Chapter 9
Tam
“The 2030s and early 2040s saw an increasing amount of social unrest, chaos, and violence as various identity groups struggled for their rights.” Mr. Giles paces back and forth across the front of the room, gesticulating with his hand as he lectures—a fact which I find amusing.
“The court system was overloaded with lawsuits brought by various groups suing businesses, government, NGOs, and private individuals in an effort to gain and protect the rights of their particular identity group. There were violent riots in the streets of cities, large and small, that often led to death in addition to the destruction of property as various identity groups fought with those who opposed the exercising of their rights, including other identity groups with whom their rights were in conflict. Born Female—an organization that campaigned for sports leagues that only allowed individuals who were female at birth to participate—clashed with the Transgender Sports Association. In 2032, opposing rallies of these two groups in Chicago ended in a violent clash where twenty-one people died. Racial violence increased as taxes were levied on whites to fund slavery reparations for descendants of black slaves, and protests for both black rights groups and white supremacist groups routinely devolved into riots.
“This season of history that we now refer to as the Identity Crisis Period eventually led to economic decline as businesses were crippled by lawsuits, protests, and the destruction brought about by the accompanying riots which damaged their places of business and forced shutdowns. By 2047, the nation was at a boiling point. Along with the domestic terrorist attacks led by various identity groups and those who opposed them, the government realized something drastic needed to be done to restore order.
“While the National Guard was deployed by governors in many states across the nation to help quell the violence, the U.S. Congress met in a marathon special session to debate possible solutions. One of the chief topics of discussion was how to effectively guard against identity-based discrimination and persecution without the resultant chaos.
“So, here is the first question of the day. Who can tell me one of the five ways that different identity groups throughout history have guarded against discrimination and persecution?”
No one raises a hand. I can almost feel the second-guessing going on around the room as people wonder if their answer is good enough for a decent grade. My gut starts to clinch, but I repeat the mantra in my mind that I’ve begun using to combat the fearful thoughts. I’ll be okay. I’ll be okay.
“Don’t be shy, this isn’t a pop-quiz, people.”
A few hands go up around the room.
“Tommy?”
“Separation and seclusion.”
“Very good. A good example of this would be the Amish community of Pennsylvania. They physically separated themselves from the rest of society so they could live out their beliefs with minimal contact with or interference from others. You can’t persecute someone who isn’t there. Someone else? Give me another approach?”
Another hand goes up. “Yes, Juanita.”
“Fight for inclusion and acceptance.”
“Right. For example, the women’s suffrage movement. They organized, led marches, and lobbied for women to be able to exercise the right to vote. Very effective for them at the time, but not so much when you have hundreds of different, equally powerful identity groups using this approach at the same time, often in violent opposition to one another. A third way? Jamie.”
“Eliminate the opposition.”
Some giggles come from a group of students behind me.
“Yes. I’m not sure why some of you think this approach is amusing. Genocide is not a laughing matter. An example would be the Rwandan genocide of 1994 in Africa. Ethnic Hutu militias, known in Rwanda as Interhamwe, waged a bloody campaign to eliminate the country’s ethnic Tutsi population. In a little over three months, they killed over 80,000 people and destroyed the country’s industrial infrastructure. Another method?”
No one raises their hand for several seconds. Then, finally, a lone hand rises from the back of the room.
“Yes, Tisha?”
“Hide your identity.”
“Exactly. Hide your identity. Countless identity groups throughout history have hidden their identities in order to protect themselves from discrimination and persecution. An example of this from the not-so-distant past would be when many gay or lesbian individuals would hide their sexual orientation for this very reason. Who can give us the last one? Yes, Cynthia?”
“Subjugate the opposition.”
“Excellent. Subjugate the opposition. This is different than eliminating the opposition. In this case, political and often military or physical power is used to disenfranchise the opposition, so they no longer wield the power they once had over the formerly persecuted group. Many revolutions fall into this category, especially those where imperialism was at play. The American Revolution is an example of this. The colonists were treated as second-class British subjects, taxed without representation in the British government. They defeated the opposing British army, effectively subjugating them and achieving independence for the American people as a unique identity group.
“Now, as Congress debated how to address the Identity Crisis, they looked at all of these options. Separation and seclusion were out of the question—there were just too many groups, and a person could belong to several identity groups at once, so that wouldn’t work. Fighting for inclusion/acceptance had helped to bring about the crisis in the first place, so that wasn’t a viable solution—again, too many groups with opposing ideas for this approach to succeed. Obviously, killing people wasn’t the answer, and with so many groups, subjugation wasn’t a possibility that would achieve anything meaningful. Fortunately for Congress, with the technological advances made since the first equality suit debuted in 2045, the means to hide everyone’s identity was available.
“You can’t persecute or reject or fight what you don’t even know is there, they reasoned. You can’t reject a job applicant for the color of their skin if you don’t know what color their skin is, and so on. Given this unique opportunity, they made the next great leap in equality, passing the Equality Act of 2047.”
The lecture continues as he details the specific elements of the Equality Act, the economic recovery spurred by the rapid, government-subsidized industrial build-up required to manufacture the equality suits, and the subsequent peace restored once everyone began wearing the suits in public. Some time is given to discuss the Great Migration of 2049, when millions of Americans moved to new communities so they could start new lives where no one in their new community would have any idea what identity groups they’d formerly belonged to.
