Published Jan. 25, 2017 in Tulare County's Foothills Sun-Gazette
There’s
a scene in the movie “Hidden Figures” that snagged my mind Sunday and wouldn’t
let go. I think it helps us see why this
film is important now, not just as a document of race and gender inequalities
in the 1960’s, but as a statement of how change occurs. I think this perspective could help us as we
face the intent of the new folks in Washington to roll back many advances in
social justice we have made over the last 50 years.
The scene happens twice, doubling
our ability to see its significance. It
is the handing-over of a piece of chalk from an authority figure to an
underling, and it’s actually an invitation to equality. The underling is the main character,
Katherine Johnson, a heroine, really: a
black female rocket-science mathematician (literally and figuratively) who
persists despite society’s inability to recognize her skills. The first person to make the offer is a
black, male professor; the second is her white male boss at NASA. Both times the gesture is saying “Maybe you
have something to teach us. Show us what
you can do.”
And show them she does. Cheers went up in the audience both times, I
think because she demonstrated the falsity of their reasons for doubt. She demonstrated that the box they’d been
thinking in was wet cardboard. But she
also triumphed over self-doubt, the kind inflicted on most of us, even white
males, which is really why we cheered.
With little hesitation she took the chalk and worked out equations no
one else in the room could do. Then,
with no arrogance, she stood aside and let her answers sink in. All of them.
I am sure the piece of chalk had
special significance for me, a Boomer: growing up with black, then green
chalkboards, I could feel the cool smoothness and smell the dust as the white
stick changed hands in the film. I loved
the chalkboard as a place to work, and even more, to have my work seen. I envied the teachers’ freedom to write there,
even as I loved following their thought processes flowing onto the wall before
our eyes. I could imagine Katherine’s
excitement (and potentially, intimidation) at being offered that piece of
chalk, that chance to go to the blackboard and stand in the spot of one who
knows.
The whole film is full of similar
teaching moments, as two other black women run the gamut alongside Katherine,
gaining ground. And I think the film
issues a challenge to all of us, no matter which side of the social divide we sit.
To the underlings it says “Be
brave. Make your case, and when you can
do so, make it in ways that have some hope of being heard.”
To people with some authority and
power, the message is permeability. The
rules are not set in stone, and even where they are, the mortar holding them
together has a short shelf-life. Reason
has power over rigidity; hearts need only the tiniest jumping-off places to
take wing. You can be part of the
solution no matter what part of the problem you’re representing.
There is much we can do, no matter
how high or impenetrable a wall they try to build around this country, and it
will come by exerting our humanity. A
“yes” here, a “maybe” there, a chance to learn or work, an extension of time on
repayment, a buck for gas, an extra sweater – there is no limit on how we can
help each other experience our personhood more fully.
As we dig into the task ahead, I
think we can find ways to extend equality to each other in simple things, like
handing someone a piece of chalk.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trudy Wischemann is a
remedial writer and researcher who was supposed to be a teacher when she grew
up. You can send her your chalkboard
reveries c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a comment below.
No comments:
Post a Comment