Differences, Equality, & The Oscars: A Reflection on Stacey Dash's Comments By Wade G.Morgan

What Does It Mean to be American?
Yesterday, I watched an interview featuring actress Stacey Dash in which she expressed her opposition of calls to boycott the Oscars. For the second year in a row, The Academy released a nominee list that exclusively featured white actors & actresses in the major categories, which prompted people like Jada Pinkett Smith & Spike Lee to call for a boycott, as they felt people of color should have been better represented in the nominations. In her interview, Dash stated the following:

"I think [the boycott] is ludicrous... We have to make up our minds.

Either we want segregation or integration, and if we don't want segregation, we need to get rid of channels like BET, and the BET Awards, and the [NAACP] Image Awards, where you're only awarded if you're Black.

If it were the other way around, we would be up in arms; it's a double standard."

She continues,

"[T]here shouldn't be a Black History Month; we're Americans. Period. That's it."

After hearing her statements, I reflected on an idea Dash implies, which I have heard popularized in many conversations other than ones about Oscar nominations: the idea that difference disables equality and cohesion. From this premise, Dash implies several ideas. First, Dash suggests integration requires invisibility. Second, she equates a celebration of difference to an act of exclusion.
What Does It Mean to be Different?
Like most people, Dash appears to aspire for a world in which people of all backgrounds coexist peacefully. To achieve this goal, she advises us to forget about our differences, embrace a singular identity, and move forward from there, together. While her intentions may be noble, I offer a simple critique to the premise of her advice.

Rather than assume that differences disable cohesion, what if we assumed that differences enable cohesion?

For me, this question stems from two similar questions. First, what does equality mean, and what would it feel like? Second, what does difference mean, and how do we understand it? If we understand differences to be insurmountable divisions, then yes, acknowledging differences may prevent the kind of society that we aspire for.
But, if we understand differences to be the qualities that make us unique, allow us to approach problems in new ways, and encourage us to offer our perspective when something goes awry, then no, differences do not prevent the society we envision; rather, they enable that society to occur. Ironically, if we understand differences to be the qualities that bring us together, then avoiding our differences would preclude the exact harmony that it would have appeared to bring.
What Equality Looks Like To Me
So, when I think about institutions like BET, the BET Awards, Black History Month, and other similar establishments, I do not see them through a lens of exclusion; rather, I see them through one of celebration. Similarly, I do not see our world as a zero-sum game in which celebrating one person's accomplishments prevents us from acknowledging and celebrating another's.
I think it is fair to question why marginalized groups can collectively celebrate their identities without reprisal while majority groups cannot - I have asked the same question myself. The answer lies at the intersection of context, history, and cultural subjugation. In short, majority groups have historically used their difference to both exclude and subordinate other groups. Being "different" alone did not disable marginalized people from interacting in majority spaces; rather, being different and "less than" did. On the other hand, marginalized groups accent their difference to regain the humanity and dignity that was previously deprived, and to remind group members that to be marginalized is not to be less than.
I don't think I want a world that ignores my Blackness, my masculinity, my height, my weight, my family, my hometown, my language, or anything else that makes me, me. I want a world that acknowledges those qualities, embraces them, challenges me to constantly critique and improve them, and allows me the freedom to pursue my dreams precisely because I am all of those things and more. I want a world that understands the following:

It is often the acknowledgement & celebration of our differences that enables & enhances our humanity.

We have the opportunity to create a world that cherishes each person's unique take on humanity. We have the opportunity to create a world that values each person's unique identity equally. We do not need to ignore our differences to accomplish either of those goals.
KINGSMITH.