It’s Not That a Diverse World After All

Did you know that almost every television show, movie, or video shows the diversity of America? Not only that, most have at least one inter-racial marriage, or a gay or lesbian couple, some married. Even the television commercials show this.

This is, we are told, representing the diversity of America in this century, the new moldless, no size fits all land of expectation, freedom of complaints, anti-white male, culturally misappropriated, formerly abused and yet openly sexual society.

There is just one problem in all this. This is not an accurate representation of America today, at least statistically, although watching entertainment venues one may well think it was.

Let’s start with some basics. The population of African-Americans in the United States hovers around 16 percent. That means out of every one hundred people, 16 would be African-American. And yet this is not reflected in the entertainment venues.

Likewise the most recent estimates show that only 3.8 percent of the population identifies as gay or lesbian, and only 10 percent of that group are legally married. 

Half of 1 percent of Americans identify as transgender. And only 15 percent of the country are in inter-racial marriages/unions. 

With these statistics in mind, it seems incredible to find so many television shows that have crammed all these groups in, what they want you to believe, are the mainstream of America. And to argue against that concept is blasphemy.

 Now don’t get me wrong, I have no issue with any of these groups, believing that what happens in your life remains your business. But when you thrust an unrealistic viewpoint into a mainstream entertainment forum, it becomes my business. And I apparently have no recourse to it short of the OFF switch.

This year I have heard endless arguments about how the above mix represents modern America, how conservatives - let alone conservative, middle-aged white men - are all white supremacists, racists, sexists xenophobes. This comes from an endless parade of privileged actors who have vocalized this fallacy in one form or another, in the same way that the media, mostly owned by a small handful of liberal corporations, have pushed the agenda that most of America yearn for liberal leadership; another half-truth since half the country voted for a conservative leadership. 

I am not defending political parties or positions here; merely dealing with factual statistics and the perceptions that propogate the media.

The thing about fallacy is that if repeated enough, it tends to get accepted as truth, even if there is no basis in fact. The term for this is “normalized” which in itself should attest to the fact that it was not normalized to begin with––if you have to force a round peg into a square hole, it might go in but it does not fit. 

Should we all get along? Yes. Should we all agree? No. Should the media holding a monopoly over one political view be able to offer a radically unbalanced viewpoint of America? No.Should these variations of vanilla-America be victimized or ostracized? No.

America is about equal-opportunity. Opportunity does not mean entitlement; it means having your chance to show your worth in the same way as everyone else, regardless of your race, religion, political affiliation or sexual orientation. Sadly, the current trend in America is to equate equal-opportunity with required inclusion. This is what we see in our media. 

Because just under 4 percent of the country are gay or lesbian doesn’t mean that you are doing the country justice by ensuring there are gays and lesbians in every show. Likewise inter-racial marriages seem to abound on every television show.

What’s the message?

What we see of America should be about relevance and not just inclusion. Case in point: African-Americans are demanding reparations for slavery. At its height less than 1.5 percent of Americans owned slaves, certainly not the perception of slavery promoted. In addition, no one alive today either owned a slave or was a slave. So what are the reparations for? And if that is a truly justified cause––in fairness––shouldn’t the Native Americans be in the forefront of that line, after all, their population went from 100 percent down to 1.6 percent, while African-Americans remain at 16 percent of the population?

As Hollywood has reached the bottom of the creative barrel, remakes and reboots are in the mainstream. With each new re-issue, roles are flipped. Anyone white becomes black or Asian. Anyone male becomes female or transgendered. Suddenly everyone seemingly wants to know if Star Wars’ Luke Skywalker was gay. Does it really matter? It’s like asking why no one goes to the bathroom in the film. Nonetheless Hollywood made the Lando Calrissian character in the stand-alone film Solo, a pansexual, even though there were no other sexual actions in the film that dictated needing that classification. Was he going commando also? Did anyone ask that? 

We are more than mixed; we are throughly mixed up. And it is not improving.

When I read about drag queens reading stories in a public school kindergarten classroom I have to ask who decided that extremism should be normalized? When I see a class fieldtrip to a mosque with the students being taught how to use a prayer mat properly, I have to ask what the value in that lesson was? And why was it one religion singled out? Perhaps there should be lessons in Scientology, Judaism, the Mormon faith or even the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The controversial pacifism that is currently the norm, especially when it comes to how America identifies the Muslim faith seemed to be the point. Was it a bad idea? Done correctly and balanced as a learning experience of multiple religious views, it would be a terrific exercise. Done by itself, not so much.

Indoctrination is rampant in the liberal universities. Balanced speech is not permitted. Recent legislation has attempted to now impose that requirement upon universities. They are, after all, a place of learning, not brainwashing. The goal used to be independent thought; not mob rule. And when Federal funding is part of the university income stream, it is especially important to offer balance. Isn’t that what our popular media have taught us about good versus evil; that balance prevails over righteousness?

Why are some states adding a third gender option to birth certificates? How do you identify a non-gender? Testicles equal male. Vagina equal female. And the birth certificate is only an identification of biology and parentage. The normalization of sexuality into a quadrillion forms has reached all levels. Perhaps more relevant information should be added to the birth certificate and ensuing documentation. I would like to see “A-hole” or “Moron” added, just to aide in the identification of those people I should avoid in life. And that does not include people who wish to identify as trees, spaceships, or even Jesus Christ, except that would be religiously biased, gender biased, culturally biased, and just odd. 

 I realize that really all of this is not about normalizing this contrived vision; it is about a conquest over the old through infiltration while exhausting the will of those who disagree. 

Still, the percentages do not lie. Factual statistics show that these groups represent a small percentage of America, not the majority. And while the liberals of America might agree for the sake of agreement, the other half of the country firmly disagrees. Sadly, a country divided in this way, to such an extreme, will never heal. At some point this uncivil war will come to a head. It will rock and split this country into something else, probably something vastly different than the founders foresaw . But there can be no compromise when the reality of the numbers tell a different story, no matter how many TV shows you develop. 

Some will take this editorial as an affront, while others will silently nod their heads, too-well trained to be politically correct and won’t speak out. Others still will raise their fists and shout “Yeah!” Whichever group you fit into does not change the truth, no matter how normalized anyone else wishes it.

As Howard Beale, a newscaster in Paddy” Chayefsky’s 1976 film “Network” shouted with such zeal: “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”