Today in my sociology class, we discussed many things of little to no value to me. It wasn’t until the very end that we discussed the apple on the back of the iPhone and why there was a bite missing. Many of you are probably, in fact, reading this on your iPhone or Android smartphone. Dr. Remle told us that it was about Alan Turing (which he later clarified as an urban legend). He had, like Snow White, taken a bite of a poison apple as a form of suicide. He did so because he was found to be homosexual and forced to start hormone treatments that chemically castrate a person as punishment.
If you have not seen The Imitation Game then you may be unaware of what Alan Turing accomplished--he is considered to be the father of the basic computer model and artificial intelligence. He was a brilliant mind who helped decode the Nazi’s Enigma machine that was used to code messages to the Nazi troops. His contribution could be argued to have been key to winning World War II. He without a doubt was instrumental to changing the world as we know it.
The class itself was rather usual, but upon leaving I heard a fellow student say something along the lines of “That gay computer guy” in a rather demeaning tone and context. This has completely infuriated me on some level. “Some gay dude”? That is how you choose to remember one the most influential men who changed the entire course of history in the past century? This man who you have so unfathomably tossed aside as just another “gay dude” is the reason that you are able to use your phone and computer to the degree you do today. Without him you would likely not be logging onto your favorite social media, liking any pages, or tweeting your tweets about how awful a college student’s life must be. You simply would not have mass communication or computer science to such a degree of advancement as we do today if it wasn’t for “That gay guy.”
Ma’am, I must ask would you like to be referenced as “that black lady who…” If you so happen to have a profound and lasting impact on the world? I’m sure George Washington Carver would take no enjoyment in being referred to as “The black man with the peanuts.” As I know, I would take no pleasure as being remembered as “just another white guy who…”
Thus brings me to my main topic. Should any given characteristic have such a definitive say in the value of the contribution of one’s work? Why does it matter what one’s race, sex, orientation, religion or gender are so long as their work is exceptional. While you are welcome to argue with me from morning to night over the morality of any given state of religion or sexuality, I will argue back that this doesn’t change their accomplishment or subtract from their character. Labeling people such as “black”, “women” and “gay” in an attempt to devalue their contribution is simply childish.
Whether you feel as though I am being politically correct, I do not care. It is not about being politically correct in this instance; it is about having gratitude and respect for all the backs of the people you stand on who make the life of relative comfort we have today a reality. It is about not forgetting our roots, and most importantly not defining the value of one’s contributions to society on some silly, stupid and self-gratifying way you have found to define them. And please, in the future, remember we are all people; labels are worthless and defining people only limits the mind of the person who is defining, not the people who are being defined. We are all people after all and our contributions will make the world better for the next generation if we let them.
