Everywhere Isaac looked, people wanted to go back. Back to a time when people like him either didn’t exist—or kept their damn mouths shut. Back to a time when there were plenty of confirmed bachelors, but nobody was gay. Back to a time when Black kids didn’t go to school with white children, and if they did, they weren’t valedictorian and they sure as hell weren’t best friends with the prom queen.
At one time, probably during the early Obama era, I naively thought most of the country had moved past this racist, homophobic mindset. I still believe the majority of the American public has moved on, in a “live and let live” sort of way. It’s just that the loudest, most aggrieved among us now feel permission to voice and act on their worst impulses. And they get attention in social media and on the news for this.
