The Meaning of Mainstream in America

In history we have seen the different occurrences that worked to form today's mentality of "main stream" and what is means to be in the mainstream. Today's understanding of mainstream is that you are clean cut in a regular school with a regular job. If you dye your hair blue, drop out of school, or are superior or inferior in the job world, you have now stepped out of the mainstream. To me the mainstream is boring and it was confusing as to why so many people fought to be considered within its boundaries. Then I read The Revolt of the Cockroach People and No Pity and I realized that being mainstream is much more than having an acceptable reputation.

In Oscar Zeta Acosta's Revolt of the Cockroach People we see that being in the mainstream means using your free speech to support our troops and our political decision and policies. The book is about the activities of Chicano's fighting for the rightful recognition in society. The book talks about their religion, and they're deep respect for it. They follow Catholicism, but the way they practice is seen as strange (or not mainstream) within that faith. As the story is told in the book, a group of Chicano's, along with Acosta are, looking to meet with the Cardinal about arranging for more scholarships so that more students can go to law school. Their efforts fail, not because their case was weak but because the corruption within the Church prevents them from speaking with the Cardinal. They are recognized as being Chicano revolutionaries, and not taken seriously. From there they are then dismissed from the office as well as from the minds of the people with which they interacted.

I think this is a perfect example of secular influences on the human beings within the infrastructure of the Church. I know that because at the time the Chicano's were out of the mainstream, and their "antics" were looked down upon that their presence in at the Cardinal's office was immediately interpreted as mischievous and a complete waste of the Cardinal's time. This attitude is not appreciated by the Chicanos and so they protest in a large group outside of the Church. This particular protest pushes them further outside of the mainstream because the protest ended up in a brawl within the walls of the Church. I think that this is what really kept them outside of the mainstream. People not knowing the full story saw the Chicanos as radicals who do not even respect the sanctity of a church. From that point forward (if not sooner) they were seen as a violent radical group and hurt themselves. In this case being in the mainstream meant respecting religion and its sanctuaries and going through the proper channels of meeting with authorities because this is how "mainstream" people achieve the results they are looking for.

Joseph P. Shapiro's No Pity had a slightly different feel to it, at least for when I read it. In Revolt of the Cockroach People the books contents were what I would expect them to be. Very cynically speaking it was a non-white group of people fighting for their civil rights and it contained tales of the society trying to stop them, but the people overcame. Going into No Pity I would have expected the storyline to be about how handicapped people are given too many advantages (as far as they are concerned) and about how they just want to be treated like everybody else. The storyline however, was not this at all. I was shocked to learn how segregated people with handicaps are from the "mainstream". In this case "mainstream" translates to normal. Normality in this case is a person whose mind and body function as expected.

No Pity spoke of many different things, but what I found to be most interesting was the fight for equal working opportunities. The stereotype, that even I accepted, was that people who were disabled, physically or mentally, were on Social Security, specifically, Disability. I never expected that a disabled person could work in a mainstream environment; I know now how wrong I was.

One main thing I learned from the book was that disability and inability are not the same thing. Disability means that a person can do everything a "normal" person could do, with the exception that they may need to do it a different way, or with the aid of assistive technology (i.e. talking on the phone vs. TTY). Inability would mean that they could not do it, and this book has taught me that the only type of person that cannot do anything is a dead person. I think being in the mainstream in this case means being able to walk, talk, hear, see, and think on at least an average level.

When I read The Revolt of the Cockroach People and No Pity, I realized that being mainstream is much more than having an acceptable reputation. I realized that being in the mainstream means having the benefits of functioning within society, and having society notice your functionality. These books have shown me that if society rejects you as being part of its mainstream it is difficult to earn money, have a pension, or even benefits. There are two extremities to being outside of the mainstream, however both result in belittlement. One extreme is being forgotten about, or being in the category of "trying forget" in the collaborative mind of society. This extreme results in a group of people getting nothing from or out of society and causes them to rebel or die off; depending on their resilience (i.e. Chicano's vs. lepers). The other extreme is the extreme the society takes on as its own personal charity case. This extreme is the group of people whom everyone feels sorry for and whom everyone starts charities for because it is understood that these people need handouts. These books have shown me that neither extreme is acceptable and that the mainstream is a softer more variable extension to the ideas of Hitler. In this case Aryan would mean to "go with the flow" and "be able to function like everyone else", and this is an unfair standard. I am hoping that society and human nature in general will evolve into a more accepting being, one that allows for truly equal opportunity toward all persons, no matter how they appear or behave.