NOTE: I wrote this post the day after Trump was elected, but never published it, because my grandmother was murdered later that same day, and obviously this blog was nowhere in my mind. I am publishing it today, in the wake of the Nazi Charlottesville terrorism, because the actual hashtag #ThisIsNotUs was trending on Twitter yesterday. And it feels like we will never learn.
I wrote this to white women because I am a white woman, and most of my readers are women, but of course it’s relevant to all white people. And everything written here applies to me, too. We are all complicit and all responsible.
Dear fellow white women:
We have got to stop saying we are better than this. We have got to stop saying this is not our country. We have got to stop saying “this is not us.”
This is us. This is our country. And we are not better than this. In fact, people of color have been telling us this for, oh, forever, and we are only “shocked” because we have not been listening.
62% of non-college educated white women voters cast their ballots for a KKK-endorsed reality TV star who bragged about sexually assaulting women.
53% of white women voters overall went for a KKK-endorsed reality TV star who wants to ban Muslims from entering the country, close down mosques, deport Mexicans, and remove our right to a safe abortion.
This means that white women – our aunts, sisters, grandmas, cousins, friends and neighbors – are largely more invested in white supremacy than agency over their own bodies.
Meanwhile, we make happy Pantsuit Facebook groups and gleefully exclaim, “busted glass ceiling!” Well, almost.
WE CANNOT FUCKING DO THIS.
If we think we get to look away from the disaster we’ve built – that we asked for, that we lovingly coddled and massaged into being – largely by telling ourselves “this is not us,” we are worse than ever anticipated.
If we insist on believing that white supremacy is a distant problem rather than the core of our national rhetoric, we are worse than ever anticipated.
If we cling to American Exceptionalism in the face of undeniable evidence to the contrary, we are worse than ever anticipated.
And if we insist that a small minority of white people went to the polls and created this mess—that merely a fringe population is outright fucking racist—we are worse than ever anticipated.
We may not turn away. We may not blame Bernie Bros, email “scandals,” third-party voters, media, or the electoral college.
It’s all whiteness anyway.
We may not deflect blame.
OVER HALF OF US WHO VOTED SHOWED UP FOR DONALD FUCKING TRUMP.
I know. I know. You’re a “good one.” I’m a “good one.” Everyone in the Pantsuit crew is a good one. And yet.
53%
This is definitely us.
And of course it hurts. It hurts because it’s truer than anything we’ve ever experienced. It is the moment we are faced with ourselves and cannot look away. It is the moment the stripped, hard truth is placed in our hands.
Trump is whiteness personified. He is masochistic white male mediocrity embodied. HE IS OUTRIGHT CLEAR FUCKING RACISM.
And we voted for him.
And yet still what I see is a bunch of sad people running around the internet weeping, This isn’t my country! This isn’t me!
We think we are excellent liberals. We want to be fair and true and just. But women. 53% showed up for Captain I Hate Brown People.
You know what percentage of black women voters voted for Trump?
6%.
SIX FUCKING PERCENT.
They say the truth will set you free, but first it will really piss you off. The reason it pisses us off is not simply because we are wrong, but because the truth – the great truth – sets aflame everything we thought we knew about ourselves. It uses us up and spits us out into a pile of something we never imagined could exist in us, let alone thrive at the core of our being.
Do we believe people of color now?
Do we believe our silence is compliance? Do we believe our silence is not revolutionary? Do we believe that it is only through pointed, conscientious action that we can break down the system of supremacy from which we all benefit? Do we see that watching slavery movies and feeling bad isn’t doing a goddamn thing?
Do we believe we are responsible? That we must speak? That we must call out the fifty racists in our families–oh come on. I know they’re there. Even in Portland–that we must RAISE CHILDREN WHO UNDERSTAND AMERICA WAS BUILT ON RACISM?
We are not post-racial. We have never been equal. And it is an outright delusion to convince ourselves “This is not us.”
This man was brought to power because of his white supremacy, not in spite of it.
This is a backlash of eight years of black presidency. This is a backlash against people of color rising to power. This is white America reclaiming its Empire.
This is every race-based immigration law in our history. This is Native America genocide. This is anti-miscegenation laws, the one-drop rule, and American colonization. This is white nostalgia and the rewriting of history.
This is Jim Crow after slavery. This is the prison pipeline after civil rights. This is redlining and white flight after the GI Bill of WWII.
This is exactly how America has always wanted it. HAS ALWAYS DONE IT.
Nothing could be more “us.”
We cannot run from this discomfort. We cannot hide from the dawning awareness that everything we’ve been taught about our country was a lie. We cannot soften this blow.
I choose to believe that this tragedy is not in vain, because I cannot believe otherwise. I choose to believe that this is an opportunity to finally, completely and totally rebuild a sick and broken nation.
We have let down people of color again. We have let down queer folk again. We have let down immigrants, and native peoples too. Again. We have let down women again.
But it is not “we.” Not all we.
