In his State of the Union address, President Obama referred to “the accident of birth” referring to the circumstances into which a particular human being is born. That phrase has entered common usage to refer to the disparity of opportunities experienced by children. It should, however, be abandoned because it does not do justice to the particularities that make us human.
Every person in human history is inseparable from:
Genetics: Each human person is the unique genetic combination of his or her parents. There is nothing accidental about this. You could not be you with different parents.
History: The unique genetic combination that defines who you are is the product of a historical event – the joining of one particular egg and one particular sperm at a specific moment. If any other egg and sperm had combined, you would not exist. Furthermore, the historical moment into which you were born is essential to your particularity.
Geography: You are also born in a particular place. The law, medicine, culture, and agriculture (to mention a few) of your particular place shape you in ways that define who you are.
Parenting: Your particular parents – in their presence or absence – profoundly shape your health, education, temperament, personality and opportunities.
Community: The people who nurture (or neglect) you and form the moral ecology of your community shape your character, establish social expectations, and create (or limit) your opportunities.
Referring to the “accident of birth” does justice to none of these dynamics that make each individual person unique, important and human. Take the President himself, for example:
Genetics: The son of Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham, President Obama is African American. His role as the first African American President in the history of the United States is inseparable from his genetics.
History: The timing of President Obama’s birth is important. Had he been born (bracketing the genetic impossibility of that claim for a moment) fifty years prior, he would not have had the opportunity to run for President.
3. Geography: President Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Had he been born in his father’s home in Nairobi, Kenya, he would not be eligible to run for President of the United States.
Parenting: Both the opportunity and adversity of our President’s formative years define him. His mother’s education and abilities unquestionably shaped her son. His father’s absence called for a kind of resilience and persistence unique to Obama Jr.’s situation. Furthermore, his mother’s decision to enroll him in a private college prep school significantly shaped his educational prospects.
Community: The care of his grandparents made it possible for young Obama to return to Hawaii at 10 years old for schooling. Had they not been present and supportive, President Obama might have had a very different educational and vocational trajectory.
These are but a few examples that demonstrate the important particularities of our President, which define him. He is not an accident of birth. To say such would be an insult to him.
This is true of every historic individual, and of every human being. Indeed, many of the most important historical figures are defined precisely by their ethnicity, historical moment, particular place, and the nurture of family and community. Consider Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. King’s was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929 to an African American pastor and his wife. The community and social networks which Dr. King and his family inhabited were not incidental either to Dr. King’s formation or his historical import. The oppression he experienced as a black man in the South is not incidental. Dr. King cannot be separated from these essential genetic, historical, geographic, relational realities. Neither he nor anyone else is subject to “accident of birth.”
Finally, it must be noted that adversity is not incidental to the identity and character of a person. The expression “accident of birth” suggests that the same person, magically plopped into a different context, would be the same person. This is patently not true. Nelson Mandela’s 26+ years in prison shaped his character and his ability to speak with moral authority. We honor individuals precisely because of the particularities. Conversely, we (rightly) discount the voice of those whose lived experience has not persevered through adversity. The actual, historic, geographical, relational situation of each and every human person matters. We dishonor both the poor and the virtuous by any suggestion that anything about them is accidental or incidental (Scharf 1-2)
Works cited:
Scharf, Graham. “The Accident of Birth Fallacy.” Exploring Information. Net. https://grahamscharf.com/accident-of-birth-fallacy/
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The following letter in the local paper moved me to write a response.
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This is a reply to Joe Gold’s letter on Jan. 17 concerning housing costs in Florence.
Joe is right, without a clear understanding of the problem, the solution is doomed to be flawed. I work in a minimum wage service industry job in town. I put in my 40 hours+ every week. My significant other works at the hospital and makes a slightly more an hour. We are both active in our community through volunteer organizations, in short, productive members of our beloved Florence.
Not only is there zero hope of homeownership anytime in the foreseeable future, without the help of friends and family, we wouldn’t have been able to get into a rental (first last security). That’s not mentioning the deposits required from PUD, water, sewage, etc. I don’t think there is one reason to point towards that makes the housing situation so difficult. It is a combination of low-paying jobs and ever-increasing monthly rent. With so many things contributing to these factors, I am at a loss as to a feasible solution.
