As soon as Kamala Harris was confirmed as the choice for Vice-President on the Democratic ticket, the debate began. In a sane world, that debate might focus on her background, education, work experience, and suitability for the requirements of the position. Instead, however, the burning issue is whether – as the daughter of a Jamaican-born father and an Indian-born mother – she is Black enough or South Asian enough to appeal to appeal to voters from either demographic. Then Black activists got into the act and argued that Harris doesn’t meet the race test because she was not descended from slaves and therefore did not come from a family that had struggled against racial discrimination for generations.
When are people white enough?
While I was trying to understand this logic, I learned that being white brings its own distinctions and problems. In particular, whites who have made a success of their lives may be part of that cohort known as the privileged white. Moreover, it has now been determined that many from this category make a show of helping the poor or less fortunate only so that it will look good on their resumes or in their Instagram account. Their behaviour is labelled as “white savourism.”
As if all of this isn’t mind-boggling enough, I then learned that a right wing pastor named Rick Wiles, on his TruNews program, claims that vegan food is the work of Lucifer, that folks who become vegan will find their DNA altered, that they will no longer be real humans and, thus, will be denied entry to heaven. [NO, I am not making this up. Who could make up such stuff?]
When are people purple enough?
Seeking a more reasonable subject for consideration, I turned my attention to what might happen if the Purple People Eater came to earth. I am referring, for the benefit of younger readers, to the one-eyed, one-horned, flyin’ purple people eater made famous in the hit song by Sheb Wooley in 1958. Given what passes for rational thinking these days, one might expect vigorous debate on social media along these lines.
Is the creature purple enough? Were both parents completely purple or was he the offspring of a red mother and a blue father? [If so, the fact that red and blue are the colours of the Republicans and Democrats might suggest that in at least this one instance members managed to come together across party lines.] If that is the case, is that multi-coloured parentage likely to make the creature’s colour acceptable to either parental pigmentation group? Is the creature in fact a he, or might it be a she, or possibly a transgendering creature (which would really set social media afire). What about diet? If the creature strays from eating good, patriotic, red-meat-loving people and consumes some vegans, might this affect the DNA of the Purple People Eater? As you can see, the questions are almost endless.
When can we just be people?
Might we hope for a more sane approach – in which we judge individuals on their merits, not their pigmentation or parental history?