By Suzanna Shermon

I keep thinking back to the anecdote that Professor Moore told our class in the beginning

of the semester. For those of you who don’t know or don’t remember this story, it goes

like this: Professor Moore goes to a barber shop in which a group of men are saying

disgraceful things about women. Despite his state of disgust, Professor Moore did not

stand up to those men. As we were discussing this story in class, most people, including

Professor Moore, concluded that by not standing up to people who are racist, sexist, or

any other type of “-ist” in which they go against a certain stereotype, we are essentially

joining them on their cruel actions. At first I agreed. After all, society won’t change

unless people force it to change, right? As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Be the change

you want to see in the world.”

Nevertheless, something kept bothering me about this story. As I thought back I realized

that society is not a whole. Think of it this way; if society is a whole then there is no

way that one person (Professor Moore in this case) could change all of society, even if

he or she stood up to every jerk that came his or her way. If society is a whole, then we

would all be equal and all represent one another, which clearly is not the case with all

the prejudice and hatred that our society experiences. By standing up to the chauvinist,

disgraceful men at the barber shop, Professor Moore would not have changed society. In

fact, I don’t even think that he would have changed the opinions of those men, regardless

of what he did or said to them. People do not change. That bully from the playground

is still out there being cruel to people- in fact, maybe he was sitting right there in that

barber shop. At best, those men would have bowed their heads and nodded with false

understanding, but went back to disgracing women the very next day. At worst, they

would take their anger out on Professor Moore. If your action causes a positive change

even in one person, often it is worth risking your own well being to achieve that change.

Unfortunately, you will probably never change a person, especially a stranger, and

usually it is not worth it to take that risk.

As depressing as that may sound, I realized that it is not a bad thing. Since society is not

a whole, those men in the barber shop do not represent all of society. In the same manner,

homophobics and racists do not represent all of society. In fact, nobody who exhibits

prejudice represents all of society. People are so diverse in all of their beliefs that society

barely has a common opinion on anything. The only thing we, as a society, share in

common is the country in which we live in. With that said, society cannot possibly shape

us because we do not really have a society- just a group of extremely diverse individuals

living in the same place at the same time. Unfortunately, the problem is that some people

act like their opinions are more important that anyone else’s. What is even worse is that

people like that often obtain power, and give off the false impression that everyone else

in “society” feels the same way they do. The sooner we realize that society is an illusion,

the sooner we realize that it cannot possibly shape us.

In Giovanni’s Room, David struggles with his sexuality. Despite being gay, David fought

as hard as he could to be straight because the society that he lived in all his life “frowns

upon” homosexuality. Baldwin displays this internal conflict through David’s feelings

for Giovanni. David’s feelings constantly change between love and hate for Giovanni.

At times, David claims to love and hate Giovanni at the same time. The love that David

feels is natural, his true feelings for Giovanni, feelings that he cannot control. The hatred,

however, is the feelings that David thinks society would want him to have for Giovanni

instead. David’s hatred for Giovanni is actually the hatred he feels for himself because

instead of complying to society’s “standards” of being in a heterosexual relationship with

a woman, David fell in love with a man. In the end, David’s hatred for himself overcame

his love for Giovanni, and he decided to give in to society.

If only David knew that not everybody in society is homophobic or anti-gay. Perhaps,

then, he would live happily ever after with his love, without feeling any hatred for

Giovanni or himself. We have to learn to accept ourselves for who we are and the way we

were born, instead of letting anybody else shape us.

The truth, at the very least to me, is really obvious: you simply cannot hate people for

the way they were born or the lifestyles that they chose for themselves. People do not

change, no matter how hard they try to mask who they really are. This goes for all the

diverse people in our society: including both the gays and the homophobics. No matter

how much homophobics tell homosexuals to be straight, at the end of the day, gay

people will always love people of the same gender as them. Others may try to convince

homophobics that they are wrong in their beliefs. Yet, once again, at the end of day they

will still be homophobic. Wasting our last nerves or putting ourselves at risk will not do

much in terms of changing people to what we want them to be. The best we can do is

learn to accept ourselves and others for what we are because once again, since society is

an illusion, the only thing left to shape a person is the person himself.