It’s about human solidarity, not political solidarity.
I’m not asking you to say “I’m a Trump voter BUT I denounce the racially motivated harassment and assault occurring in our country in the wake of his election.” Because that would be asking you to apologize for your vote.
And I’m not asking for your apology.
This won’t sit well with a lot of my progressive colleagues, and it won’t sit will with a lot of women, latinos, Muslims, and African-Americans. At least not at first. But I’m hoping they’ll come around.
Many of them will be upset with me here because it may sound like I am saying that voting for Trump was okay. You see, in order to vote for Trump, you had to look past his divisive rhetoric about Islam exemplified by his attacks on a gold star family. You had to look past his reference to Mexican immigrants as drug dealers and rapists (“and some, I presume, are good people”). You had to look past his 5-year quest to have Obama declared a non-natural born citizen, which was clearly fueled by racial and xenophobic rhetoric centered on the color of his skin and his name. You had to look past his history as a discriminatory landlord and his open and public statements about African-Americans. And quite frankly you had to look past the pussy grabbing, the sense of ownership over beauty contestants’ bodies, and the misogynist attitude he has consistently expressed for decades.
In the minds of many Americans who are members of these groups, a vote for Trump validates all of these things and more. And they are correct — in voting for Trump, you sent the message that a man with his history is qualified to be president. To a popular majority of Americans, this is unfathomable. While I’m not asking for your apology, it is true that I am asking you to recognize the role you played in electing a man who would appoint a white supremacist as his “chief strategist and senior counsel:”
I’m not asking for your apology; I get it. You hated Hillary Clinton more than you despised Donald Trump. In your mind the Democrats are at least as much to blame as you are. You saw two really bad options and you voted for the one you thought was least bad. Maybe you’re from a working class family in the rust belt and you felt that you have been left behind in this new economy. Maybe you just couldn’t stomach one more pro-choice president and her inevitable supreme court nominees. Maybe Clinton just had too much baggage for you. Okay. Fine. I really do get it. As I said elsewhere, the right to govern derives from the consent of the governed and Hillary Clinton did not have that consent, at least not in the Electoral College which is how we decide these matters (for better or worse).
AND there’s something else I get, and I’m asking you to recognize it. Your privilege allows you to look past his racism. I get that you voted for him IN SPITE of his hatred. I do. Still, if you were black or Muslim or LGBTQ or new-immigrant latino, you would have a lot harder time looking past his hateful rhetoric. For most of them, it was impossible to look past it, and it largely still is. That’s because they are put at physical risk from random and hateful harassment and even assault. Those incidents make them feel unsafe, and make them fear for the safety of their loved ones, particularly their children. That isn’t an exaggeration. They feel unsafe this week because of the hundreds of hateful incidents that have been perpetrated in the wake of Trump’s election:
This hasn’t been limited to the past week. Indeed, his entire campaign has created an atmosphere that has enabled and empowered the most hateful among us:
Moreover, it’s not just physical violence they fear. It is exclusion from political power and the protection of law. They fear these things because they see people get away with racial violence all the time. And they fear that their leaders won’t protect them, and won’t even stand up for their basic civil rights. The thought of white supremacists guiding the president’s agenda is horrifying to them, and it should be horrifying to you.
You need to say this isn’t okay.
You need to say that it’s not okay to promote a white supremacist as White House Chief Strategist and Senior Counsel. And he IS a white supremacist, and more. Here is a carefully reported analysis of his easily trackable record:
I need you to say that’s not okay. It’s not okay that Trump is going to let a misogynistic white supremacist guide his strategy and act as his chief counsel. And here’s how you do it:
“I’m a Trump voter AND it’s his appointment of Steve Bannon is NOT okay.”
Don’t just say it to your friends and family (but certainly do tell them). Don’t just post it on social media (but do post it). Write Mr. Trump and tell him that you voted for him AND tell him that you’re disappointed in his choice, and why.
See what that does? It adds your voice to ours without taking away the ownership you have over your vote. It says you’re not one-dimensional. It says you aren’t defined solely by your vote; it says you disagree with your candidate and you want him to change. It says that you won’t let yourself be divided from other Americans along lines of common decency. And one thing it doesn’t say is this: It doesn’t say that you don’t support Trump.
