McCain & His “Kind”

In the 40 years, since the death of MLK Jr., our nation has come a long way towards realizing his “ … dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Fittingly, Dr. King focused on “the color of their skin”, in his historic “I Have A Dream” speech. However, he could have just as easily left out the words “the color of” and have made the same point, in general. I’m sure Dr. King would have agreed, its wrong to judge others by any quality of their skin. As an example, isn’t it wrong to judge others by the shape of their skin - i.e by their gender? Of course it is! Thankfully, we’ve come a long way on that matter in the past 40 years too. Why then does it seem to still be so OK in the U.S. to judge others by another quality of their skin … the age of their skin?

With the Late Night Talk Shows, on Comedy Central, and in numerous other venues, it seems to be perfectly acceptable to repeatedly speak of the Republican Presidential Candidate, Senator John McCain, as being “really old.” Thankfully, this genuine national hero is also a gracious man. Rather than bewailing this treatment, McCain good-naturedly pokes fun at himself on this issue, saying that he’s “older than dirt” and has “more scars than Frankenstein.” But, whether its dealt with good-naturedly or not, isn’t it wrong that it has to be dealt with at all? Can you imagine the tumult that would ensue if Letterman “joked” about the color of Barack Obama’s skin or if The Daily Show “teased” Hillary Clinton about some physical female trait?! If either of those things happened once, let alone nightly, the uproar would be overwhelming. In fact, Obama and Clinton wouldn’t have to deal with it themselves. The tumult and the uproar would address the matter for them. So why does John McCain find himself having to address the constant insinuations about his age? Where is the tumult and the uproar?

The sad truth about this is that it’s a fact of life for McCain & His “Kind”. I know. Although I’m younger than Senator McCain by more than a decade, I’m not running for U.S. President, etc., I consider myself to be included in that “Kind”. I, daily, deal with the growing prejudice our culture seems to have towards anyone who admits to remembering a time when they didn’t have a cell phone or an email address. I suspect each of McCain’s “Kind” have their own story, in this regard. My story, along these lines, is one that’s unfolded during the past three years, since we decided to relocate our home from one part of the country to another. Of course, with an endeavor like this, not everything goes as planned. For us, the key element of our plan that hasn’t gone as expected is that I haven’t been able to secure the kind of job we had in mind for me – i.e. A job in my chosen field, where I have 25 years of successful experience. Certainly, there’s more than one reason for this. But, to my great surprise, my age has been a significant factor. Candidly, as a Hiring Manager myself, I think there are some legitimate considerations to make along these lines. If a job requires a certain level of energy, I think its legitimate to consider if a person is experienced or if they’re worn out. However, when a Hiring Manager sees a candidate’s face across the table that’s a decade or two (or even three) older than their’s, its simply wrong to make assumptions about their energy or their ability to keep up with technology or their aspirations or their values or whatever, without actually getting to know more about the candidate than the fact that they have an older face … that is to say, judging them by the age of their skin.

When you stop and think about it, we, the U.S. Voters, are the Hiring Managers for our next President. With this, there are many serious considerations we should reasonably be making. Among my hopes is that, beginning with this election, we will no longer include any considerations of any quality of their skin … neither its color nor its shape nor its age.