It is us.
Michelle
Sunday, 13 August, 2017 at 16:35I love your way with words. I love the way you get your point across. I can literally see the words coming out of your mouth and hitting the keyboard!
Steff
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 7:59When did the wi rd F***ing become a word that is considered “a way with words”. All it does is show a junior high vocabulary. My 8 yr old grandson has a better vocabulary.
Jana Piranha
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 10:02When someone makes a plea in earnest, and all you can do is focus on a certain word- you have missed the message. “Bad words” are words adults use to express frustration, and as an adult you should be grown enough to respond to the content. Grow up please.
Barbara Miller
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 15:31The word fuck comes from an old English word that means to strike. It equates sex with violence. It is yet another way of demeaning women, which is why I object to it. Plus the fact that after you have said it twice, it no longer means much of anything. Also, the 54% of white women who voted for Trump did so for a multitude of reasons that were not necessarily racism. They didn’t trust Hilary. A lot of military people blamed her, rightly or not, for Bengazi. Some women only wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade because they think abortion, rightly or wrongly, is killing babies. Many women believed his promise to bring prosperity back to declining industrial areas. Some women thought his credentials as a businessman would make him a good leader. The Trump voters I know are not hateful people. They are generous and compassionate even if they are mostly misguided and uninformed. They are not white nationalists. Many of them regret their vote. People are complex and their reasons for doing things are complex. Yes, what happened in Charlotte is part of who we are as a society, but it is not anything like the whole picture of who we are. When a woman says “this is not who we are”, she means it is not who SHE is. She is not denying the problem, she is repudiating it. Enough women saying “this is not who we are” can change the social order.
Eve Levine
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 19:09Blah, blah, blah. You apparently did not really read the post. There was NOTHING acceptable about Trump as a presidential candidate. He had no governing experience. His businesses failed, his success was by gambling with other peoples money and getting out just before failure and leaving everyone else holding the debt. He has 3 wives, never went to church, couldn’t create a coherent sentence, likely can’t read, never cared to actually know any real facts and is incurious. He surrounded himself with yes-men who coddled his ego. He admitted to sexual assault, made fun of the disabled, villainized anyone non-white. And he repeatedly LIED. Proven lies. But that was better than Hillary Clinton? Nope, this author nailed it, it was racism. Which is another way of saying is was panic at losing white privilege.
Barbara Dantonio
Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 at 0:58Very good analysis. Thanks.
Melisa
Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 at 9:48The time to be thoughtful is before you cast your vote, not after when you realize how badly you screwed up. Yes, we had shitty choices. Yes, we had to make the best decisions with what was available, but if you are willing to overlook racism when you cast your vote, than you are at the very least enabling it if not outright supporting it.
Why
Wednesday, 27 September, 2017 at 12:07I agree with you, Melisa. The many negatives about Trump far outweigh the few positives if any. So not good for our country.
Nancy Keiler
Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 at 10:03The word FUCK in old English means” found under carnal knowledge.”
Joe Mama
Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 at 18:23Fuck is demeaning to women but “Grab her by the Pussy” isn’t???
cognitive dissonance is one hell of a drug.
beth mason
Thursday, 17 August, 2017 at 10:18Barbara–
I applaud you for taking the risk to post.
I’d love to hear more about the people you know who are regretting their vote. I can imagine it would be hard for them to come forward in the current climate, but if you could report back to us, it would be great to know: how many people is this? What are they saying is the reason for their change of mind? Who are they? (race, gender, class, etc). I keep looking for stories like this on the web–I know people are out there. .It would be good to hear more…
Beth Mason
Sarah
Thursday, 17 August, 2017 at 12:10Nobody is saying racists can’t also be generous and compassionate people- that is the thing about racism’s evil. It comes in all forms and some of them are so subtle that people of privilege don’t see it. The quiet racism is the scariest kind. Their votes may have been motivated by other things they think are defensible- but the fact is that they voted for him in spite of the racism- they decided the racism was an acceptable accompaniment to whatever they were hoping to get. That’s a decision that only privileged people make because they don’t bear the same risk. So you see, it IS racism, even if it’s not obvious.
Maitland McDonagh
Thursday, 17 August, 2017 at 15:38Why does equating sex with violence demean women, given that women are rarely the instigators?
Clare Wolf
Thursday, 17 August, 2017 at 19:10I appreciate the original post. It gives me a lot to think about. Thank you for that. By the way, “the F word” is actually originally onomatopoetic, as in it sounds like the act it describes. However, like so many words in the English language, it is come to have a multitude of meanings and a multitude of parts of speech. That, of course, shit hardly be the focus of the message which is heartfelt and worth considering.
Clare Wolf
Thursday, 17 August, 2017 at 19:13Ironically, I said should in my voice reply, and was auto corrected to “the S word.” Sorry, not at all trying to pull focus from the original message.
