Sergio De La Pava - A Naked Singularity

“Well good to see you,” I said.

“yeah, hi.”

“How’s the program?”

“it’s ahhight.”

“You been going?”

“yeah i be going like every day.”

“Really?”

“swear.”

“And? Do you like it, is it good, what?”

“i don’t know.”

“Well can we at least agree it’s better than jail.”

“no doubt.”

“Progress, who you living with?”

“my moms.”

“Who else?”

“my grandmother and my little brother.”

“How you getting along with your mother?”

“she all mad i ain’t working and shit.”

“When were you working?”

“like before i got locked up i was making mad money selling.”

“Yeah and look where you ended up.”

“i know. i ain’t trying to go back to that. i’m looking to stay clean but my moms is hassling me about money twenty-four/seven yo.”

“Tell her to call me. Never mind, I’ll call her. For now just do whatever this program says or you’re going to end up going back in, all right?”

“yeah.”

“Is Collis here?”

“?”

“The guy from the program?”

“oh yeah. he said to tell you he would be right back.”

“Did he say the update would be good?”

“yeah everything’s good.”

“Okay have a seat I’ll sign your case up. My guess is we’ll be here awhile.”

A good guess it turned out, with the judge taking his sour time and an endless procession of kids who could be doing better with some of them disappearing through the doors at the rear of the courtroom to the accompaniment of blubbering mothers. It was alternately excruciating and boring until I saw Garo Conley seated in the jury box and lecturing. Those around him occasionally opened their mouths and nodded in the negative, a common reaction in his vicinity. I wanted to hear so I sat behind him and his main audience.

“Macaroni and Cheese,” Conley said.

“Come again.”

“Macaroni and Cheese. It’s an actual color. I did my research and those are the exact words used by Crayola to describe a color and moreover that’s the color I’m proposing.”

“Macaroni and cheese?”

“Yes a nice vaguely-copper type orange,” he said. “Like those chicks that spend too much time absorbing fake sun at salons. Maybe a little more reddish come to think of it.”

“Why that color?”

“Why not? It’s an attractive enough color. The color isn’t the important thing anyway. The uniformity is what matters.”

“Good God.”

“I’m serious, imagine looking out into this courtroom’s audience and everyone’s the same color.”

“Imagine it? I don’t have to. They already are the same color. Black, like me.”

“That’s silly. First of all, strictly speaking, nobody’s black, not actual black. But fine, imagine not just the audience but every single person you encounter being Macaroni and Cheese Orange.”

“You’re insane.”

“Insane? It’s called progress. All thanks to our friend deoxyribonucleic acid. Extract 44 discovered in ’44 and you don’t actually think that was a numerical coincidence do you? I’m talking about a second, this time lab-propelled, genesis. You’ll be able to choose the genetic qualities your child will have. Think about that for a minute. Everyone will be attractive, intelligent, athletic.”

“Macaroni and cheese?”

“Macaroni and Cheese, right. Everyone.”

“And?”

“And? And no more accidents of birth, that’s and. What do you think makes life so unfair. The world we live in will finally be just. We’ll make it that way genetically.”

“But what does all that have to do with what I’m talking about?”

“Well that should be obvious. Since in the near future, there’ll be no significant physical differences between people, the statement you just made would be meaningless. Remember it won’t be a case of just the people in the audience of this courtroom looking alike, everyone the world entire will look alike. Gazing at another will be like gazing in a mirror, you might as well discriminate against yourself. Racism will be stamped out. I’m talking about it no longer existing!”

“Must we all look like you though?” a third party joined in.

“No, like a good-looking orangey person. You’re laughing Henry but it’s the only way. You have to remove the factual basis for racism and if four hundred years from now everyone looks the same that’ll do it. Otherwise forget it. You can’t regulate how people feel. The best you can hope for, in the absence of genetic manipulation, is what we have now.”

“Which is?” asked Henry.

“Who’s we?” the third added.

“ We is this country. I’m not concerned with anywhere else. And what we have here is a situation where racism still exists but it doesn’t really interfere with anyone’s life. Oh Casi I didn’t see you back there. This is Henry, Henry this—”

“Whatever,” they said in unison and I never did get that third guy’s name.

“What are you saying exactly?” said Henry.

“What I’m saying — and don’t go crazy on me — is that racism as an active, noxious force endorsed by society and government, subtly or otherwise, no longer exists the way it did for example in the nineteen-twenties. We’ve addressed these things. There’s no longer segregation, for example, no one’s being told to give up his or her seat on the bus. Today, a group calling itself the freedom riders would look ridiculous, they’d have no cause.”

“I can think of a dozen new ones they could take up,” said Henry. “And you talk as if these situations are so remote they have no relevance to today. First, from the perspective of a nation’s history these things happened yesterday. The desegregation you’re so proud of was like pulling fucking teeth. Not until 1954 did the Court hold that six-year-old black kids were not being equally protected when they were forced to go to different and inferior schools than white kids, 1954! Although the decision was unanimous, the law clerk for one of the Justices advised him that the schools should remain separate rather than impose government mandated desegregation. That law clerk is now the Chief Justice of the current court! Of course the schools reacted to this ruling with deliberate speed and it only took about twenty years for these southern schools to be dragged before a court one by one until they were all in compliance. This included a charming incident I’m sure you’ll recall where the Governor of Arkansas placed the armed Arkansas National Guard in front of a high school to keep black children from entering an all-white school. Note, Conley, that I’m talking about governmental action here not private attitudes. In ’63 George Wallace — the goddamn governor of Alabama and a constant presidential candidate — used his inaugural platform to proclaim his love for segregation now, tomorrow, and forever and his constituency cheered.”

“I’ll tell you Henry I think you’re making my point for me,” Conley was quieter now, less excited. “The very reason the things you just mentioned seem so outrageous is that they would be unthinkable in today’s society. That’s the very definition of progress. Remember, I’m the one who thinks that racism will always exist until eliminated genetically, so of course I concede that racism continues to exist in private individuals. I do maintain, however, that with respect to our social structure it’s gone. The government does not endorse it and the laws are in place to oppose it. A lot of credit goes to the people who were instrumental in changing those laws.”

“And who were in several instances smoked for their troubles,” said the third guy all happy with his contribution.