I learned a lot of practical skills and concepts as a Boy Scout. For example, I learned to tie knots which I continue to use every day in my practice as a physician. Earning my Safety merit badge made me acutely aware of typical and atypical driver blindspots that I still think about today. At the Pico Blanco summer camp, I practiced water rescues, learned the side stroke, and how to manage a capsized boat. As a Boy Scout, I also learned how to be a racist.
Our scoutmaster was very fond of telling outrageously racist jokes, usually at the expense of Black people. He said horrible things in response to which we (being a group of random boys, aged 10-17) laughed. I’d like to think that we knew better than to laugh at ugly, racist jokes but adult leadership figures have powerful sway over their charges. We all wanted to belong, or, worse, feared not belonging. Some of us were even grateful for being included in the joke-telling group- it signified social currency in our troop, in some fucked up way. It is this obscene group dynamic that inexplicably contextualizes overt racism as “cool” and has probably helped perpetrate some of the most heinous crimes against humanity in history.
The scoutmaster’s son was a friend of mine and he was a nice kid- let’s call him Dean. He was often in conflict with his father but not because of his father’s racism; his father always wanted Dean to be more masculine, more alpha, a winner. When we would play a sport, his father would pick on him if he didn’t win or perform well. When we practiced our camping skills, like starting fires, pitching tents or tying knots, he would berate Dean if he didn’t finish the tasks quickly and well. It reminds me of the Great Santini, a brutal/great movie starring Robert Duvall (RIP), without the noble ending.
I didn’t know much about Dean’s dad. He ran a company that installed some sort of communication technology- he drove around in a van filled with electronic gear. He must have done well for himself because they lived in a huge house in nice neighborhood. Dean was an only child and his mom doted over him. Going over to Dean’s house was a special treat because his mom would give us pretty much anything we wanted: cookies, cake, candy, root beer, ho hos, ding dongs, and pretty much anything else a greedy, sugar-starved, hyperactive kid would want to stuff in his gaping maw (that his own mom wouldn’t give him). I’m sure her coddling and permissiveness was a point of conflict with his dad. I remember seeing Dean in tears on several occasions, from the shit his dad would fling at him while we were on Boy Scout camping trips. His tears would comingle with the sweat of exertion from whatever we were doing, but his anguish was obvious.
When we think of organizations that are focused on young people, like the Boy Scouts of America, we want to think the best of them. These organizations subscribe to values that are universally admired and make the world a better place. But like any large organization, it is reliant upon regular, flawed human beings (ie all of us) to implement these principles. Some of them commit moral atrocities under the guise of these organization, the most glaring and scaled example being the Catholic church (NB I’m not picking on the Catholics- they’re just the most conspicuous example; there are so many others). I wholeheartedly agree with many of the core values of the Catholic church: love, charity, kindness, and forgiveness to name a few (while there are some that I vehemently oppose). But it isn’t just the values themselves that hurt or help people per se; more insidiously, it is the agents of the church that paradoxically commit crimes while simultaneously espousing its core values.
50 years after I first learned it, I can still recite the Scout Oath by heart:
On my honor, I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
And to obey the Scout Law*
To help other people at all times
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight
Yeah, it feels a little prescriptive and makes some slightly troubling assumptions with loaded language. But overall, there’s a lot to like in there. But the oath, just like a well-intentioned organization, loses its power and meaning when it is followed by the recitation of an awful joke about racial stereotypes.
* A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, and Reverent