Monica
Wednesday, 23 August, 2017 at 14:59Barbara, I entirely agree. She also ignores the non-whites who voted for Trump! Are those racists, too? I know several, personally, and they are patriotic Americans who liked his priorities (America’s success first and foremost). Our ancestors didn’t immigrate here to watch this great nation crumble under political correctness and “white guilt”. Clearly this country was better than the one they left, right? Let’s keep it that way.
Karen Patten
Sunday, 27 August, 2017 at 19:22I have heard many people echo the sentiment that, for whatever reason, those who voted for Trump weren’t racist..there were other valid reasons to vote for him and they are “very good people.” However, 8 months in, I have two problems with this line of reasoning. First, even if you had other reasons for voting for him, your privilege allowed you to decide that his sexist, racist, anti-Semetic, and homophobic rhetoric was acceptable and that the sexist, racist, anti-Semetic and homophobic people involved in getting him elected were acceptable people to be involved in the creation of the policy of the US government and to stand beside our President representing our country. Second, I have not heard even one person who voted for Trump come out and say that any of the multitude of times that Trump has embraced racism are NOT acceptable and that this behavior is not the reason that he was elected. And maybe they are and I’m not looking in the right places. The fact of the matter is, if the people who voted for him – his base – were to say we did not elect you to be a racist dictator – we will not stand for this – he would stop doing it. He’s successfully pandering to those who voted for him…because that’s what they want to hear. They’ve done nothing to tell him otherwise. I would love nothing more than a wave of Trump voters to raise their voices in support and love for their fellow Americans and denounce Trump’s behavior and the behavior of hate groups across the Country. Their silence is deafening.
Mike
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 10:24So, apropos of the one-drop rule being mentioned in the text, we should just institute a modern one-drop rule that any swearing automatically invalidates all other qualities of the work in question?
Fuck that.
Clare Wolf
Thursday, 17 August, 2017 at 19:11Ha! ????
Michelle B
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 10:45Someone who punctuates a question with a period doesn’t really strike me as having much higher than a middling grasp of the language, personally.”Fucking”, on the other hand, is a word that has many uses and one of them is inflection of feeling in an argument
Maybe she’s just trying to get her fucking point across.
Lia
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 11:06You are focusing on the wrong thing here and losing site of her point. This WAS well written, and it is HER way with words, and you don’t get to try to negate them. Obviously you are not ready to hear this. Your ability to be easily distracted by one little word that I bet you hear everyday, shows it. Maybe you will never be ready. Just know, this letter was meant for you!
Lia
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 11:06You are focusing on the wrong thing here and losing site of her point. This WAS well written, and it is HER way with words, and you don’t get to try to negate them. Obviously you are not ready to hear this. Your ability to be easily distracted by one little word that I bet you hear everyday, shows it. Maybe you will never be ready. Just know, this letter was meant for you!
Margaret Spear
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 11:41I think there were a few others in there besides the “f” word. And “way with words” does not just mean sophisticated vocabulary. This particular writer has constructed sentences that build tension and momentum in a way that many are likely to find impressive. Unless your 8 year old grand son is something of a genius, he probably an’t do that yet.And I very much doubt that you could either.
Sandy
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 11:48I don’t know where you got that fact about vocabulary. Her use of colorful language doesn’t show diminished intelligence. Why are you so angry about a swear word or is it something else she said?
renegademama
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 12:23Dear Steff,
I wrote a blog post JUST FOR YOU!
https://renegademothering.com/2015/11/05/swearingisokay/
Love,
Janelle
Karen
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 13:00“Swearing is a sign of a limited vocabulary.” My dad used this on me when I was 12 worked then – brought a smile to my face as I remembered the lecture ????
Rosalie
Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 at 12:21And that is the best fucking blog post ever!
Carla
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 20:36So your response is about the f-word. Really?! Is that all you can say? OR…was that your way or hiding your shames because after reading this article you realized that this article about you too?
Bill
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 21:38Nice. Change the subject.
Whittier
Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 at 9:07Focus on the topic! All you are doing is sweeping the behavior of an obvious Commie, Nazi, KKK, “misogynist, racist, bigoted pig … in the White House” (words of an Republican spokeswoman)under the rug by changing the topic to the colorful words used to get your attention!
You must be a bigot sympathizer.
YVONNE
Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 at 13:23Steff: OK. Since you are so in love with Dump yet find the word “fuck” to be offensive (which your idiot-in-chief has used quite frequently during his campaign), then go have sex with yourself and tell us how you liked it. How’s that? Better, Miss Prim-and-Proper? Please…
Martha
Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 at 15:55How did you vote?
Gail
Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 at 17:27Dear Steff,
I bet your 8 year old grandson uses the work fuck or fucking all of the time when he’s not around you — or he will by the time he is 12. It is a key word used by younger generations. It used to be used for shock value. Today it’s just a word.
Now, please take a long deep breath and go back and read the main post, skipping the word fuck. If this word closes your mind to the rest of the message you are seriously harming your grandson and all of his friends not to mention your own children.
