\u201cLeon Marlensky\u201d is a pseudonym for a former colleague of mine who prefers to remain nameless. Marlensky is an academic in the liberal arts who resents what he describes as the \u201cfaux radicalism\u201d of his peers. The contemporary academy, he says, consists, not of radicals, but of apologists for the status quo, \u201creactionaries\u201d in radicals\u2019 clothing.\u00a0 A self-described \u201clone leftist,\u201d Marlensky shares his thoughts on the state of the nation and other things in this interview that I recently conducted with him.<\/p>\n
Me: <\/b>Thanks for taking this time to sit down with me Dr. Marlensky.<\/p>\n
LM: <\/b>The pleasure is mine, Jack.\u00a0 But, as I\u2019ve told you in the past, please call me Leon.\u00a0 Titles, like \u201cdoctor,\u201d are invidious social fictions that serve to inflate individual egos while perpetuating class hierarchies.<\/p>\n
Me: <\/b>That\u2019s right. You did make a point about this the last time we spoke.<\/p>\n
LM: <\/b>In calling me Dr. <\/i>Marlensky, or even Mr. <\/i>Marlensky, you may as well be addressing me as Master <\/i>Marlensky; each title serves the same overall purpose: the production of gross asymmetries of power.<\/p>\n
Me: <\/b>So, to be clear, you want to abolish all <\/i>titles?<\/p>\n
LM: <\/b>That\u2019s correct.\u00a0 Titles are essential to the promotion of every species of oppression.\u00a0 Take, for example, the titles \u201cMrs\u201d and \u201cMs.\u201d That we routinely employ them reflects the extent to which our cultural institutions are saturated with both misogyny and <\/i>homophobia.\u00a0 \u201cMs\u201d at once reveals and reinforces the systemic degradation to which single women have traditionally been subjected in the West, while \u201cMrs.\u201d\u2014Mr\u2019s\u2014<\/i>unveils the ugly reality that married women remain the virtual property of their husbands.<\/p>\n
Yet these titles also are designed to relate to one another in such a way as to sustain and solidify our culture\u2019s homophobia in that they privilege an arbitrarily heterosexist view of marriage.<\/p>\n
Me: <\/b>Wow.\u00a0 But Leon, even the most vocal feminists and impassioned defenders of so-called \u201cgay marriage\u201d don\u2019t ordinarily object to the use of titles in everyday life.<\/p>\n
LM: <\/b>So true.\u00a0 But that is the point: they are just as much arch-conservative apologists for the power structure as those with whom they fight.\u00a0 Our institutions embody and perpetuate our modes of thought, and our thought, in turn, is informed by our language.\u00a0 Thus, whether we endorse oppression or liberation depends entirely upon the terms of our everyday discourses.<\/p>\n
Me: <\/b>Well, let\u2019s get moving along.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to\u2014<\/p>\n
LM: <\/b>I\u2019m sorry, Jack, if I may tie this last point into a contemporary event that\u2019s had the nation all abuzz the last few weeks.\u00a0 I\u2019m referring to the George Zimmerman\/Trayvon Martin situation.<\/p>\n
Me: <\/b>Sure, go right ahead.<\/p>\n
LM: <\/b>From beginning to end, the coverage of this case has been drenched in the most virulent racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. And it may come as a shock to you to hear me say that it is Trayvon Martin\u2019s defenders <\/i>who are the biggest culprits on these fronts, for it is their words that have served as the vehicles of these poisons.<\/p>\n
Me: <\/b>Oh, you\u2019re referring to the not-so-subtle anti-white sentiments that they have promoted, right?<\/p>\n
LM: <\/b>Actually\u2014no. Here\u2019s what I\u2019m talking about.<\/p>\n
How often have you heard his defenders refer to Trayvon as a \u201cyoung boy<\/i>?\u201d<\/p>\n
Me: <\/b>Too often!<\/p>\n
LM: <\/b>Exactly.\u00a0 But \u201cboy,\u201d at least as it has historically been applied by whites to black males, is a racist epithet.\u00a0 Trayvon\u2019s defenders are no different from the most ardent proponents of Jim Crow in describing this six feet something young, black man as a \u201cboy.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how the \u201cpro-Trayvon\u201d coverage has facilitated some of the country\u2019s most hideous racism.\u00a0 Inasmuch as his advocates insist that Trayvon was not a \u201cthug\u201d because he came from a \u201cmiddle-class\u201d family, they stand condemned of classism, for they imply that those on the lower end of the socio-economic ladder are more disposed to become criminals than those higher up.\u00a0 They privilege the middle class above the lower and under classes.<\/p>\n
Me: <\/b>Ok.\u00a0 How, though, are the pro-Trayvon forces \u201csexist\u201d and \u201chomophobic?\u201d<\/p>\n
LM: <\/b>Well, had Zimmerman been a woman, it seems to me that we would be reacting quite differently to what had happened. But what we hear, if we really listen carefully, is that this was just a fight that didn\u2019t need to have resulted in a shooting, much less a shooting death.\u00a0 Boys will be boys, right?\u00a0 On display here is the same raw chauvinism, the same hyper-masculinity that made much of the West and America in particular.\u00a0 The champions of gender equality, if ever they are to be found, need to denounce, without qualification, this kind of unthinking.<\/p>\n
Homophobia is also very much present in the coverage of the Zimmerman\/Trayvon coverage. From what Trayvon\u2019s friend, Rachel Jeantel, has said, Trayvon characterized Zimmerman as a \u201ccreepy ass cracker.\u201d\u00a0 This can be interpreted as a homophobic slur.\u00a0 Indeed, according to Rachel, she and Trayvon both suspected that Zimmerman might be a \u201crapist.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n
So, just because they thought that Zimmerman may have been a homosexual, they assumed that he could have been a rapist.<\/p>\n
I in no way mean to blame Trayvon or his friend for their homophobia, for they are merely regurgitating the homophobic stereotypes that they\u2019ve been fed by the larger Eurocentric culture in which they\u2019ve been raised. Still, it did <\/i>play a role in this whole case.\u00a0 Moreover, in the media\u2019s refusal to mention this fact, it engages in the worst sort of intellectual gay-bashing.<\/p>\n
Me: <\/b>Well, Leon, we are about out of time\u2014at least for now.\u00a0 Thanks for being with me.\u00a0 We will talk again.<\/p>\n
LM: <\/b>Thank you, Jack. I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you the next time around.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cLeon Marlensky\u201d is a pseudonym for a former colleague of mine who prefers to remain nameless. Marlensky is an academic in the liberal arts who resents what he describes as the \u201cfaux radicalism\u201d of his peers. The contemporary academy, he says, consists, not of radicals, but of apologists for the status quo, \u201creactionaries\u201d in radicals\u2019…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n