The Emotional Intelligence of the White Male Recessive Gene and the 45th

When I think of the emotional intelligence (EI) of the 45th and the male recessive gene, I’m reminded of a powerful monologue entitled, “You Are A Boy” delivered by actor, Joe Morton on Scandal SO3E10 – A Door Marked.

FITZ:
She was 12 years old.
What kind of man who takes a child’s mother from them? I’m screwing her, you know.
Your daughter.
Every chance I get.
The things I could tell you.
About the way she tastes.
She’s quite a girl.
Talented.

COMMAND (Joe Morton)
You’re funny.
you’re a funny, funny man.
I am? Or should I say “boy”? You’re a boy.
You’ve been coddled and cared for, pampered and hugged.
For you, it’s always summertime and the livin’ is easy.
Daddy’s rich! And your mama’s good-looking.
You’re a Grant! You’ve got money in your blood.
You are a boy.
I’m a man.
I have worked for every single thing I have ever received.
I have fought and scraped and bled for every inch of ground I walk on.
I was the first in my family to go to college, my daughter went to boarding school with the children of kings.
I made that happen.
You cried yourself to sleep because daddy hurt your feelings.
Because papa banged his secretary.
Because it hurt to have so much money.
You spoiled, entitled, ungrateful little brat! You have everything handed to you on a silver platter, and you squander it.
You’re given the world, and you can’t appreciate it because you haven’t had to work for anything! So now you’ve decided that the one thing that you want is my daughter, my child.
Mine.
What I made.
What I created.
You could talk about what a great lay she is to try to get a response from me all you want.
But guess what? I am actually quite literally above your pay grade, which means that I know that you believe that you are in love with her.
– As wrong as you may be.

FITZ:
– I do love her.

COMMAND (Joe Morton)
You love that she is a door marked “exit.
” You love that she is your way out.
Because if you are with Olivia Pope, you don’t have to fulfill your father’s dream of being president.
If you are with Olivia, you no longer have to be your father’s son.
An apple never falls too far from the tree.
You are always going to be Senator Grant’s disappointing boy, Fitz.
She is always going to be the formidable Olivia Pope.
Don’t use the person that I made to make you into a man.
You’re a boy.

FITZ:
You don’t know anything about me.

COMMAND (Joe Morton)
Sadly, boy, I know everything about you.
You disappoint me as a suitor for my daughter’s hand.