Cognitive 'dissidents'

This is a story about cognitive 'dissidents'.

In my last post Some We Will Have to Carry, I shared my late choir director's oft-repeated maxim "Until all have crossed, none have crossed and some we will have to carry". Her contention was that while there is indeed something to be celebrated in one person's success, we cannot claim success as a group until all have crossed. To her mind, all must be the goal, even if some of that 'all' will need to be carried if they are to get over.

Today though, I think I may need to reconsider that. The reality is that some have no wish to get their feet wet. Oh, they want to get over, to be sure, but if the crossing is going to involve wet feet, no, no, no and no again. 

Take for example Ms. Stacey Dash of Clueless fame. I'm going to refrain from making any of a hundred obvious jokes here. I will say though that if ever there was a dry foot gyal Stacey is it. If the crossing is going require that moisture be introduced between Stacey's toes, we'd best bid her "Adieu" now or get her a pair of rubber boots. Full disclosure: I lean "Adieu".

I read Stacey's piece in response to the much-discussed Jesse Williams BET Awards acceptance speech and thought to challenge her thinking here. I presumed there'd be points to refute and insights to challenge (I especially thought this when I saw that her comments were 'trending') but no. There are neither points nor insights. I might have done better to challenge Tomi Lahren's bit but Kim Kane of the HuffPost and Tim Wise have already handled that situation. I'm not entirely sure there's anything more to say to Ms. Lahren.

With regard to Stacey's bit though, mostly it's Stacey doing her standard Stacey shtick. Where she doesn't willfully misunderstand, she simply misunderstands. Williams' words on cultural appropriation? Pshew! (That's the sound of Jesse's speech flying straight over her head.) Williams' riff on 'brands on our bodies'? Pshew again. Dash missed the relevance of that too, failing to notice the obvious and deliberate simplicity of Williams' wardrobe choices and his refusal to indulge in the culture of 'brands on our bodies'. I keep returning to Dash's column in the hopes that on my next read, something of depth might leap out at me, but alas, it is not to be....unless her pointing out that Williams' mother is White is a valid and stinging criticism? 

I had thought to write a funny bit, laughing off her ridiculousness, poking fun at her 'cognitive dissidents' remark, then word came of the death of the great Elie Wiesel. Suddenly, Ms. Dash's foolishness no longer seemed quite as harmless. Her nonsense now seemed more dangerous than merely silly.

It is quite likely that from the first time human beings organized themselves into societies there have been dissidents, not cognitive dissidents per Ms. Dash's malapropism, but the real dissidents, people who have had to challenge the status quo so as to survive or so as to make it possible for others to do so. Wiesel's life's work - as a writer and activist for the cause of peace - as a real dissident against the warmongering status quo and the dangers of quiet complicity, shone a light on the darkness that mankind often creates for itself and reminded us of the importance of truth-telling. 

On the flip side of that truth teller status, we have such as Ms. Dash and Ms. Lahren whose fears of loss of access and privilege trump (grrrr!) the discomfort of truth. I wish I could just say that I disagree with these two ladies but what I experience when I hear them speak goes well beyond mere disagreement. 

I mention Wiesel because the cause of his life was to demand that we face the full truth of our history and the consequences of the choices we - through our elected leaders - make. Dash and Lahren, by contrast, would rather cherry-pick history, highlighting facts and events that suit the narrative with which they're more comfortable. These women would rather claim that BET is racist than acknowledge that it is a response to the exclusion of people of color from representation in film. Apparently exclusion; invisibility in a society you've helped build and to which you contribute isn't racist.

No war of ideas or values has ever been won by rolling over and playing dead, or by prostituting ourselves to the cause of the status quo in the (vain) hope that one day you will be treated like an equal because those in power woke up and saw Jesus. As Frederick Douglass warned us, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." Ain't no waking up to see Jesus gon' happen. We must fight to be heard, seen and treated as equal. 

The Mses Dash and Lahren are free to label dissenting voices however they choose, but when Janelle Monae can write an entire song listing the names of the dead and still have to leave out dozens and dozens of names from the Rolls of the Dead 2015, there's clearly a reason for dissent. To deny that is to join the Flat Earth Society. When Texas alone, has 550 cases of death in custody, it takes a special kind of denial to pretend that Williams' anger is a symptom of claimed victim status. To find ways to justisplain all those deaths, is to join the Flat Earth Society. To ignore report after report of racially driven policing, is to run for the Presidency of the Flat Earth Society. 

I have no advice for Dash or Lahren save an invitation to make Google a friend and trusted confidante. If, in 2016, one remains ignorant of the truth, it is a choice. There's too much technology, too much information readily available for anyone to be ignorant for any reason other than choice. We are lucky to live in a time when information will chase us down in the streets, seeking to be processed and understood; info walks up to our front doors begging to come in and make itself a home. Why come you still ain't know nothin'? That's a choice, nothing but willful ignorance. I'ma have to call y'all cognitive dissidents: persons who dissent against the practice of thinking; of reasoning. You are free to come to different conclusions, but it's hard to see how you would if you were informed. 

If Ms. Dash wants to keep playing her Clueless role, she is free so to do. She and Tomi can make it a two-woman show and take it on the road. The rest of us however will be addressing ourselves to the riverside because "until all most have crossed, none have crossed, and some we will have to carry". 

I leave Stacey and Tomi with these words from Elie Wiesel himself: "We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

May Mr. Wiesel rest in peace, and may the deniers of this world one day rise to the glory of standing up for the truth and ultimately, themselves.