You Are Not What You Wear But We Think You Are...
What we wear—our fashion sense and decisions to purchase clothing from Hot Topic or Eddie Bauer or the local Thrift store—has consequences, as well. The case made that these consequences are unfair as subjective as those of the Rage Profiteers on both ends of the sociopolitical spectrum: fair has nothing to do with it. We judge each other visually first almost every single time.
In some cases, it doesn't really matter. In others (like when the prejudger is an officer of the law equipped with authority, a pistol, and the lack of accountability reserved for those hired to protect our property over our lives) the consequences of prejudgment based on the uniforms we choose to display can be deadly.
These Be Beasties with Teeth
By exaggerating the harm of idiot college students wearing black face and the horrors of white women wearing corn rows, we forgot the very direct devastation that the true active bigots can deliver.
Anxiety is the thing that’s ripped our country apart. It has divided us, caused us to fear and hate those who think and live differently than us, and even caused us to hate those who only slightly disagree with us. It has led to panic and overreaction. And I worry that American Anxiety is only going to exacerbate the social and political divide in this country to the point that there is no coming back.