The Accidental Activist
I still remember that day back in middle school. I was having a discussion with a friend, and I said something ignorant and insensitive that played on racial stereotypes. My friend called me on it. Loudly. In the middle of the lunchroom. It left quite an impression.
As I said, I was an ignorant middle schooler, a white boy growing up in the Midwest. I've learned at least a few things about race in America since then. But I never expected to make the struggle for civil rights and racial equality a big part of my life. I just sort of assumed it was happening out in the world somewhere, and I didn't need to think about it. Yes, that's a privileged attitude to take, but I was living in a pretty privileged environment.
Then I came across my grandmother's remembrances of the time when her family moved to Baltimore during World War I, and the friendship she had with an African-American girl named Maggie, who cleaned the apartment house where they lived. "Negroes were considered and treated as second-class citizens," my grandmother wrote, "but there was nothing second-class about Maggie." From the moment I read about their friendship, I knew it was the foundation of a story I had to write - and I did. It was my first published book, Liberty Girl.
All through my research, I learned what conditions were like for African-Americans during the 1910s, and I knew I had to put that in my book. Compared to what I'd thought about and written before, it felt like a radical new step, and I worried - somewhat naively, I'll admit - that people might mistake me for some kind of civil rights advocate. I'd just written my book, and that was as far as I wanted to go.
But in the years and books that have followed, though, I've found myself coming back to the themes of equality and inclusion over and over again. Some of it comes from my upbringing. I'm a child of the sixties, and believed what everyone was saying back then about peace and love and brotherhood. One of my biggest writing influences is Gene Roddenberry, who deliberately gave the Starship Enterprise a multiracial crew to send a message about the equality of all people. Some of it comes from my taste in storytelling. I just think it's more interesting to have a variety of characters. But some of it came from the things I kept discovering about our past and witnessing in our present. The entire story of Unswept Graves came from my discovery of what Chinese immigrants went through when they came to America. One of my prime motivations for the Mathematical Nights books and my current manuscript is to combat the stereotype that girls can't do math or science.
And meanwhile, the country was changing. Or maybe I was just becoming more aware of what it always was. Or maybe some of both. However we got here, we're now in a country where a sizable chunk of the population is way too comfortable with racism and sexism and homophobia. I haven't been able to let that go unchallenged, either in daily writing like this blog post or in the books I'm planning for the future.
I think there's a lesson to be learned here. I still don't consider myself an "activist." I've only been a part of three protest marches (all since the most recent inauguration), and even then only at the lowest-level participant. I've never organized anything or given a rally speech. I'm just being myself and doing my thing. But that's enough. The moment has brought me to the point where I can do some good, just by being who I am.
How many others are in that same place? There's plenty you can do as well, just by being yourself and responding to whatever these times have brought to your doorstep. There will always be plenty of "activists" around, and given what we face, that's a good thing. But we need the non-activists too, those who show their beliefs through their daily lives. Let's all get to it!
As I said, I was an ignorant middle schooler, a white boy growing up in the Midwest. I've learned at least a few things about race in America since then. But I never expected to make the struggle for civil rights and racial equality a big part of my life. I just sort of assumed it was happening out in the world somewhere, and I didn't need to think about it. Yes, that's a privileged attitude to take, but I was living in a pretty privileged environment.
Then I came across my grandmother's remembrances of the time when her family moved to Baltimore during World War I, and the friendship she had with an African-American girl named Maggie, who cleaned the apartment house where they lived. "Negroes were considered and treated as second-class citizens," my grandmother wrote, "but there was nothing second-class about Maggie." From the moment I read about their friendship, I knew it was the foundation of a story I had to write - and I did. It was my first published book, Liberty Girl.
All through my research, I learned what conditions were like for African-Americans during the 1910s, and I knew I had to put that in my book. Compared to what I'd thought about and written before, it felt like a radical new step, and I worried - somewhat naively, I'll admit - that people might mistake me for some kind of civil rights advocate. I'd just written my book, and that was as far as I wanted to go.
But in the years and books that have followed, though, I've found myself coming back to the themes of equality and inclusion over and over again. Some of it comes from my upbringing. I'm a child of the sixties, and believed what everyone was saying back then about peace and love and brotherhood. One of my biggest writing influences is Gene Roddenberry, who deliberately gave the Starship Enterprise a multiracial crew to send a message about the equality of all people. Some of it comes from my taste in storytelling. I just think it's more interesting to have a variety of characters. But some of it came from the things I kept discovering about our past and witnessing in our present. The entire story of Unswept Graves came from my discovery of what Chinese immigrants went through when they came to America. One of my prime motivations for the Mathematical Nights books and my current manuscript is to combat the stereotype that girls can't do math or science.
And meanwhile, the country was changing. Or maybe I was just becoming more aware of what it always was. Or maybe some of both. However we got here, we're now in a country where a sizable chunk of the population is way too comfortable with racism and sexism and homophobia. I haven't been able to let that go unchallenged, either in daily writing like this blog post or in the books I'm planning for the future.
I think there's a lesson to be learned here. I still don't consider myself an "activist." I've only been a part of three protest marches (all since the most recent inauguration), and even then only at the lowest-level participant. I've never organized anything or given a rally speech. I'm just being myself and doing my thing. But that's enough. The moment has brought me to the point where I can do some good, just by being who I am.
How many others are in that same place? There's plenty you can do as well, just by being yourself and responding to whatever these times have brought to your doorstep. There will always be plenty of "activists" around, and given what we face, that's a good thing. But we need the non-activists too, those who show their beliefs through their daily lives. Let's all get to it!
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