Being able to read or listen without judging/turning off the message because it has a single offensive word is not easy, but it is smart.
Why
Wednesday, 27 September, 2017 at 11:21Sometimes plain, articulate wording is not enough for some but “choice” words drive home the urgency of the message at hand. The subject on which she speaks is a prime example. Take a look in the mirror and retread your comment. I suspect that your blood pressure went up as you typed what you felt and is up as you read this comment. It takes more energy to hate and more harm to you in the long run. Hatred has no place in God’s plan. I choose to be in God’s camp. This world is temporary, heaven and hell is for eternity.
Jennifer
Tuesday, 14 August, 2018 at 11:05So like…you didn’t notice any other words here? Sounds like that’s on you.
Allegra Stroup
Sunday, 13 August, 2017 at 16:39Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!! holding up the mirror in broad daylight has to be done, and it takes courage. thank you.
Laura
Sunday, 13 August, 2017 at 17:02This is me. I have not posted and shared and commented or angry face liked anything on facebook after yesterday. I needed to quietly reflect on what the hell I am doing, what we are doing. Even those that came out as “counter-protesters” are not enough. We are having discussions and organizing protests and these mother fuckers are showing up in battle fatigues… it isn’t enough and it is too much. I need time to think, and this was a huge help in clearing my thoughts. Thanks
Jess
Sunday, 13 August, 2017 at 19:59There’s a hashtag popular in Australia #notinmyname used commonly in reference to our government’s appalling treatment of asylum seekers. I’ve always felt uncomfortable with it, but without being able to clearly articulate why. Thanks for enlightening me, because I think my problem with it is that clearly it IS being done in my name, in any Australian citizen’s name. Being indignant isn’t going to fix things. It’s not somebody else’s problem. We are responsible.
karen lindquist
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 4:41We most definitely need to wake up to the reality of what we are silently allowing by not shutting it the fuck down with every fiber of our being.
I always thought of myself as more of a “that is not me, I do not contribute to that” type of white woman, and then I very recently got my ass handed to me verbally by a black woman I adore, and I was so sad and ashamed to have taken so long to be able to hear some of these truths, and not am trying very hard to educate myself by reading a lot of blogs and essays of black women telling of their lived experience.
I had to go off Facebook for the most part, because i can’t take the hypocrisy of liberals patting themselves on the back or thinking that being language nazis in the culture of outrage is helping or makes them “not a part of this.”
It is high time we, as white women who don’t want to be complicit, do more than pay lip service or deny that we contribute. We do need to own this. we have the privilege to just walk away from this while black women and their families are being killed and enslaved in the school to prison pipeline and at best, made to feel they will never be safe in our colleges or in our society.
We have been called out on not shutting down our white men, on supporting husbands who promote the evils of racism, of raising sons who support things we speak out against. It is apparently true, because the percentages don’t lie.
I read one black woman’s words on how we need to be able to be vulnerable enough to set down our reaction to their pain and hear them and see them without curling up in the fetal position and feeling WE are the ones being attacked. So, I am here, and ready to do this.
It sure isn’t gonna get better if we don’t.
Stephanie
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 11:46As a black woman I just wanted to say, I appreciate you. Thank you.
renegademama
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 13:34Thank you, Karen, for this comment.
Gretchen
Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 at 7:07Well-said. I feel like I’m in the same boat.
Catherine
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 5:32I’m really sick of white women (of which I am one) clinging desperately to this second rate privilege. It’s as though we are all in prison and we’re given special privileges so we’d rather stay imprisoned and deny escape opportunities for the others just so we can cling to our sad affirming status.
Tanya
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 6:51Every single word of that was so important. Thank you
Kristol
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 6:59I feel like every time I comment, I say the same thing. But I LOVE YOU, wholeheartedly, like a friend I always needed but couldn’t find.
renegademama
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 11:11Thank you so much, Kristol. I hope we can meet someday. 🙂 I know it’s a long shot, but ya never know! And I remember your comment on the first post I wrote about white privilege. It meant the world to me, and I still recall your words. So, the appreciation is mutual.
Paula G.
Thursday, 17 August, 2017 at 8:29help me find that post?
SS
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 8:14Brilliant!
Laurie Loving
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 9:43Greetings,
Thank you for these critical and heartfelt truths. Would you please explain what you mean by “redlining and white flight after the Veterans Act?”
thanks, Laurie
renegademama
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 10:10Yes. I am referring to what happened to black veterans after WWII and the GI Bill (I edited the post for clarity realizing I was using a colloquial term).
Black men fought in the war for this country, and were part of the GI Bill (which supposed to integrate communities and give ALL veterans economic benefit), but were denied housing in actual practice because banks wouldn’t lend to them. Banks engaged in a process of redlining, which was literally drawing red lines on their maps to delineate black neighborhoods. They would then TELEPHONE white home-owners in these “redlined” districts and use fear and racism to get them to sell their homes and flee to suburban areas (this is largely how white people ended up in suburbs and blacks in inner cities). They would then jack up the mortgage rates and home prices and sell to black families. Many banks wouldn’t make loans at all in redlined districts.
