946 is a racist. But quite frankly, growing up in a era where discrimination was the norm can't possibly have left no effect on people. People from that era had to fight against the norm in order to not discriminate. In 1962 the Academy of Motion Picture would nominate Breakfast at Tiffany's for numerous Academy Awards, a movie that contains one of the most offensive caricatures of Japanese ever made.
My neighbor, a very nice old man who was originally from Cuba and grew up in the 40's in the melting pot of New York city, casually refers to black people as n*ggers. Mind you, he does not use that term in a derogatory sense, he means no harm whatsoever to blacks, but he really thinks that n*gger is a perfectly reasonable term for blacks. He simply grew up in a different time.
I think this is still the problem afflicting Congress. These people aren't necessarily racist, they aren't necessarily sexist, they aren't necessarily homophobic. But they did grow up in a very different time, and they are simply out of touch with today's generation. Many of these people cannot possibly represent America anymore. The average age of people in the United States of America is approximately 40 years old. That means there is a 20 year gap between the average age of Americans and the average age of people in Congress. Growing up in 1966 was undoubtedly quite different from growing up in 1946. Until today's generation of Congressmen retire and let younger representatives take over, we will continue to see remarks like these that are completely out of touch with how today's generation feel.
In a day and age where people are clearly becoming more enlightened (witness the success of the movie Brokeback Mountain less than a year ago), why do we continue to have a Congress that is composed of people with these kinds of views? Quite simply, the average age of all Senators and Representatives in Congress is 60 years old. That means the average person in Congress was born around 1946. In 1946 blacks were still sitting at the back of the bus. The Civil Rights Act was still almost 20 years away. So the average person born in 1946 grew up in segregated schools where discrimination was not only common but legal. Women stayed at home in the kitchen. Japanese-Americans had only recently been released from their internment camps. In other words, the average Congressman grew up during a time where discirimination was the norm.
I am not saying that these people are evil or racists or bad. Certainly it would be ridiculous to say that anyone born in 1946 is a racist. But quite frankly, growing up in a era where discrimination was the norm can't possibly have left no effect on people. People from that era had to fight against the norm in order to not discriminate. In 1962 the Academy of Motion Picture would nominate Breakfast at Tiffany's for numerous Academy Awards, a movie that contains one of the most offensive caricatures of Japanese ever made.
My neighbor, a very nice old man who was originally from Cuba and grew up in the 40's in the melting pot of New York city, casually refers to black people as n*ggers. Mind you, he does not use that term in a derogatory sense, he means no harm whatsoever to blacks, but he really thinks that n*gger is a perfectly reasonable term for blacks. He simply grew up in a different time.
I think this is still the problem afflicting Congress. These people aren't necessarily racist, they aren't necessarily sexist, they aren't necessarily homophobic. But they did grow up in a very different time, and they are simply out of touch with today's generation. Many of these people cannot possibly represent America anymore. The average age of people in the United States of America is approximately 40 years old. That means there is a 20 year gap between the average age of Americans and the average age of people in Congress. Growing up in 1966 was undoubtedly quite different from growing up in 1946. Until today's generation of Congressmen retire and let younger representatives take over, we will continue to see remarks like these that are completely out of touch with how today's generation feel.
# posted by Chris @ 12:11 AM 
