To Be White and Male in 1940

20 of 40

I took my Power in my Hand—
And went against the World—
’Twas not so much as David—had—
But I—was twice as bold—

I aimed by Pebble—but Myself
Was all the one that fell—
Was it Goliath—was too large—
Or was myself—too small?

Emily Dickinson

In 1940, Thomas Midgley, Jr. was a 51 year old white male who was at the peak of chemical science and invention. Besides winning top awards and honors, his most memorable inventions, lead additives and chlorofluorocarbons in gasoline, changed our lives, then and, by consequence, now.

He was afflicted with polio in 1941. And was rendered unable to walk. His extreme abilities enabled Midgley to create a machine to lift and deposit him into his bed. Amazing. And getting him into bed one night in 1944 that machine strangled him to death at 54.

My father was fully, deliriously, happy in 1940. He was the first in his family to graduate from the 8th grade, then college, then law school, then gain a fantastic job in New York City with an entré from his academic mentor. He found an artist-beauty in Cafe Society to wed. He had finished his eight years service in the Army Reserves after his ROTC years in college. At 31, a high-income lawyer in the unending Depression economy, he was where all educated, white males should be: in charge of his life.

Then Pearl Harbor happened.

No military commission, no job, no more parties at their East 10th Street apartment with the 20 foot long terrace. He scrambled to get a commission in the Navy and spent years on aircraft carriers.

The booze that was joy, became necessary. The cigarettes that manifested the cool of the society he bathed in became first line therapy. The wife was with him, but the rest of his life left him. Because, like Midgely, being white and male was no longer enough to gain access to what he wanted.

We think we make our lives, we have to. The extreme effort and talent Midgely and my father has was not a self-rewarding entitlement, despite his demographic. No, my dad and Midgely just had the right gender and race to compete in their worlds. Others were not allowed to. Because humans try to make our lives.

But we do not. Polio happens. War happens. And we can cope and learn and adapt. Or we can try to defeat what is not ours to defeat. We can use the gifts that earned us so much to overcome our injustices. And we can end what we have been given.

Strangulation by your invention is not limited to Thomas Midgely. Eight million returning men were damaged in World War 2. The lives they invented after that coped, but also killed many. The alcohol and smoking that were what the returning soldiers could use to cope with a broken world killed many of my parents’ generation. Including my parents.

We all become David in the world where Goliath lives. We think that the pebbles of our invention can overcome the existential threats we face. But David did not kill Goliath. God did.

We are given everything. We can understand that, or we are entitled to the lives we work to have. When you are white and male in 1940, the entitlement is personal. When it is, then polio and a world war are personal injustices – ones you can defeat.

But you can not.

I took my Power in my Hand—
And went against the World—
’Twas not so much as David—had—
But I—was twice as bold—

I aimed by Pebble—but Myself
Was all the one that fell—
Was it Goliath—was too large—
Or was myself—too small?

Emily Dickinson