Commentary––

Prejudice Is More Dangerous Than Terrorism

By William A. Collins

We’re inclined,

To raise a fuss;

Over folks,

Who aren’t like us.

Not everyone takes note of irony in human behavior. Still, there was major eye-rolling lately when the black chairman of the Hartford Board of Education announced his intention to march against the Episcopal Church for appointing a gay bishop.

Say what? A leader of America’s most discriminated class engaging in discrimination against America’s next most discriminated class? Faced with a storm of scorn, the gentleman backed down, but too late. In one fell swoop Hartford blacks have frayed much-needed bonds with both the gay community and supportive Episcopalians.

The word “stupid” comes to mind. With discrimination still surging in the land, you’d think blacks, gays, Latinos, women, Arabs, the obese, and the handicapped would all be rallying under a single banner. Not so. Many classes of abused citizens still prefer to look down on yet other classes, even as upper classes look down on them. Exploiting such social divisions helped Britain maintain domination over India for decades. A similar divide-and-conquer technique helps white males fend off equality of opportunity here.

A favored weapon in that domination is the “Defense of Marriage Act.” This lovely little bill defines marriage as an association between a man and a woman. It has been filed in several states as well as nationally. The president supports it. Proponents are bolstered by heated negative reaction to Vermont’s approval of “civil unions,” and by Ontario’s legalization of same-sex marriage.

Of course no one has yet offered any evidence that such unions actually damage marriage. Existing homosexual partnerships seem equally as loving and nurturing of children as heterosexual ones. The opposition to formalizing them seems more an act of prejudice than a bulwark against any real danger.

The most notable irony in this struggle is that both sides frequently offer up religion as their moral base. Anti-gays are fond of quoting obscure scripture, while pro-gays point out that God chose to create them too. In any event, religious references are probably not too enlightening in a legislative debate over civil rights. As with the Taliban, Shi’ites, and untouchables, one suspects that religion is mostly an excuse for exercising traditional dominion over others.

Needless to say, plenty of that still goes on. Racial profiling zooms unabated in Connecticut, especially in the suburbs. Our drug laws and their enforcement remain targeted at poor minority neighborhoods, and prosecution varies selectively by race. In Philadelphia the police recently went so far as to set up checkpoints in Latino neighborhoods for seat belt violations. Helps keep those folks in their place.

Worst of all just now is the plight of Arabs. Even our own Motor Vehicle Department raises the barrier for them to get a license. And that’s peanuts compared to what they face from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the FBI.

But despite endless provocation, victims of discrimination made no headway in the General Assembly this year. The much-anticipated improvements to gay rights law never materialized. Meanwhile African American unemployment has climbed to more than 11 percent, double the state average. It appears that what these “protected classes” need most is a leader to pull them together to work jointly in overcoming their collective affronts. Those injustices appear to be poisoning our society much more than any threats of terrorism.

(Columnist William A. Collins is a former state representative and a former mayor of Norwalk.)