Division and Equity

Thanksgiving is a special holiday to many as it facilitates the gathering of close relatives and friends to share a meal and conversation. Family members from all over the states with all different upbringings convene to discuss recent schooling or sports achievements, family news, and eventually, polarizing topics. Suddenly, the peaceful and joyous environment of Thanksgiving dinner is ruined as a relative mentions something, or holds a view, which makes the table erupt with angry discourse. It is only natural to hold different values and opinions as we were all raised in completely different worlds and our environments affirm what is expected and okay. In many ways, the fighting at the Thanksgiving table reminds me of the current climate of the US. Everywhere I look, there is a someone calling someone else stupid or worseless than for a view they hold, something they preach, or even how they look. Writer Michael Paterniti examines this relationship between the judge and the judged in his piece “Eating Jack Hooker’s Cow.” Americans today appear to be more divided than ever, though I do believe young people can be the beginning to addressing modern issues. The world is a scary place, but can be lighter with the help of others, an aspect of humanity explored by Danusha Laméris in her poem Small Kindnesses. While issues of racial and political divide are layered, the foundation of these problems is a lack of empathy, respect, and patience. Racism and political conflict have torn America apart, with injustices of the past, present, and future at the forefront of society; It is crucial to acknowledge that the division of the American people can only be healed by listening to other viewpoints with patience, respect, and empathy.

As an emerging adult, it falls upon me and my generation to shape what the future of our country will look like, including the views and ideas that percolate through every layer of our culture. You may recall the month of May, 2020. It was an unstable month of my life like many others at the time, with my junior year of high school getting torn out from under me and a pandemic looming on the horizon. The unsettledness I felt only worsened near the end of the month, as news started to circulate of the horrific police brutality murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The world lit on fire that day. People across the world took to the streets to show their support to those who faced racial injustice. It felt good to look online and see the collaboration of people of all colors to support oppressed populations. Though, suddenly my feelings of pride toward our country were replaced with embarrassment as I started to see people responding to the murder with further violence and hateful actions toward peaceful demonstrations. These events, both Floyd’s murder and the months that followed, exemplify the issue with our country, a lack of empathy. It feels like no one views anything the same, despite the context, evidence, or representation an issue may face. So, how do we address this glaring problem of people being unable to see issues from the inside?

The capacity to view the perspective of others and feel their feelings on a controversial?an issue is part of the solution to our division in America. Bringing up the hard questions, sharing experiences, and being comfortable to share the impact of trauma is the first step to creating a more inclusive society in the future. While we cannot solve major, generationally rooted problems with small actions such as?, these actions do add up in a snowball effect. Author of “Is Empathy Overrated” and professor at Yale University Paul Bloom would likely state that I am giving empathetic thinking too much credence. His view is that, “…empathy can be narrow, biased, and surprisingly insensitive.” (Bloom). I contrast however with the ideas of both myself and poet Danusha Laméris; In Laméris’ poem “Small Kindnesses”, she states that through seemingly minute actions, we can connect to others in a way that transcends labels. Laméris discusses how we “Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other,” (Laméris) pushing forward the idea that people, in general, just want to live a non-confrontational life that is full of the small things that give us pleasure, like a hot cup of coffee or someone complimenting our hat (Laméris). But it goes deeper than that. Empathy allows us to look at a person who is suffering and do our best to understand where that suffering is coming from; We can assimilate that suffering and loss as our own, and we can learn to address complex or difficult issues and combat them in day-to-day life. Being open to change with both hearts and minds can also help us diminish the divided state of this country in the long term.

 While I see the US ias more divided than ever, it is in part due to issues from 25+ years ago that are still around today, unresolved. Parallels between the past and present are something I thought about while reading Michael Paterniti’s “Eating Jack Hooker’s Cow.” This essay delves into the generational foundation of viewpoint and how people get stuck in their own expectation of what is right. Paterniti describes two rival motel owners, American born Jack Hooker, and Laotian immigrant Bout Sinhpraseut in his piece. He details how each motel owner holds hatred for the other based mostly on racially motivated actions. Paterniti delves deeply into the issues of racism and xenophobia as the people in the essay consistently use language that is harsh, callous, and prejudicial of others who do not look the same., including slurs. Jack and Bev feel wronged by the fact that immigrants are stealing their business, while Bout’s prejudices lie particularly in what she has absorbed from her turbulent entry and life in America (Paterniti). Ideas of prejudice, and Jack’s jealousy of Bout, really stick out as Jack asks, “…do you know how it feels to have a hundred years on this land…then have it taken from you, just ripped away by people who washed up yesterday.” (Paterniti). I feel like this quote exemplifies Jack’s mindset perfectly. He takes the success of others as an insult and does not do anything to fix it. Jack thinks of Bout and her late partner Dwayne as scam artists, assuming Bout does not pay taxes and that she is not truly American. But the whole point of this piece, as I interpreted it, is that being American looks different for a lot of people and respecting various those backgrounds is crucial to understanding someone’s viewpoint.

