Make America Realize Again

On January 20, 2016 Kylie Jenner announced that 2016 would be the year of “just realizing stuff.” In hindsight, I guess she was right–though I can’t imagine a year without “realizing.”

Each year Merriam-Webster chooses a “Word of the Year” based on number of searches by users. Currently, the word Fascism is in the lead, after maintaining a reasonably high search count throughout the year and really spiking in November (a mystery). “There’s still time to look up something else,” said the company. Maybe Fascism isn’t the prettiest term to describe 2016–it certainly doesn’t live up to 2007’s “w00t”–but it might be the most appropriate. Although as I am writing this, the most popular word of the last 24 hours is “whelp,” which also seems to fit the last several months.

Michelle Obama holds two Ivy League degrees and left a six-figure salary when her husband was elected President. Most people, though, know her as something of a fashion icon; she’s popularized sleeveless dresses, made headlines with her haircuts, and worn Givenchy haute couture to a Correspondent’s dinner. She’s also been on the cover of Vogue twice. The President elect’s wife, Melania Trump, however, is finding that designers are unwilling to dress her at all. Marc Jacobs claims he would rather put time and energy into “helping out those who will be hurt by Trump and his supporters,” which is nice but feels oddly hollow given that recently he couldn’t understand why his fashion show featuring white models in dreadlocks was inappropriate.  Given that the fashion industry is populated mostly by women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other liberal-leaning peoples, I’m not sure what the Trumps expected. But still, these refusals seem…empty? Designer Cynthia Rowley, when asked had only to say “She can simply purchase whatever she wants, so how can we control it?” And she’s right–it’s not as if Melania will be left wearing bargain-basement leftovers. The Trumps, more than anyone, understand the power of buying.

More so than “realizing,” it seems we are reviving. New Ghostbusters, new Gilmore Girls, new Full House; one of the most talked about new TV shows, Stranger Things, is an 80s period piece (or 8 hour Spielberg tribute). The GOP, even, is trying to reboot their successful run in the 80s: the Reagan Administration. “Make America Great Again” or, Make America White Again, sit around the white suburban, one-income family table with Suzy and Sally and Spot the dog undeterred by the “Other” to whom nothing ever trickled despite former Screen Actor’s Guild president Ronald Reagan’s “best efforts.”

A man with a small drum and a positive attitude walked into my subway car yesterday afternoon and covered “Somewhere over the Rainbow,” interspersing verses with calls to come together and remember that even in hard times, the world is truly a beautiful place. That’s all well and fine, but erasing the very real danger that many Americans and people around the world now face isn’t actually helping things. Positivity can bolster energy, help people work toward change–but too much positivity is nothing more than willful ignorance and brings us back to Suzy and Sally and no food for the Other. In cases like this, maybe we need more realizing, and even more so, more action.

Kylie Jenner doesn’t have the answers. She’s a nineteen year old who built a fortune on a small loan of international stardom from her older sister. Kylie is a reality star who’s name is an empire; who’s ridiculed online for her somewhat ridiculous physical appearance; who is problematic; who loves wigs. Maybe she’ll run for president one day. In any event, I look forward to her 2017 predictions: may they be as a vague and supposedly accurate at Nostradamus.

-r.d.