Identity Politics
Claire Scott
This is the week to recognize women over sixty
with baggy eyes and badly dyed hair. They will get
discounts at Costco and free coffee at Starbucks
to make up for the fact they are totally overlooked.
Next week honors men with two dachshunds,
walking their short legged hot dogs in Central Park,
definitely discriminated against by others, especially
those with German Shepherds or Great Danes.
March will be One-Eyed-Arab-American-Nonbinary History month,
with a tiny parade on the High Line which no one will notice.
Splintering into smaller and smaller groups
armed with AR-15s and army surplus grenades. Sporting
camouflage fatigues and spit-shined combat boots. Spouting
animosity on Twitter and You Tube. Is the need to build
walls topped with barbed wire built into our DNA? Do we need
to see enemies on every street corner in order to feel safe?
What of holding out a hand to the teen from Honduras
limping across the border, shoeless and penniless. The suicidal
trans woman, desperate for surgery to feel sane. The brown man
with two shivering children under the Eighth Avenue Bridge.
Can we? Ever?
Claire Scott
This is the week to recognize women over sixty
with baggy eyes and badly dyed hair. They will get
discounts at Costco and free coffee at Starbucks
to make up for the fact they are totally overlooked.
Next week honors men with two dachshunds,
walking their short legged hot dogs in Central Park,
definitely discriminated against by others, especially
those with German Shepherds or Great Danes.
March will be One-Eyed-Arab-American-Nonbinary History month,
with a tiny parade on the High Line which no one will notice.
Splintering into smaller and smaller groups
armed with AR-15s and army surplus grenades. Sporting
camouflage fatigues and spit-shined combat boots. Spouting
animosity on Twitter and You Tube. Is the need to build
walls topped with barbed wire built into our DNA? Do we need
to see enemies on every street corner in order to feel safe?
What of holding out a hand to the teen from Honduras
limping across the border, shoeless and penniless. The suicidal
trans woman, desperate for surgery to feel sane. The brown man
with two shivering children under the Eighth Avenue Bridge.
Can we? Ever?
