For biologists evolutionary change is
usually measured in hundreds or thousands of generations. For our species, social change is measured in
decades or a few generations. I will be
85 in mid July so I have lived about four generations. My memory of each of these generations is
reasonably vivid. I grew up when it was
illegal for a white person to marry a person of any other race. I grew up when it was illegal for a black
person to sit in the front of a bus. I
grew up when it was illegal for persons to buy contraceptives for birth control. I grew up when it was illegal for same sex
couples to engage in sexual activity. I
grew up when it was still legal to sterilize women for having children out of
wedlock. I was conceived when it was
illegal for a divorced person to remarry in New York State. In 1940 my mother had to be repatriated as an
American because although born in Bound Brook, New Jersey, her first marriage
was to an immigrant born in Chernobyl in Russia (women were then considered the
property of their husbands). Those were just the law. Add to that the social view that blacks were banned
from major league baseball and rarely admitted to medical schools, the law, engineering,
or other professions considered white occupations. Add to
that women were routinely excluded or limited by quota to medical, engineering,
and other professions considered as masculine fields. Add to that Jews were excluded by “gentlemen’s
agreement” policies from buying homes in non-Jewish areas of Long Island.
When I was young I tolerated many of these injustices. As I experienced diversity in my work, in school, and reading the newspapers, I changed. It was incremental. One piece of unexamined bias after another was expunged. I wish I had had Promethean foresight to recognize all of these as injustices. I did not. I never thought of myself as a bigot or deluded myself with an idea of white male superiority. But I did change as each injustice resonated in my being. For the individual, progress is slow. For the historian, progress is incredibly rapid compared to the millennia long history of human injustices. I am grateful for those who protested injustices to their families and who took up the cause of equality for others. I recognize that even with the Supreme Court decisions recognizing LGBT marriage and extending the grounds for bringing discrimination cases in housing that there is still a long way to go for social equality, equality of opportunity, and a respect for diversity in American social life. Let us rejoice that another barrier has fallen and that equality of opportunity is a goal worth striving for and diversity of religious belief, but not imposition of that religious belief on others, is a goal worth preserving.
When I was young I tolerated many of these injustices. As I experienced diversity in my work, in school, and reading the newspapers, I changed. It was incremental. One piece of unexamined bias after another was expunged. I wish I had had Promethean foresight to recognize all of these as injustices. I did not. I never thought of myself as a bigot or deluded myself with an idea of white male superiority. But I did change as each injustice resonated in my being. For the individual, progress is slow. For the historian, progress is incredibly rapid compared to the millennia long history of human injustices. I am grateful for those who protested injustices to their families and who took up the cause of equality for others. I recognize that even with the Supreme Court decisions recognizing LGBT marriage and extending the grounds for bringing discrimination cases in housing that there is still a long way to go for social equality, equality of opportunity, and a respect for diversity in American social life. Let us rejoice that another barrier has fallen and that equality of opportunity is a goal worth striving for and diversity of religious belief, but not imposition of that religious belief on others, is a goal worth preserving.
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