“Eating Jack Hooker’s Cow” by Michael Paterniti exemplifies the prevalence of belief templates in people’s lives as described by David Foster Wallace in his speech “This is Water”. According to DFW, “…the exact same experience can mean two totally different things to two different people…two different belief templates…two different ways of constructing meaning from experience.” (Foster Wallace). DFW posits that while people can have the same experience, they will always see it differently based on how they were raised and what they take in from their environment as an acceptable response. This idea of different belief templates is shown in “Eating Jack Hooker’s Cow” when Paterniti details the viewpoint of Jack on Bout’s purchase of the Thunderbird and Holiday motels. Jack feels a distinct hatred for Bout and “her people” stating his dislike of how, “They’re holding [his] money in their yellow fingers.” (Paterniti). While Bout takes pride in her success at the Thunderbird and Holiday, detailing the fact that she had to work and sacrifice everything to get that success, and despite this, Jack still harbors hatred for her because of the way his brain works. He exemplifies a stagnant belief template, feeling a disservice because he is not succeeding as much as Bout despite being “Pure American,””, while his failure is really rooted in poor business practices and likely his racism towards potential patrons as well. Jack’s inability to shift his understanding of Bout’s work ethic to be positive shows how our upbringing and experience shape the way we view the world.

The ideas of belief templates and blind certainty play into what I think is the root of American division: rigid generational values and non-evolution of ideas. Ideas and opinions typically pass from parent to child and depending on that child’s placement on the spectrum of rebellion, they may just settle into their parental ideals and no evolution of opinion occurs. It is a good thing when people disagree. Disagreement gives a platform for discussion, especially when both parties are given the proper time to express their thoughts. Being patient in discussion and respectful of the background of others is crucial to being both a tolerant listener, but also for you to learn and evolve your viewpoint as well. I do however also believe that opinions can be damaging, especially if you act on opinions of things you have no right to comment on. For example, I worry about the division of Americans on the issues related to women’s bodily autonomy. Increasingly, I feel concerned as I hear more about women who are not taken seriously by doctors or having to carry a rapist’s baby to term despite it putting the women’s health at risk. I think this issue, as well as many others, require long discussions and deep listening between everyone who is directly involved with it. In another sense, iIt is impossible for me to make decisions for people of color as I am not in any way a part of that denomination. I can acknowledge and aid however I can, but the only place I have in people of color issues is related to their deserved equity and being an ally in their process. Division is caused by people putting themselves into issues that do not involve them and/or interfering with those marginalized groups doing what will be best for them. The more people discuss and challenge their long held, generational ideas, the sooner we can have a more equitable, less divided society. This is a positive of being a young person in today’s climate; You can be outspoken on issues, but also have the capacity to listen and learn about novel ones.

Being patient towards those with different views, respecting a person’s upbringing, and showing basic empathy towards those who face struggles are the three major postulates of my views on how division can be mended. Issues of the past are still relevant today as long standing, urgent concerns, particularly those discussed by Paterniti in “Eating Jack Hooker’s Cow.””. It is so important to remember that long lived cliche of “history is doomed to repeat itself if people do not learn from it.” We need to, as a country, use our failures of the past to guide our repair of inequity and use empathetic thinking to understand why we should care about these past issues in the first place. Laméris’ poem makes us think about the connection of humans through smaller actions of kindness, reminding us that, “We have so little of each other, now…Only these brief moments of exchange.” (Laméris). “Small Kindnesses” reminds us that the way we stay non-divided is by understanding each other. There are people who want to be part of the solution, and that brings me hope for the future of this country.

Works Cited

Foster Wallace, David. “This Is Water by David Foster Wallace (Full Transcript and Audio).” Farnam Street, 14 Jan. 2021, https://fs.blog/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/.

Laméris, Danusha. “Small Kindnesses.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 Sept. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/magazine/poem-small-kindnesses.html. 

Paterniti, Michael. “Eating Jack Hooker’s Cow.” Esquire, 22 Aug. 2020, https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a24131/jack-hookers-cow-1197/.