In years past, when one of my kids (who shall remain nameless) would be reminded not to repeat a small or large infraction, s/he would respond in the same way. "Mom, I haven't done that since fifth grade!"
"Don't be late for school."
"I haven't been late since fifth grade."
"Be careful not to lose that library book."
"Mom, that was in fifth grade."
"Answer your cell phone when I call."
"I always do, ever since fifth grade."
Etc.
I was forced to conclude that either my memory was implacably fixated on one particular school year in this person's life or fifth grade was a very bad year.
More likely, though, my child's response reflected the desire to be seen in the here and now only and not through the lens of our history together. Unfortunately, life doesn't work that way. History matters. Whether in the family, the classroom (you teachers know - that kid who calls out once, you ignore. But that kid who interrupts you at every turn, you can't ignore), or in society at large, history matters. People don't behave in a vacuum. Newton's Third Law of Motion tell us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction (I learned that in fifth grade). And while it's easy to accept that fact when talking about physical objects, sometimes it's not so easy when thinking about the events that have shaped the beliefs, policy, practices, and general racial atmosphere of our country. For a lot of us, when it comes to race we want to remember the bad stuff as ancient history. We want to put racism in a pre-civil rights movement box and keep it there as securely as my child kept memories of wrong-doing in the secure vault known as the fifth grade.
It's this desire that leads to a certain argument, or discourse, usually heard among whites, called the "reverse racism discourse." I've written about it before, in this and other spaces. The discourse has been documented often in critical race scholarship, but you don't have to read the texts to know what I'm talking about. I'm sure you've heard the argument, or maybe even used it yourself. It goes like this -- a better qualified white person didn't get some kind of benefit (job, scholarship, whatever) because a less qualified African American, Hispanic, etc. got it instead. Therefore, whites are now the endangered race because their skin color is standing in the way of opportunity. It's important to note that usually a presumption is being made here. All the facts of the particular situation are not usually known, but the speaker presumes that the person who got the position was under-qualified. But more importantly, the person arguing the reverse racism discourse is speaking from the vacuum of fifth grade, so to speak. If policies are in place to help traditionally marginalized people to advance, they are there for a reason -- to equal the playing field in a historically white dominated society. When it comes to race, is the playing field equal yet? Not by any sociological indicator -- education, employment, housing, wealth, income, health, incarceration, etc. (BTW, the argument can be extended to gender -- not long ago a good friend of mine bemoaned the fate of men because of the #MeToo movement. She was genuinely worried that men would suffer and somehow become second class citizens because of the movement. I assured her that I think they'll be okay.)
Recently I was surprised to read the reverse racism discourse from a pretty well-known author in the Scifi-Fantasy world. (I'm not sure why I was surprised. I shouldn't have been. I've been doing this long enough to know that racial tensions are prevalent in every aspect of our society.) He complained about discrimination in the writing/publishing world. Now, there's ample evidence that this area has been dominated by whites since its inception. Speculative fiction, in particular, has long been a white man's domain, with a few notable exceptions. But over the last several years people have worked hard to raise awareness and we're starting to see some change. We know that change always brings backlash, and the reverse racism discourse is part of that backlash. The writer was complaining that white men aren't being considered equally in certain genres. (Side note -- was he complaining 20 years ago when women's work wasn't being considered? Doubtful that he even noticed.)
Maybe this author is right, and the pendulum of opportunity has swung too far in the other direction. I'm sure he believes what he's saying is true, although I've included a link below that says otherwise.* But even if his claims are true, the problem with his argument is that it ignores the history of discrimination that has made the shift in focus necessary. Hopefully, a day will come when thinking about race and gender in publishing or other areas of opportunity won't be necessary, because the playing field will be equal. Education, training, and opportunity for advancement will be equitable. But to paraphrase one of my favorite male fantasy heroes, that day may come...but it is not this day. This day, we fight. We fight to break free of fifth grade thinking. We fight to recall our history in its completeness, good and bad. We fight to remember the mistakes of the past so we can create a better future.
*Info on diversity in science fiction
