Hidden figures

That’s the new film you are going to want to see, either in its limited opening Christmas day or January 6 when it opens “everywhere.” I had the privilege of seeing it Monday night at the new National African American Museum of History and Culture, where Madame works.

The hidden figures are trifold: blacks, women, and the computations black women were responsible for at NASA in the 1960s, when Jim Crow (that’s racial segregation) still ruled the American south and women held secretarial or menial jobs. The film tells the interwoven tales of the hidden figures with verve, humor, and the sharp-edged sensibilities that more than 50 years of historical perspective give. The bottom line is all too clear: if you exclude anyone from the opportunity to contribute her talents, you weaken your country and render it likely to lose whatever global competition it finds itself in.

America has shed the most egregious forms of segregation: the white and colored bathroom and water fountain signs are now to be found only in the museum’s exhibits on Jim Crow, rather than in real life. But lots of less invisible barriers still prevail in income, education, jobs, housing, religion, and health care.  America is a melting pot that hasn’t yet melted. Donald Trump and many of his supporters are going to try to prevent that from ever happening. That’s the dog whistle behind “make America great again”: restore white privilege after eight years of a black president who supposedly favored blacks and other minorities.

I hear the dog whistle, but it hurts my ears. Obama leaned over backwards not to discomfort white people. His successes–on health care, climate change, the Iran nuclear program, gay marriage–were distinctly non-racial causes. If anything, he disappointed blacks by failing to speak out more forcefully against police brutality and racial inequities of other sorts. He disappointed Latinos by not doing more on immigration. But that is what made him more acceptable to whites, whose votes he needed in order to win his two terms in the White House.

The man is finishing his mandate in much the same non-racial spirit, pardoning people who have served inordinately long sentences, trying to limit emission of green house gases, and explaining with remarkable clarity why he did not intervene in Syria (a decision I disagree with). I am grateful for all of this, as I am for the contributions of the black women who worked for NASA in the 1960s. I only hope we can continue on the path of greater inclusion that they pioneered with such tenacity.

I see no sign whatsoever that President-elect Trump intends to do that. He seems determined to strengthen his ethnic nationalist leanings by allying internationally with like-minded folks abroad, even including Austrian neo-Nazis (not to mention Putin, Netanyahu, Sisi, and other lapsed democrats). Domestically, we are seeing a cabinet formed that is anti-immigration, anti-Muslim and opposed to programs that aim to alleviate poverty, relieve healthcare burdens, and enable broader participation in the nation’s economic and political life.

Who will be the hidden figures of these next four years? I like to think history can’t be reversed, but that might be self-delusion. Will blacks and women return to being hidden figures, contributing but without credit? The undocumented? Muslims? Lesbians, gays, and trans-gender people? The disabled? The president-elect has shown disdain for all those, and more. It is up to us to try to ensure that he fails in trying to repress their aspirations. It is not going to be easy.