Oppression vs. Resistance: A play in two acts

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03/19/2008

by Jeremy Hooper

[ACT 1]

(setting: An American playground, 10:49 A.M. A young boy, slight of frame but abounding with exuberance, is playing by himself)

SMALL KID: La, la. I love life. I just want to be happy.

[Big, thuggish looking kid approaches]

BULLY: Hey, kid who I will pick on because it's easy: GIVE ME YOUR LUNCH MONEY!

SMALL KID: What? Why should I give you my lunch money? I'm just here, dancing around, trying to live my life and hopefully bring a little color to the world, and you're now telling me that because you have some sort of problem with my existence, you should have the right to deprive me of my happiness?

BULLY: Uhm. Huh? Look dude, I don't know about the queer stuff that's coming out of your mouth, but I so know that I was born and raised to think that people like you are wrong for being so content with yourself. I mean, who do you think you are just flaunting your joyous lifestyle like that? I've been indoctrinated to believe that your kind is wrong. NOW GIVE ME YOUR MONEY!

SMALL KID: Well now you're just making me mad, tough guy. I was trying to stay cool. However, your brutish insistence coupled with the fact that so many of my peers and authority figures turn a blind eye to your sort of bullying when it is perpetuated on some like me, has left me nothing short of angry.

BULLY: Waah...Baby gonna cry now?!

SMALL KID: Oh that's cute what you did there. But no, you patronizing dote. I've already cried too many tears over people like you. I'm instead going to rage against the sort of mentality that you embrace. I'm going to connect the dots of bias for all the world to see. And I'm going to show everyone how behind that nice mask that you wear whenever teacher is watching, lies a very angry, hostile face. A face that is frighteningly dead set on depriving me of equal playground status.

BULLY: Dude, again with those big words! Just give it to me straight -- and only straight! What are you saying back to me now that I've already established my plan to deprive you of something?

SMALL KID: I'm saying that you and your friends may have started this battle, and you may have, due to long-held stereotypes and biases, kept up the illusion that you are the "good" guy even though you are fostering discrimination. However, I'm going to win this war. And while you will surely somehow try and turn this around on me so that I somehow look like aggressor in this attempt to pilfer my afternoon nourishment fund, I am not going to let you get away with your oppressive ways.

BULLY: Whatever. [Bully rips cash out of kid's hand]. HEY, LOOK EVERYBODY -- I"M PROTECTING SOCIETY AND THE OTHER CHILDREN FROM THIS KID'S 'FEEDING HIMSELF AGENDA'! YOU SHOULD ALL CELEBRATE MY ATTEMPTS OF SAVE TRADITIONAL MIDDAY MEALS FROM THE INSIDIOUS THREAT OF THIS KID'S DIETARY HABITS!

OH, AND GUESS WHAT? THE KID IS ACTUALLY CALLING ME THE BULLY! ME! THE GOOD MAN OF FAITH! CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE IT!?!?! HE'S SUCH A MILITANT RADICAL!

SMALL KID: [smacks hand to head] His intellectual dishonesty and refusal to take credit for his thuggish ways are almost more offensive than his discriminatory actions!

[END ACT]

***
[ACT 2]

(setting: The Internet, present day. A young-ish man with an athletic build and plenty of spirit, is beginning his day writing the Good As You website)

YOUNG-ISH MAN: Hey, let's see how Peter LaBarbera at Americans For Truth is responding to the Sally Kern situation. [Man goes over to AFT's website] Hmm, well that's interesting. Peter seems to have written a piece about how crazy mean gays are for not taking kindly to Sally's gays/terrorism-linking comments. Let's see what he has to say in his post.

PETER LABARBERA: (voiceover): "Memo to Ellen DeGeneres and the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund: perhaps before you start lecturing conservative Christians like Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern about their alleged “hate,” you ought to deal first with the hatred and meanness of your own fellow homosexuals.
...
Homosexual haters are everywhere in the blogosphere, as a quick visit to lesbian activist Pam Spaulding’s “Pam’s House Blend” blog will attest. Commenters on her site put the “m” back in mean, especially when they’re bashing Christians; they even make “The Pam” seem moderate by comparison — no small feat.
...
Come to think of it, since Oklahoma has no pro-homosexual “hate crimes” law, maybe the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund jumped the gun in its campaign to smear and destroy Rep. Kern — who, if she really wanted to become a hater, could learn a few things from the Homosexual Activist Lobby"

YOUNG-ISH MAN: [smacks hand to head] His intellectual dishonesty and refusal to take credit for his thuggish ways are almost more offensive than his discriminatory actions!

[END ACT]
[END PLAY]