So, black people couldn’t buy in redlined districts due to inflation (or no banks to make loans), and they couldn’t move to the suburbs due to rampant racism of the white people there (who just “fled” them). So, the USA thanked them for their lives and service then blocked them from the benefits white veterans enjoyed.
This is also why we must complicate the “urban/ghetto” narrative. There is a LONG SYSTEMIC RACIST ECONOMIC history behind where we all live and what our communities look like.
A good source: http://www.npr.org/2017/05/03/526655831/a-forgotten-history-of-how-the-u-s-government-segregated-america
More: http://americanexperience.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/After-the-War-Blacks-and-the-GI-Bill.pdf
This video (I think you have to buy it) is also excellent and addresses this topic: http://www.pbs.org/race/000_General/000_00-Home.htm
Barbara
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 13:08Black soldiers were supposed to get the educational benefits of the GI Bill as well, but colleges had quotas limiting the number of black students they would accept .
Amanda
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 6:38Just a small addition to your explanation above. When you mention this practice “They would then TELEPHONE white home-owners in these “redlined” districts and use fear and racism to get them to sell their homes and flee to suburban areas….They would then jack up the mortgage rates and home prices and sell to black families.” That practice was called ‘block busting.’ Red lining and block busting often when hand in hand. This book is a great resource for learning more: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Blockbusting%20In%20Baltimore?st=SEM&sid=BNB_DRS_102+B_00000000&2sid=Google_e&sourceId=SEGoS24695444&k_clickid=409×24695444
Molly Hierschbiel
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 9:53I can’t thank you enough for your words, but more importantly for sharing these resources. Our history has been sifted through a fine screen and what we “know” has become a shadowy substitute of our true history. I am 56, I should know more than I do, and my heart is sure, but my mind needs these dots connected by facts. Their house of cards will fall and we need to be, right now, building a brick and mortar home on a solid foundation. Thank you, thank you, thank you ❤️
Ashby
Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 at 6:21I’m learning so much just in this comments thread! Thanks, everyone!
molle
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 11:30redlining wise there is an excellent pulitzer prize winning investigative reporting on it
http://powerreporting.com/color/
Lorain
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 9:46We all need a swift kick in the rear now and then, and we definitely need one now. I agree with everything you wrote, even the parts that were hard to take. Especially those parts. And, I am so sorry about your grandmother. You have my deepest sympathy. My grandmother lost a son fighting Nazis, my mother lost her brother. I can’t sit on my hands while a bunch of Neo-Nazis try to take over our country. I cannot let a bunch of hate-mongerers and racists be enabled to continue their agenda that is devastating to so many. You named them, I know them. They are my family and friends, they go beyond those I personally know. We will fight for them. I will.
renegademama
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 11:13Right! My grandfather fought them too. And these idiots call themselves “patriots.”
And thank you. I miss my grandmother every damn day, and lament the nature of her passing.
Sara
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 10:58Right. We white women should all feel so guilty because we were born white. You aren’t saying everyone should be equal. You are saying we (White people) should be less then people of color. I am sick of everyone telling me that I should feel bad for the color of skin that God gave me. You lost a follower of years with this one. That being said, it is truly awful about your grandmother and I am genuinely sorry for your loss.
renegademama
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 11:10“When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.” – somebody who knew what’s up.
And thank you for your kind words about my grandmother. It was a devastating blow. And sorry to see you go, but if I wrote to maintain followers, I’d never write a damn thing. I’ve always spoken the truth as I see it. Would rather not write than do otherwise. All the best to you.
Angela Moffitt
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 14:14I would have left the same comment a year ago. I thank you for writing the truth. We will all wake up I pray. “People must learn to hate and if they can learn to hate they can be taught to love. For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite – Nelson Mandela
Jennie
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 13:11Sara, please read this article again, more carefully and calmly. Renegademama is not saying what you think she is. She’s saying that we need to stop living in a fantasyland and realize that our country is far from perfect, and that if we ever hope to see things get better, we need to recognize and shoulder our responsibility and fight for that dream. That means standing up and speaking out when we see someone mistreated because of who they are, and it means voting for people who will help the situation, not make it worse.There’s a very appropriate quote about this; I may not get the words quite right: All it takes for evil to win is for one good person to do nothing.
Stephanie
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 15:50Sara, she didn’t say we should feel guilty simply for being white. She explained, quite succinctly, that we should feel guilty because we’re not doing anything worthwhile to help POC in this country. There’s a difference.
But if that’s the attitude you want to take, then don’t let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya.
Val Knight
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 0:52For two unequal positions to become equal it is necessary for the lower one to come right up to join the higher or the bottom one to fall to where the lower is or possibly adjusting the two so none goes up a bit and one comes down. However “equal”does not imply the top one going lower than the bottom. Which of the three ways u achieve equality is up to US citizens . As a white English woman I prefer the lower group coming up to the same level as the top group- ie having all black rights brought up to the same as white rights -in reality not just on paper.
