I would like some help from the readers. ONLY those who believe in human equality will be able to answer this question. But I won’t forbid others from trying.
##
My perspective is that there is parity between races and genders in terms of mentation and morality. A fascinating series of conclusions can be drawn about history and current events if one sticks to this…and it is HARD. The drive to believe “our tribe” is superior is so strong that few can really resist it. Sometimes I think it is more common to find people who denigrate their own group than those who really delve into the implications of equality. Another subject.
Racism is probably easier: it is more extreme, as one tribe really CAN wipe out another, while men and women co-evolved and have to get along. Racism would here be defined as the attribution of differential capacity and worth between racial or ethnic groups.
Given this definition, the following question is primo for revealing racism: “Given the same history, would whites have been as damaged by slavery, and complained about it as long?” The balancing question: “Given the same history, would blacks have been as cruel and oblivious as white slave-masters, and clung to racism as long?”
And yep, things are better these days. When I was a kid, I found a copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica that just stated straight-up that whites were the smartest, followed by Asians, with black people bringing up the rear. That was just the status quo, and people didn’t even question the belief.. And I can trace this dehumanizing attitude to everything from life spans to incarceration rates to BLM and the last act of INFINITY WAR. Yeah, I went there.
##
Sexism would be defined similarly, I think. Perhaps “the attribution of differential worth or mental/moral capacity between genders.” This is more problematic, because (for instance) reproductively, an individual woman IS more valuable. This led to an entire chain of emergent behaviors and social decisions over tens of thousands of years. Only in the 20th Century did we finally disrupt this, and I think that disruption was a combination of industrialization, firearms, overcrowding, and effective birth control. We have a very different situation now, and are working through different questions, largely: the social attitudes and priorities men and women have held for thousands of years have changed. If we awaken from the illusions that have driven us…what next for humanity? Other than a LOT more gay people in the future, I’m not sure. But one conclusion I draw is that neither men nor women have “been in control” of the world. Our genes have been in control, with the following notion: “women’s dreams and men’s lives are disposable” not exactly crazy. All that really mattered was producing the maximum grandchildren, and what we as individuals wanted or needed, other than this priority, was irrelevant.
We can change that. All of that. But IMO one thing we have to do is identify sexism the way we have identified racism. And that means the hidden stuff, and the ways it manifests on either side of the gender divide.
Here is what I’m asking: Is there a question, or a pair of questions, that reveal sexism the way those other questions reveal racism? I DON’T KNOW. Not sure. But whatever it is, there will be matching questions for men and women. It will assume equality of worth and capacity (with some allowance for complementarity due to reproductive priorities), and will probably be a little embarrassing for both sides.
What might those questions be? I’m asking your help.
Namaste
Steven Barnes 