The Relative Importance of Isms

Last week, in response to a post here titled, Are We All Ageists?, in which I held forth on the lack of cultural condemnation of ageism, Elisa Camahort published on her blog a thoughtful comparison with other prejudices in which she concludes:

“Mass death, slavery and mutilation. These are more serious outcomes than the outcomes associated with ageism. The key being the very mass nature of the sins…I’m going to go out on a limb and say it is not the same.”

Elisa argues that because, barring fatal illness or accident, everyone gets old (while no white can become black or no man become a woman), it is understandable that younger people joke about perceived failings of elders.

“Because…our current culture doesn’t make aging seem all that appealing or attractive,” writes Elisa, “there is underlying black, ironic humor to be found in mocking that which we will inevitably be.”

To her first point above, it is folly, I believe, to try to rank oppression. Is slavery less a sin than genocide? Is lynching worse than starvation? Where does mutilation fall in the ranking? Is it all right to deprive an elder of employment but not okay to call a black a nigger? Where then, is the line drawn between what is tolerable and what is not? And who makes the decision?

Such ranking leads only to acceptance of oppression that is deemed a lesser evil and if history teaches us anything it is that oppression left unchecked leads to greater oppression.

It's not only age discrimination that targets elders. Elder abuse, by caregivers and even family, is a growing problem that sometimes leads to death, but is given less attention than child abuse. And elders die every day due to substandard and negligent healthcare, although no one calls it murder.

Did you know that new drugs are not tested on elders because, researchers say, it is too difficult. As a result, they are given the same dosages as adults when no one in the medical community would give infants and toddlers the same dosages as adults. Yet elder bodies handle drugs as differently from adults as children’s bodies do.

How many are sickened or die from this is unknown because no one considers elders important enough to do the research even though there are more than 36 million people older than 65 in the U.S. These deaths appear to be ranked as less significant than other wrongful deaths because they are not as shocking or visible as those that occur in an oven or hanging from a tree limb.

To Elisa’s second point about mocking a condition – elderhood – which everyone will reach one day may explain some of the acceptance of ageism, but it does not make it acceptable. We once, as a nation, tolerated racism and sexism and anti-Semitism. We don’t do that anymore as the reaction to Michael Richards’ rant has demonstrated.

Ageism appears to be a new-ish form of prejudice compared to the others. In most world cultures elders, historically, have been (and in many places, still are) revered for their contributions and experience, and consulted in matters of public concern for their judgment. That was still true where I lived when I was a little girl. It began to change in my teen years, the 1950s, grew from there and appears to be gaining ground.

Near the end of her blog story, Elisa wonders if the rising popularity of social media (video sharing, podcasts, blogs, etc.) might help people find common ground and realize the stupidity of our prejudices. I was immediately reminded of the deservedly famous New Yorker cartoon showing two dogs sitting at a computer. One says, “On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”

All of us can only hope that Elisa is right although 2,000 years of anti-Semitism - on the rise again in Germany in recent years - doesn’t speak well for it. But maybe computers and the nature of the internet bode well for a better outcome.

Elisa also asks the all-important question, “How do we close the gaps of the isms that separate us?”

Racism and sexism began to decline in the United States in the 1960s. One of the first steps toward equality was to change the language. The people who were then universally called Negroes insisted on dropping the slave baggage associated with that word by demanding to be called “blacks” or “African-Americans.” And, the 50 percent of the population who had, whatever their age, been called “girls” until then, insisted on “women.”

When the language changes, so does the nature of the conversation. Respect is granted and gradually, then, attitudes change. Cultural bad habits die just as hard as personal ones, and women and blacks still have a way to go. But the march forward in my lifetime is remarkable.

When I got out of school, the only career choices open to women were teacher, nurse and secretary. Now, women run Fortune 500 companies and if there are not enough yet in those exalted positions, more barriers are broken every day.

Today, too, a black man and a woman are top contenders to be nominated for president of the U.S. in 2008, and no one is discussing their color or gender – only their political positions vis a vis the Iraq War, terrorism and social issues. In the vernacular of the Sixties, “We’ve come a long way, baby”, even if it’s not perfect yet.

I wish it were true for elders.

For three years here at Time Goes By, I have ranted and raved and railed about the demeaning language that is tolerated toward elders. I can’t say I’ve changed anything, but I did browbeat a New York Times writer into using “elder” instead of senior in a headline and a soon-to-be-broadcast television program will do the same at my instigation. And I’ve written hundreds of letters to the media when they print prejudicial and bigoted statements about elders.

It’s not much and my little blog isn’t going to change the world. But it’s a start. There’s an old joke involving a guy hitting a recalcitrant donkey on the head with a two-by-four. When a companion objects, the first man answers, “First, I’ve got to get his attention.”

Blacks and women got the media’s attention by beating them over the head about their demeaning language and attitudes. Nothing changes in these modern times without the media on your side and it’s the best place to begin to change ageist behavior too – not in debating the relative rankings of various prejudices.

Elisa is one of the smartest people I know (even if she does have a curious penchant for reality TV shows). She was also one of the earliest supporters of this blog, of elders and she even invented the term, elderblogger. Although she's gone "out on a limb" (as she puts it) to say that ageism is less important than other isms, her piece has the feel, to me, of exploration of an idea rather than a statement of belief. Perhaps we can find common ground.