I think you have over reacted to what you just read because you have seen it as you giving something up. But as indicated above equality has three ways to occur .
Luis E. Pacheco
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 12:02As a Puerto Rican who has spent the better part of his life struggling for my country’s independence from Anerican imperialism, may I add that it was also you, all of you, that colonized my country as an act of war in 1898. And also toppled the democratically elected governments of Jacobo Árbenz in Guatemala in 1954, Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran in 1953, Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973, and the assassination of Patrice Lumumba in Congo in 1961.
Many Americans do not know the military history of their country, with all the military interventions around the world. Many Americans are unaware of the amount of American military bases currently found around the world, all of these things done in your name. I would encourage you to google some of this history, because it is part and parcel of the undercurrent of racism and misogyny that have been an integral part of your country since it was founded on the back of all the American Indian tribes that were lied to and demonized in order to put forth a white nation.
renegademama
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 13:30Thank you, Luis. THANK YOU.
Thank you for the reminder that we are not taught AT ALL about the history of American militarism, expansion, and colonization. We are taught some nostalgic American Exceptionalism version of history. I did not even know America had/has colonies. And we still call them “territories.”
I didn’t learn the truth of our history until graduate school, and I agree with you that we need to learn this history if we are ever to move forward. We must learn the TRUTH.
V
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 20:15The bigger picture https://medium.com/siip-campaigns/donald-trump-is-unimpeachable-heres-why-f0a7db94d484
Ramelis Nicholson
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 15:18Buenas Luis,
Gracias a dios que aún se encuentran independentistas en Puerto Rico. Yo soy una Newyorican viviendo en el estado de Washington y todo que yo veo aquí (que no es mucho) parece que Puerto Rico se esta vendiendo. Gracias por informarme que la lucha sigue.
Paz,
Ramelis
Stephanie
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 15:01Thank you so much for your eloquence.
Stephanie
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 16:03I had to read this twice.
I want to do something to help, to fight against the sin of racism.
I am so ANGRY that this is happening, and that people are doing this awful things in the name of God and Jesus and using the Bible to justify them.
And yet I don’t know what to do, and I am scared to even try.
Heather
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 17:55Stephanie,
Do SOMETHING. Post on your social media that you denounce white supremacy aND challenge othere to do the same. Donate to BLM. Connect with your local SURJ chapter (http://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/affiliated_groups_local_contacts). Talk to your kids about their privilege and their duty to disrupt racism.
Just do something – anything. Please.
Stephanie
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 19:12Heather, thank you for the good ideas and the encouragement. Fortunately, I’m already pretty vocal on social media and do argue with people who post racist ideas.
I’m now looking at ways to be more active and along with your list have a list of things written by the Southern Poverty Law Center that will be helpful. So again, thank you.
Denise
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 18:35My deepest condolences on you loss.
Thank you thank thank you???????????????????????? from my family to you on you hard to say and for some hard to face realities in our country.
Rand
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 20:52Many did not vote for Trump.
Many abhorred Trump.
Many even knew that keeping quiet and not confronting was wrong.
And many knew that confronting doesn’t work.
Very few, today, realize that most white women,
and men,
and most non-white women and men
in America are still part of the problem.
Confrontation and resisting don’t work very well. Often they fail.
In the politics of confrontation, the right have honed these skills.
There is an answer, but few can hear it. I don’t know how to get through to you. Perhaps I should just say: There’s a way to unite, a way outside of politics as usual. But you’ll have to work at it, at least a little.
Democracy never worked very well. We never had any real way of holding politicians accountable. We’ve never had a way for society to communicate well about what it wants. The results we see our the results our system makes possible.
It could easily be much, much better, and in just a few months. Contact me when you’re ready to see something new. (But I won’t be reading comments here…)
‘best wishes…
-r
Kevin
Monday, 14 August, 2017 at 21:47After what transpired in Charlottesville, Virginia, the false phrase “Hillary Clinton would’ve been way worse than Trump” should now and forever be ripped out of your lexicon for you now know the truth. Across the board, from the continuous Russia/Trump investigation that is slowly proving that there was actual collusion to the policies he and the rest of the GOP/TP wants to enact across the nation, you are now witnessing what most African Americans, Muslims, Latinos and other minority groups already knew; we saw what impending danger was coming down the pipe EVEN before that fateful election night back in November. To say that we were clairvoyant would be an understatement. Unfortunately, what is done is done, and we ALL must live with the consequences of your actions. I served eight honorable years in the United States Army, and one of the lessons that I learned is that there are times when you will not be able to go to war with the people you want, but you will most definitely go to war with the people you have. That painful lesson should be learned by all as we go forward to the Mid-Term elections in 2018–we can ill afford to rehash those tragic events of last year’s presidential campaign. If the words of this Black man is giving you a gut-check and a rude awakening kick to your ass, consider what we are now fighting and up against. We have an insurmountable task ahead of us for not only do we have to fight against White Supremacy, nationalism and bigotry in ALL forms, but we must fight to retake BOTH chambers of Congress at the federal level, and EVERYTHING at the state and local level. To that end, I am going to do the same thing I did during the presidential election–I am going to extend my hand, and I do not care whether you are a Hillary or a Bernie supporter, whether you are a full left progressive like myself or center-left neoliberal, and ask that we fight alongside each other so that we may win this war. Let us count the victories we will have together.
