I saw a picture recently of three American generals that became presidents; General George Washington, General Ulysses S. Grant, and General Dwight D. Eisenhower. The time between Washington and Grant is about 70 years, give or take a couple, and the time between Grant and Eisenhower is about 80 years. Yet, Washington and Grant’s uniforms look radically different, and Grant and Eisenhower don’t. I think that this is a result of the invention of photography.

Photography freezes the moment, and in terms of men’s clothing, it sort of made men’s dress clothing officially a suit. There are no photographs of Washington and the average person did not have a good idea of what he looked like, so, in a way, when a man wanted to look powerful, he had to improvise. Photography was invented in 1838, but pictures were only available to the average person once they appeared in newspapers in the late 1880s. That froze the look of men’s clothing.

Conversely, deep into the television-driven era, women’s looks on television are becoming even more sexually charged, changing how women look as they go to the mall. Watching the Academy Awards, it is hard to miss that most women wore dresses with décolletages that plunged to their navel. The Academy Awards are a controlled environment but I am now starting to see this look – which seems so contrary to the concerns over the objectivation of women – in uncontrolled environments like in the stands at the NBA Playoffs or the Miami Grand Prix.

Speaking of the NBA and the Miami Grand Prix, over the last sixteen years that we have followed Lewis Hamilton, his look and demeanor has shifted from a White man with dark skin to a proudly Black man. The same thing is happening in the NBA, with players who used to have short hair now sporting dreadlocks. I like change but watching black culture change away from my previously dominant, culture is fascinating but uncomfortable to watch. I can actually physically feel the discomfort on the back of my neck. It is not a discomfort I want to have, but it is there, a reflexive bristling.

The problem is that I want all of us to be treated equally; while not necessarily equal in outcome, equal in treatment and opportunity, and I want my culture to be the dominant culture. These are not compatible desires (duh). They are not compatible in me, in anybody really, or in the broader culture (duh, again).

I want to make a quick brag; about nine months ago, when the US said they were not going to send Patriot SAMs – surface-to-air missiles – to Ukraine because, among other reasons, it would be too provocative and it would take too long to train the Ukrainians because the system is so complicated, I said that we would be sending Patriot to Ukraine in less than a year. Yesterday, Ukraine said they used a newly fielded U.S. Patriot missile to shoot down a Russian hypersonic missile.

And, lastly, a confession: when President Reagan started touting The Strategic Defense Initiative – derisively called the Star Wars Program – which eventually became Patriot, I thought it was a waste of money and would never work. That’s what all my news sources said, and I bought in. I was wrong. They were wrong.