August 29, 2018
Page 13
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O PINION
Derogatory Labels Shut Down the Conversation
The political
right and
victim status
l aura f inley
In all hones-
ty, there is a lot I
do not understand
about the Right.
Although the Left
is far from flaw-
less, it strikes me
that the Right is full of hypocrisy.
They don’t want big government
to tell me what to do and not do
with my vagina—until they do
want exactly that. They want the
free market to be uninhibited yet
take all manner of funding from
interest groups and allot record
levels of corporate welfare—and
impose ant-free trade tariffs. They
don’t want undocumented immi-
grants until they do want them as
laborers. And on, and on…
These hypocrisies are perni-
cious, but one that really boils my
blood is the calling out of the Left
as “snowflakes” who simply want
to maintain victim status while at
the same time fulling embracing
victimhood. While this is true of
many on the Right, no one em-
bodies that hypocrisy better than
Donald Trump.
Calling out the Left is part of
the broader attack waged by the
Right, and by Trump himself,
against so-called political cor-
by
rectness. Labeling the Left as po-
litically correct or as snowflakes
merely serves to shut down con-
versation and dismiss important
ideas. As Dana Schwartz wrote in
a February 2017 article for GQ,
however, “There is not a sin-
gle political point a liberal
can make on the Internet for
which ‘You triggered, snow-
flake?’ cannot be the come-
back. Its purpose is dismiss-
ing liberalism as something
effeminate, and also infan-
luniak novel of the same name.
In it, the narrator joins an under-
ground men’s fighting club, where
members repeat the mantra, “You
are not a beautiful and unique
snowflake.” Men’s rights activists,
bodybuilding forums, and the po-
litical Right have picked up on this
mantra, which many have called
the “manosphere.” In reality, the
roots are far deeper, emanating
from the Right’s need to reject the
threat of communism by labeling
it “red” or “pink,” hence “wussi-
ing a healthy appetite for feeling
oppressed.” What makes one a
snowflake, supposedly? An in-
flated sense of self-importance,
an inability to handle criticism,
demand for respect, and a sense of
victimhood supposedly dispropor-
tionate to reality. Sound familiar?
That is Donald Trump embodied.
When he’s insulted, he melts
down on Twitter, berating people
in a fashion not dissimilar to a
middle schooler. He is, supposed-
ly, a victim of various attacks by
What makes one a snowflake, supposedly?
An inflated sense of self-importance, an
inability to handle criticism, demand
for respect, and a sense of victimhood
supposedly disproportionate to reality. Sound
familiar? That is Donald Trump embodied.
tile, an outgrowth of the lessons
you were taught in kindergarten.
‘Sharing is caring’? Communism.
‘Feelings are good’? Facts over
feelings. ‘Everyone is special and
unique’? ‘Shut up, snowflake.’”
The derogatory use of the term
snowflake comes, in large part,
from the film Fight Club, an ad-
aptation of the 1996 Chuck Pah-
fied” or feminine. Republicans,
then, use the rhetoric of “men”
while Democrats are “women.”
But, in reality, those sling-
ing the snowflake allegations, as
Amanda Hess wrote in June 2017
in the New York Times magazine,
“tend to seem pretty aggrieved
themselves — hypersensitive to
dissent or complication and nurs-
individuals and institutions, most
often the press, of course, but also
Hollywood celebrities, Broadway
stars, even a Gold Star mother.
He is the victim of a “witch hunt”
regarding collusion with the Rus-
sians in the 2016 election. Could
any words better describe victim
status than “witch hunt?”
Trump won the election by
owning and encouraging vic-
tim status. His squad was all too
quick to buy the rhetoric that
their jobs have been lost or are
at risk to immigrants, that people
from certain countries threaten
our safety, that women levy false
accusations to destroy men, and
that rights for LGBT individu-
als threatens the sanctity of the
“American family,” among oth-
er things. Even “Make America
Great Again” presumes some
great travesty befell the poor na-
tion. Victims must be returned to
a state of prominence!
Likewise, the notion that the
Left is too soft to handle certain
conversations and the minimiz-
ing of people feeling “triggered”
is also in the Right’s playbook,
albeit using different language
and tactics. The continued efforts
to criminalize nonviolent protest,
for example, show that the Right
is all too happy to shut down di-
alogue.
I believe that there is something
to be said about overdoing victim
status. That is a worthwhile con-
versation. But when the very real
picture of the U.S. is one that is
still tremendously racist, sexist,
militaristic and unequal, it is deep-
ly infuriating that negative labels
prohibit real discussion and actual
action.
Laura Finley, Ph.D., syndicat-
ed by PeaceVoice, teaches in the
Barry University Department of
Sociology & Criminology.
Children Want Adults to Protect Them, Not Guns
A prayer to stand up
and say ‘no more’
m arian w right e delman
Twelve people were killed and at least
60 others were injured by guns during
one weekend in Chicago this month.
Fourteen of these shooting victims were children and teen-
agers, the youngest an 11-year-old boy who was shot in
the leg.
Kenny Ivory, 17, was shot and killed while riding his
bike a block from his home. Jahnae Patterson, 17, died
after being shot in the face while standing outside during
a nighttime block party. Two more 17-year-olds and a
14-year-old were shot and injured at the same party. Four
teenage girls were among the mourners shot after a fu-
neral.
The same weekend, students and families from the
Parkland, Fla., high school where 14 students and three
adults were shot and killed on Valentine’s Day led a march
at the National Rifle Association’s Northern Virginia
headquarters pleading for common sense gun control It
happened on what should have been Parkland victim Joa-
quin Oliver’s 18th birthday.
Last year his family celebrated with a surprise party as
he started his senior year. This year his parents sang happy
by
birthday in a crowd carrying signs reading “One Child is
Worth More Than All the Guns on Earth” and “Children
Over Guns!”
Our children are crying out for adults to protect them,
not guns – and our children are dying while powerful lob-
bies and political leaders refuse to act. I wrote just recent-
ly about 10-year-old Makiyah Wilson, shot and killed last
month on the doorstep of her Washington, D.C. home on
her way to the ice cream truck across the courtyard.
When will we do something? When will adults across
our nation join every single parent who refuses to bury
another child and stand up and say no more?
I offer this prayer for all children, especially those
who are victims of war and violence everywhere – in-
cluding their own homes, front porches and neighbor-
hoods, streets and schools, and their own countries and
at the border.
O God of all time
Yesterday, today, tomorrow, and eternity
Give us courage in our lifetimes
To make war on war
Which leaves behind waifs and widows
Rubble of spirit, home, and community.
Mothers, grandmothers, and all with a mothering spirit
Let us declare and demand:
No more war
No more violence and abuse
No more killing of our young
O God of yesterday, today, tomorrow, and eternity
Our dwelling place in all generations
Give us courage to sow seeds of life and hope for the
future
And to fight with all our moral might for justice for every
child
Help us to pluck the thorns of despair from our children’s
lives.
Mothers, grandmothers, and all with a mothering spirit
Let us declare and demand:
No more hunger
No more homelessness
No more poverty
O God of yesterday, every child’s history
O God of today, every living child’s birthright
O God of tomorrow, every child’s inheritance
O God of eternity, every child’s hope
Lift our voices against the spiritual and cultural pollution
which leave dreamless and purposeless the fruit of our
wombs.
Mothers, grandmothers, and all with a mothering spirit
Let us stand together and build a world fit for children
Calling all to serve, to care, and to act to leave no child
behind.
Marian Wright Edelman is president of the Children’s
Defense Fund.