Listen to the truth my white sister has told you. More than that, hear the truth your Black brothers an sisters are telling you. Heed the truth your Muslim brothers and sisters are telling you. Seek the truth your Native American bothers and sisters are telling you. Hear the truth of ALL your minority brothers and sisters. Listen to the truth, and learn the lessons from this past election so that we may ALL be victorious in 2018 for the heart and soul of the nation hangs in the balance!!!!!
Beth
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 0:59Renegade Mama,
I so appreciate your letter and comments as I do Kevin’s here. The mid-term elections will be telling as to whether or not we have heeded the call to be bold enough to make a change. Can we, will we as white women go to the polls and vote to make a difference?? We have the information; we have the insights. Now it is up to us to act on this as if we have not ever had the chance before. We cannot say that we have any excuses this time around. There is too much bloodshed already, over too many centuries, too many decades for us to deny what we already know in our bones. We must fight racism and misogyny wherever we find it and it will be on the ballot in November 2018. We must vote the alternative!! We must stand up and denounce every act of racism and white supremacy and misogyny that comes in front of us. We must teach our children what these things mean, so that when confronted with them, they will be able to hold their own and stand up against them. This is essential to passing on a legacy of non-bias, non-racism, non-misogyny, and non-white supremacy. That legacy must also come from love and must be passed on with love. Keep up the good fight!
Gaijinmama
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 5:18Not a lot of things to say except…yes, indeed!
White woman here, living far away but trying to do the right thing, which usually means I try to educate myself and then back up for a minute and listen.
If Sara is still reading: no, sister. It is not about just feeling guilty. Guilt is generally a wasted emotion. See above: you’re smart. Listen, and then do the right thing because you know it’s right.
All of this hatred: not right. We can and must do better.
Shawn ellis
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 5:54Yes, white women love being second to their male counterparts.
Bekka
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 7:35This is what we mean when we (and by “we” I mean POC, I am one) say “white people must take accountability and dismantle systemic racist systems themselves”. I believe you are doing a great service to other white people by screaming the truth and blazing a path for other white people to follow, as well as giving hope to POC that it really is “not all white people”. Thank you for taking the first steps of what I hope is a continuing trend among other white people. Kudos!
Laurie
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 7:46Thank you, Renegademama, so well done…and I’m so sorry that there was even more reason to publish this today than a few months ago — although, as you wisely point out, the fundamental trouble has always been with us, and this is who we are. Your post has tipped me into ratcheting up my activism, which to now has been largely internet based and done whenever I had the time. Gotta make the time for real-world actions now. Thank you! Ruth
Tom Aloisi
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 7:51Yes, this is us. But insidiously, we were all raised on lies and propaganda. We are taught from an early age that the USA is by far the greatest nation ever created on the planet. I don’t know WHY we teach these things. Has no one been to Italy?
Also, for some reason- perhaps laziness- we have decided to let the media control us. Corporate media decides what we could care about each hour of each day. Why do we put up with this?
Carol Vasseur Scanu
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 10:30Hi. What a wonderful post.
I am an American living in Italy and have a slightly different perspective. I can’t tell you how disheartened I am. I remember the 60’s, the fight for civil rights, the thrust forward toward a higher civilization. Now it seems the States are just wiggling back into the mud. It is my opinion that many Americans are addicted to the heightened adrenaline rush you get from turning on Fox news and watching that little terrorist watch banner run across the bottom. Yes, 9/11 happened and it was a terrible tragedy but people…. it was almost a generation ago. If America keeps letting it taint so many aspects of you lives, then they won.
These are the statistics of worldwide terrorist attacks in the last ten years. The US isn’t anywhere on this list.
https://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2015/257526.htm
This is a chart by CNN comparing deaths by terrorism and gunfire in the US for 15 years up to 2014.
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/03/us/terrorism-gun-violence/index.html
This visceral fear has opened our nation to manipulation by the media, by by the greedy and the corrupt. It is my fervent prayer that some light will start to shine and it is my belief that women can be an important part of this if they just open their eyes. Men can only take our power if we let them.
Wow, I guess I had a lot to say. Sorry. I think I’ll follow you for a bit.
Carol Vasseur Scanu
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 10:37And I forgot to say….. Vote people! You talk about the percentages of the people who actually voted but not the immense wasteland of those who didn’t bother. I live in a country where they get horrified if only 80% of voters go to the polls. Unfortunately they vote for the same rubbish over and over but at least they vote.