There are so many hard-working good people in this town getting shafted for their efforts, it saddens me to see this occurring in a community I pride on its warm, enthusiastic downhome way of life.
Communities like Florence were founded on the philosophy that hard work rewards you for your efforts. I hold high hopes that stands true in today’s Florence. We are your grocery clerks, you gas station attendants, your care takers, firefighters, mechanics. We maintain those $300,000 yards, we fix your plumbing, kill your bugs, and we greet you with a smile and a friendly word.
Under that smile we’re drowning in your quality of life. Hey, Mr., throw me a rope!
Joe Suda
Printed Jan. 21, 2006, in the Siuslaw News
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Here was my response. My use of the term “accident” is meant to mean a person has no choice of the facts of his birth. Parentage, place, and time of birth are crucial to whom he becomes. Circumstances being different, he would be another person. It is an accident that he became a human being. Where, when, parentage, and genetic elements become vital upon his birth.
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When I hear a Republican espousing “meritocracy,” which includes labeling the working class undisciplined, unreliable, and blameworthy, I think of a concept I call ATPP, Accident of Time, Place, and Parentage.
I believe many of my generation have an ATPP story similar to mine.
I was born of unselfish, honest, tolerant parents. I was raised in California (not Mississippi, West Virginia, or Detroit) at a time when a newspaper proofreader could send his son to college. (UCLA’s tuition was $50 a semester)
In 1961 my wife and I, school teachers, scraped together enough money to put a down payment on a “starter” house. Shortly thereafter property values began to accelerate. We lived in our third house twenty-six years, selling it in 1996 for nine times its cost. We inherited some money in 1991, which we invested in the stock market, right at the beginning of the 90s bull market. Because of our good fortune we were able to build a nice home in Florence.
Working hard and making wise decisions obviously matter. ATPP matters just as much.
Had I come of age during the Bush administration, I would not have gone to college. Most likely I would not have a job that paid a living wage. Owning a house would be a bittersweet dream. I would be one of the hard-working service industry employees that Joe Suda spoke so eloquently about in his Jan. 21 letter, smiling at retiree customers like me but struggling to survive.
What are the ATPP stories of Republicans that insist that the Joe Sudas of this community need only “pull themselves up by their bootstraps”?
I know enough about District 9 State House Democratic incumbent Arnie Roblan’s story to know he understands exactly what working people, making seven to ten bucks an hour, are forced to endure.
Does staunch Bush Republican Al Pearn understand? Or does he, like most Republican politicians, adhere to the conservative myth that the poor, because of their condition, are shiftless ne’er-do-wells that, for their own sake, need to be set adrift?
Printed February 22, 2006, in the SiuslawNews
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Several months later I was contacted by Beth Cohen, a regional director for OSPIRG (Oregon State Public Interest Research Group). I had signed a petition sponsored by OSPIRG calling for legislation to reduce global warming. She talked me into working for OSPIRG as a volunteer. Among other things I said I would write a letter to the Register-Guard calling attention to Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.” I had already seen the movie. I saw it again, audiotaping much of Gore’s narration. Here is the letter. ATPP does not exclude anybody from the disastrous effects of global warming, all of us but the most foolish and ignorant now recognize.
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Spiking carbon dioxide emissions, melting ice shelves, hurricanes, floods, heat waves, droughts.
Near the beginning of “An Inconvenient Truth” Al Gore narrates, “Future generations may well have occasion to ask themselves, ‘What were our parents thinking? Why didn’t they wake up when they had the chance?’”
If we do not reduce global warming now substantially, these are the answers we will have to tell them.
Too many of us expected our elected officials to lead. Like the present administration, they didn’t.
Many of us were duped by corporate interests like Exxon-Mobil. Others could not look past their political allegiance or ideology. Many, putting their faith in biased or intimidated “news” reporting, believed that global warming was a hoax or a natural, cyclical phenomenon or something far beyond the world’s ability to remedy.
Like the frog placed in a luke-warm pot of water brought incrementally to a boil, we did not become sufficiently alarmed.
Time is precious. Jump out of the pot. Go see Al Gore’s excellent movie. While you’re at it, log on to www.ospirg.org. Become one of thousands of Americans demanding immediate, aggressive action.
Printed July 31, 2006, in the Eugene Register-Guard
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