Hypocrisy Is Not for Me
Last Friday, June 27th, the US Supreme Court decided that “books exert upon children a psychological ‘pressure to conform’ to their specific viewpoint.”
Wow.
Did the Supremes never read a book and think, “Gosh, I don’t agree”?
I believe this would be called “critical thinking.” Isn’t that exactly what schools are supposed to teach?
The idiotic statement that reading a book forces the reader to agree with it is bullshit. No way the “conservative” justices really believe what they wrote. No, their Mahmoud V. Taylor decision—which makes it hard for schools to include LGBTQ+-inclusive, pro-tolerance books in classroom story hours—is about accomplishing something else: the Supremes are greenlighting the intolerant bullying of kids from LGBTQ+ families.
When you say something that’s contradicted by what you do, that’s hypocrisy.
On Monday, June 30th, my friend Melba Tolliver and I drove to Harrisburg. It was, for each of us, our first visit to the state capitol. Melba had been invited by Monroe County state representative Maureen Madden to be honored on the floor of the House of Representatives. Why? Fifty-four years ago, in 1971, Melba Tolliver was a reporter for ABC-TV Eyewitness News in New York City. Melba had decided to get a new hairstyle. Her appointment fell on the day before a big out-of-town assignment: she’d been tapped to cover the White House wedding of President Richard Nixon’s daughter Tricia. After Melba’s hair appointment, when she showed up at the office sporting her new Afro, ABC boss Al Primo flipped his wig. Melba tells what happened next in Accidental Anchorwoman: A Memoir of Chance, Choice, Change, and Connection, published last year by Book & Puppet Company. It boils down to: she stood up to the bullying of her bosses and secured the right to wear her hair on air the way she chose. Melba’s very public bravery paved the way for many others to make their own on-the-job personal appearance choices.
For the past few years, anti-discrimination laws called Crown Acts have been making their way through state legislatures. Twenty-seven states have passed them into law. Crown Acts guarantee the right that Melba secured for herself: no discrimination based on hairstyle. In Pennsylvania, the Crown Act has been passed in two successive sessions by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives. However, the Republican-controlled Senate has refused to take up the bill, so it hasn’t become law. (If it passed the Senate, Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro would sign it.) Representative Maureen Madden had invited Melba Tolliver to come to Harrisburg to be honored on the floor of the House to help draw attention to the House’s passage of the Crown Act.
On Monday, after introducing Melba, to applause, House Speaker Joanna McClinton gave a speech praising Melba’s bravery all those years ago and noting that Melba had served as a role model for others, standing up for her right to determine her appearance on the job.
Crown Acts are anti-bullying laws. How hypocritical that Crown Acts are opposed by right-wing conservatives, the very same people who say they’re so concerned about children being “pressured to conform” when it’s families’ religious beliefs supposedly threatened by LGBTQ+-inclusive storybooks.
Don’t you bully me, but I’m gonna bully you.
No one should be bullied. We need tolerance, in our pluralistic society.
Right-wingers argue that liberals should be tolerant of right-wing intolerance.
That’s hypocrisy.
They won’t back down, neither should we.