Now, again, most of my progressive friends and family will not be happy with me today. Nor will my friends who are members of underrepresented and over-oppressed groups. Because they can’t fathom that someone would support Trump in spite of his failings. And frankly I agree with them on many levels.
But I know you don’t agree. I know that for you, his promise of change was more important than his disgusting campaign rhetoric. I also understand something else — you can’t shed your privilege even if you wanted to, and to you it doesn’t feel like privilege at all. You were educated in the school of hard knocks, not Yale. No one ever gave you a hand out or a hand up. You work your fingers to the bone to end up broke at the end of every pay period, and your kids may not even do as well as that. I know.
Still, that doesn’t change the fact that you won’t be targeted by nationwide “stop and frisk.” It doesn’t change the fact that that you won’t feel the need to constantly carry with you some proof of citizenship in case you find yourself talking to ICE after a routine traffic stop. It doesn’t change the fact that doors that automatically open for you automatically close for others who have skin that is a different color from yours, or pray differently than you do.
It is simultaneously true that you don’t really understand just how lucky you are, and at the same time the country doesn’t understand just how tough it has become for you to earn a living and make your voice heard.
Fine. I get it.
AND that doesn’t make this turn towards white supremacy okay, and you know it. It is NOT okay that we’re putting openly racist activists in key positions of power.
One last thing, and this one is directed at the progressives and the various minorities who have read this far and are pissed off at me. We need to get past the politics of division that Trump is using to ascend to power. I’m not asking you to get over the hate that he has directed at you. I fully expect you to continue to push back against the hateful rhetoric aimed at you, your friends, your family, and your communities. Anything less would be un-American.
But please, when the voices of dissent start to emerge in white America, and they will, please do not push them away. You can still maintain serious differences with someone and at the same time accept their help. You can still recognize their privilege without blaming them for it (no one gets to change the color of their skin or their ancestry, not even white people). Instead, you can empower them to use their privilege to push for a more inclusive and just America.
I have see a lot of weird stuff on the interwebs this week, but nothing quite so weird as this:
What the hell? My response applies equally to that article and the tweet that inspired it. Since when is ranking oppression a useful exercise? The truth is there is sexism AND racism in America today, and it’s also true that calling an entire country sexist or racist is a complete waste of time, energy, and political capital. More to the point, though: are we really going to let ourselves be reduced to bickering over who was hurt most by the election and by the decisions of president-elect Trump?
Can’t we simply agree that Trump’s current direction hurts women AND African Americans AND Muslims AND hispanics AND yes, even me, the over-educated middle-aged white guy. Because the whole locker room talk bullshit dehumanized me as a man, and his selection of a white supremacist as his chief counsel makes my racialized identity as a white man a shameful thing. Trump’s current direction hurts us all.
Do some of us hurt more than others? Yes. But I’m not sure how fighting over who is hurt most helps anyone mount an effective resistance to hate and all that comes with it. And while our pain may not be equal, our humanity is. Let’s please not allow ourselves to be dehumanized more than we already have.
We need to unite through the power of AND. We need to be women AND men AND African-Americans AND Asian-Americans AND Native Americans AND Christians AND Muslims AND Jews AND Buddhists AND Hindus AND hispanics AND white people AND children AND adults AND democrats AND republicans AND third-party voters AND non-voters AND Trump voters against hatred and fear. Now that the election is over, we need to really focus on changing the direction of this presidency. Because the current direction is incredibly destructive to all of us.
Together, we can send the alt-right back to the fringes of society. Unfortunately I’m not sure that the fear and hate of others that they feed on can ever truly be vanquished, but we can make them hide again. But only if we do it together.
I started out this article by telling the Trump voters that I wasn’t asking for their apology, and I’m still not. Apologies are just words. “I’m sorry” doesn’t do a damned thing for me, and it doesn’t do a damned thing for the country.
We need your action. You need to condemn hate and stand with humanity as a collection of ALL people, no matter their background or history.
And you need to do it now, before it’s too late.