Decontextualizing Anything is a Dirty Move

Hindsight is…

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My high school history teacher once taught me my classmates at the time that a president can only be judged at least 5 years after the end of his/her term. It takes a good of amount of time for the political rhetoric of the day to melt off and one can more objectively weigh their actions and the impact of their decisions. It’s almost impossible to understand the doings of any political leader amidst the noise of the day.

But equally, it is paramount that we don’t shave any person or prejudice of its complete context. People operate with situational meaning, defined both by the individual and the environment. No person is perfect, especially not one that is looked at suspended from the realities he/she existed in.

Oddly enough, it seems like both transgressions are happening today. People are judged in the very moment with all the strappings of concurrent bias wrapped around them as well as being pulled from context without reason other than to agitate misunderstanding. Sometimes this goes way too far.

This all really caught my attention when First Lady Melania Trump donated a stack of books and was rewarded by this passive-aggressive letter by the receiving librarian. Amongst many things, she claimed that Dr. Seuss was racist.

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Huh?

Societal “Prejudice”

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With a bit more digging, I found more and more claims that the beloved Seuss, author of classics like “The Cat in the Hat” and “Oh, All the Place You’ll Go,” was a racist propagandist. They point to images like this from the mid 20th century -

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Without context, these pictures look like damning evidence of highly racial imagery. Without context, I’m sure many would be left in a triggering so severe that you’re likely to snap your neck.

But that’s why context is key, the context that the “asian” being represented, often alongside the supreme leader of the Nazis, is either Emperor Hirohito or General Hideki Tojo, both very responsible for Japan’s role in the 2nd World War. That’s right, the ones responsible for countless American deaths on both local and foreign soil. With context, these images are rather flattering really.

Quick on the Draw

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This reaction by a small subset of the general public is one of hundreds of thousands of anecdotes that illustrate our preference for offense. We’ve become a global society quicker to judge based on a cover rather than the deep contents of context. Who the hell cares that Theodor Seuss Geisel inspired several generations with never-before-seen imagination and poetic storytelling. Oh no, we would much rather have an evil villain that we can all point at and ignore the reasoning for his actions.

Again, the regressive eats itself. Context isn’t just important, it’s paramount. It is the key component in real understanding.

I meant this post to become more of a rant but eh, it’s 11pm and I don’t have the energy to rail against the supreme juvenile toddlery of our time.

Steem on!