After the lecture ends, I manage to work in a run and a shower before my next class. At 4 p.m., I meet Cynthia at the library to work on a history assignment. We’ve both been busy with other things, so it’s the first time we’ve met in private since the reveal party. I know she’s going to ask about it, and I’m eager to tell her how it went. Once we’re inside the study room, we both cover our cameras and Cynthia produces her notebook.
I read about those students getting caught. Are you in any danger? Were you there when it happened?
I tell her about the meeting, about nearly getting caught and running through the woods to safety. I decide not to mention Veritas specifically and tell her simply that I and another student escaped together.
Do you think that’s it? Are you safe?
I don’t know. There’s not much I can do about it anyway, so I try not to think about it.
Yeah, I get it. Was it worth it?
When I see that last question, I pause. Was it worth it? I risked everything for a few minutes of talking with people I didn’t even know. I met a girl—an amazing, exciting girl—and almost got caught trying to help her escape from the Identity Police. And now I’m living in uncertainty, not knowing when they may discover who I am and come to take me away.
But I tasted freedom. Real freedom that I haven’t experienced since I was in grade school. Freedom from having to hide who I am. Freedom to encounter others for who they really are, not hidden behind some suit mandated by the government to supposedly keep us all safe or forced to share only opinions and beliefs deemed acceptable by them.
Yeah. It was worth it.
I see a crease of a smile on Cynthia’s viewscreen.
She gives me one section of the torn-in-half notes, and I put them in my backpack before we remove the tape from our cameras and turn our attention to the assignment we’re officially here to work on. She displays the essay question on the big screen and reads it out loud.
“Scenario: Student A, a trans-gendered student whose birth gender was female, but who now identifies as a male, has signed up for the wrestling team. He’s just as big as most of the boys on the team, and he wants to be treated like everyone else. Another boy on the team, whom we will call Student B, belongs to a religion that believes it is a sin for a male to touch a person born as a female on her chest unless the two are married. During team practice, Student A is paired with Student B. While wrestling, even with the benefit of the equality suits, Student B accidentally discovers that Student A has female anatomy while executing a wrestling move which necessitates contact with the upper-chest area of the opponent.
“Questions to answer in your essay: In this scenario, the exercising of Student A’s right to live life as a male and Student B’s right to freely practice the dictates of their religious beliefs have put them on a collision course. Can both individuals’ rights be protected without violating the rights of the other? If not, whose rights should be given precedence, and why?”
“That’s a tough one,” Cynthia says after a momentary pause.
“Yeah. It’s not like either person is intentionally trying to harm the other,” I say.
“Right. Maybe . . . maybe the coaches should be allowed to know who’s a birth-gendered male and who’s a transitioned female, and then just never match Student B with an opposite-gendered opponent when they wrestle.”
“Well,” I reply, “that would create the possibility of gender discrimination on the part of the coaches, not to mention how that would work during competitions with other teams. Then, there’s the issue of birth gender versus identity gender. How would you handle that? You couldn’t legally identify a transgender athlete by their birth gender, so even if the coaches knew all of their genders, that wouldn’t prevent a birth-gendered female from wrestling a birth-gendered male.”
Cythia leans back in her chair, crossing her arms, her avatar’s brow furrowed.
“True. Also, what if these two students were on opposing teams and ended up facing each other for the championship match? Assuming the birth genders of the opponents could be known, would the person with these religious beliefs be disqualified if they refused to wrestle the person who was born a female?”
“This is very confusing,” I say.
“Yeah. I can see why the Equality Act of 2047 mandated that everyone wear equality suits.”
I wave a hand at the question on the screen. “But in this case, it didn’t solve the problem.”
“Right,” she says, then throws her palms up toward the ceiling and hunches her shoulders as she continues, “but just think about the chaos that there’d be if we didn’t have these suits. At least this helps solve the problem in most cases,” she says with a shrug.
“Does it really ever solve the problem?” I ask.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, does forcing all of us to hide who we really are, and depriving us of knowing others for who they really are, serve the greater good? Does it create a bigger problem than it solves by forcing us to limit our freedoms almost all of the time?”
She crosses her arms again before she replies.
“Well, it certainly ended a lot of violence and discrimination in 2047.”
I can feel the muscles in my neck getting tense as we talk. I force my voice to stay level as I respond.
“But don’t you want to, just once, walk to class without having to wear this stupid helmet—to let people see your real face? To see other people for who they really are? I mean, even back then, most people weren’t discriminating against others. There was a small group of people who were causing most of the problems, and now everyone else has to suffer for what they did. There has to be a better way, is all I’m saying. A better way than this,” I say as I rap my knuckles against my helmet.
“I see what you mean. But what is it? How do you stop discrimination without putting limits on the freedom of others in some way?”
We’re both silent for several seconds. I’m trying to get my head around the question she’s raised. “I guess that’s the whole point of this assignment,” I finally say, “to get us to think through what seems to be an impossible situation.”
“So, how would you answer the questions?” she asks.
Turning to the screen, she reads them again.
“Can society protect the rights of both individuals adequately? If not, whose rights should be given precedence, and why?”
“I don’t know,” I respond. “I just don’t know.”
“Yeah, me neither.”
