Price of Tokenism

History. From recent past to the very beginning when man started keeping track of time. They even call it historic context for a reason.

But to me history is really a matter of perspective. It is in and of itself just a catalog of events. How they are perceived or interpreted is what makes it someone's history.

Humankind continues to advance the species through new ideas and innovations each year. This week a private citizen (albeit richer than god) went flying to the edge of space (defined essentially as air 55 miles above the surface of the earth at sea level) using a special vehicle attached to a rocket.

Richard Branson or as the platitudes suggest a prefix of Sir ahead of his name, made it into space for a few minutes on his own company's aircraft branded Virgin. Talk about on his own dime. Quite a lot of dimes this.

What it marked was a milestone in human space exploration where essentially you send an untrained traveler blasting through it. Much like the first commercial aircraft this was a maiden attempt to allow commercial flights for anyone with the wherewithal to fly into space. What made it more newsworthy as the news would indicate is the craft also included a woman. And not just that but one who was born in India and had achieved significant merits along the way to become part of this voyage.

That aspect garnered more social likes and tweets and retweets all the way from governmental heads and so on. Was that shrewd marketing? Most likely. But it also underscores our status as a species where we do not just applaud the mission as a remarkable success but also the gender and genetics of who made it on that mission.

We are still learning to walk as we fly when it comes to social mores and feel obligated to call out advancement for minorities. The fact we still track and qualify minorities of any kind is a flag. I understand that tokenism in this form is often essential to underscore the plight of a particular group in society or the unusual challenges faced by a certain demographic. It helps us direct our energy to the underserved in many ways.

'Black lives matter' or count of female executives in corporations in the world are all markers and metrics used to keep tabs on the pace of human progress. Indeed subscribing to BLM does not mean that any other race is less material but it helps pin the blame on history where it does belong. The actions of few that impacted many in history. This branding helps alter the mindset that needs changing.

A black girl from Louisiana won the 2021 spelling bee against a stiff competition of children of Indian heritage after many years of what was a foregone conclusion on who the winner of this competition would be. Media went bonkers. Again it was almost incumbent on them to play the race angle to cheer what would be a role model worthy event.

So while we look to identify new ceilings and the inevitable breakthrough amidst these man made structures I think we should consciously keep in mind that the pendulum still has a ways to go before we truly forget to use the 'equitable' jargon.

But What If We're Wrong?

I attempted to read this book by author Chuck Klosterman backward to forward but it started hurting my brain so I decided to stop and do it like any other publication in the English language. Start from page 1 and move to the right. Witty, caustic and thought provoking this is a book you want to read if you believe that the status quo might, just might be wrong. At times bordering on being contrarian about most things around us it tries to zero in on the notion of what makes anything believable and certain in our minds. The fact that there is a fact itself is ironic. Something analogous to the idea that you can never predict the future because there is no future. Many books and movies have tried to play on this concept - best that I recollect (I think I am) was 'The Truman Show'. This book by Klosterman attempts to provoke the reader to at least contemplate that what they think they know may be wrong. He uses examples like concept of gravity, and how it ...

You are important to us

Followed by piano music. Followed by 'we are experiencing heavier than usual call volume'. Sounds macabre like bleeding during menstruation or after a ghastly attack with a weapon on a hemophiliac. Sorry Mrs. Johnson but it appears little Gertrude here has been bleeding heavier than usual what with her night time activities competing with the woodchucks in your neighborhood. Some services even go as far as to pick a random day to say - 'if you were to call us during the Chinese lunar month when the moon is axiomatically hugging the polar star with Jupiter intravenous when call volume is light'. Well I will be damned. I thought I had checked with my astrologer before I placed this well focused call but I guess this is what you get for listening to a quack. Umph! I am not sure which marketing genius came up with this personal touch concept of informing the caller that you are really a jackass for actually calling the customer serv...

Of Jims and Johns

Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...

Brown Motion

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