Humans, Right?

Human rights should not create a political divide. After all, we are all humans, right? But human rights are way too often political.

At a recent event for YWCA-Austin, one of the speakers was an older woman. She pointed out that we not just debating policy in Texas (and elsewhere) - we are rolling back 50+ years of human rights progress and the right to exist.

Why is human rights even a debate?

Well, there are three deep and intertwined roots that still influence policy, political discussions, and social conditioning. These roots are based on superiority or supremacy. They are designed to dehumanize in order to control or exploit people and/or nature.

• White Supremacy - before white supremacy, there was European supremacy. Check out this insightful and disturbing video of Jacqueline Battalora explaining the birth of white nationalism. Originating in the 17th century, the concept of whiteness was used to justify the enslavement of people either directly or through colonization, then to justify ensuing wars. White supremacy permeated many aspects of the foundation of the United States but at least there was a constitutional and governmental framework that eventually led to more protection of the rights of all citizens (we still have a long way to go).
  
  It may make us white folks uncomfortable to reconcile this, but racism is still prevalent in our country. It varies from unconscious biases to systemic racism, especially related to money, rights, and power. Regardless of economic status, black and brown people frequently have very different experiences with institutional power than white people do. This video of a black fisherman getting harassed is a case in point.
  

• Patriarchy - American patriarchy is less about the superiority of men and more about the systemic entrenchment of patriarchial thinking in our social and business structures. While this discussion frequently centers around wage equality, there are several other forms of patriarchy. This ranges from the overt sexism of appearance and objectification to the covert patriarchy of corporate resistance to flex/remote work which far more impacts women than men.
  
  Modern US patriarchy was deftly and delightfully skewered by the “Barbie” movie. I watched it this past weekend and found it to be satirical high-art on the level of “Idiocracy” and “Don’t Look Up”. It would be apt to include watching it as part of the sentencing of a certain multi-indicted former president and his co-conspirators.
  

• Church/State Religion - this is my term for the unholy alliance between churches and states that was often the primary driver of the above examples. In the US, this is Christian Nationalism - the concept that the US needs to be restored to being a “Christian” nation; and that Trump has been “anointed” to lead this return to greatness. Of course, this is a bullshit translation of both the Constitution and Jesus’ teachings.
  
  The source of the majority of human rights issues in the US can be traced back to the church/state alliance between evangelical Christians and right-wing politicians. Here’s an example: Anti-LGBQT+ policies and biases are often represented as “religious views”. This gives the holder of these views the opportunity to hide behind religious dogma. Using “religious views” as an excuse for dehumanizing policies degrades both the targeted group(s) and those that are sincerely religious.