Madison
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 10:30I don’t feel responsible for those white women. I DID speak up. I argued with people on FB and in person and in every venue that I found Trump supporters. I pushed back against false equivalence and fake news. I told my friends they were racists if they voted for Trump. I lost a significant number of FB friends, and I say fantastic! I am not interested in remaining friends with anyone who would support a George Wallace-esque candidate. I will say out loud that America is not the greater than other countries just because we are America and that America has many sins for which we need to atone. If you were afraid to speak out before the election, that’s on you. I did everything I could to put truth in the arena.
Susan Martinez
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 11:40I am white. This is not me. Just because YOU are educated, it doesn’t mean you have a brain I have a brain. I can think for myself, unlike the “other side”. No one is going to bully me into feeling bad about my race, or the choice of MY President. GTFO.
Xena
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 13:15You GTFO. You are the bully thinking you’re better than everyone. You should feel bad about your race of racists and for voting for that assclown. You and your ilk are exactly the problem with this country but are too dumb to listen or have any sense of humanity.
renegademama
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 20:32What Xena said.
Carla
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 20:50Your comment contradicted how you said ‘This is not me’ because you truly cannot or refuse to see or face the fact that what it happening is wrong. Racism is a sin as it is written in James 2:8-9. Yes you do have a brain and can think for yourself. Think about how you would feel if the shoe was on the other foot, so to speak. Would you feel differently? I have one question for you, would you want to be a person of color in the United States of America?
Katie
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 12:17Thanks for this!
Sorry about your grandma.
This discussion is so important! I have started taking the discussion off the internet. It takes a lot of emotional energy, but is well-worth all the effort. Take someone who disagrees with you online out for coffee to have he discussion in person and be prepared with any and every statistic/ quote from “their side,” that you can find. Be ready for people to change their view from “It’s about freedom of speech,” to “It’s about historic preservation,” to “How do you know they’re/ stop calling them white supremacists just because they are white,” or “It’s not inherently racist,” to “But BLM/ Antifa,” and “Peoplebwho understand what nationalism really is know Nationalism is good for every American,” and “I’m so sick of political correctness/ libyards: snowflakes/ Democrats.” Uggg. Honestly, I could go on. (And no one who says these things thinks they’re racist, so just calling them that makes them super defensive).
I know it’s hard and taxing, but keep going! White women have access to people who participate in overt and subtle racial supremacy, so we are responsible. You may be surprised with whom you wind up having these conversations. I’m surprised pretty much every day.
Xena
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 13:10Wow. Thank you. You restore the tiny last shred of faith I have In this country just a little bit.
I wish I could share, but alas I am not white so it would likely be…inappropriate. You see, I don’t have a voice in this matter. Anything I say gets invalidated with “of course she thinks/feels that way. She is just an angry poc with a chip on her shoulder.”
When I stand up for myself, I look like the aggressor and the white person a victim. The deck is stacked against me but very few admit to that. It’s a dirty dirty secret people feel more comfortable brushing under the rug. Thank you for pulling out the rug.
Thank you. Really.
Jennie
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 20:21Xena, are you kidding? You just DID share, and I am glad you did. Sometimes, these days, people can try to speak for someone else, and get it wrong. We can try to be a good ally, and be helpful, and not quite say or do what the people we’re trying to help would LIKE us to do or say. We, the would-be allies, need to be conscious of the fact that we are potentially sticking our nose into someone else’s life uninvited, and while our intention is good, we are definitely NOT the experts about the problem. Those who suffer from the problem, the bias, the discrimination, are the unfortunate experts. There are trolls everywhere, but IMO, anyone here who doesn’t think you should speak up is reading the wrong blog.
renegademama
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 20:32Jen,
I believe she meant sharing this post on social media, and how she would be viewed through the white gaze in doing so.
SherLizz
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 13:12Right on the money and Cruelly Honest. THANK YOU.
Now… hopefully the #ThisIsNotUs dodgers are wide awake, and will from now on SPEAK UP. Being silent and looking away has led to ingrained racism, segregation and exclusion of fellow Americans.
Sue
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 17:37Well, no, actually- it isn’t “us.” I live in a family that did not vote for Trump, in a town that did not vote for Trump, in a state that did not vote for Trump. I’m sick about those who did – and appalled, and furious. It’s not like we all didn’t say, and don’t continue to say, all the time, everywhere, this was awful! That Fox News and now Breitbart and InfoWars and all the rest are first making you terrified and now selling you hatred to assuage your fears. It sounds,good and right to say it’s all on “us,” but frankly I don’t know what the he’ll else I could have done – or could do now. So don’t waste our time. it’s on Fox, and Breitbart and Rush, and the newspapers and tv stations funded by Murdoch and the Koch Brothers. it’s on ALEC and every stupid Republican Rep who gets those ‘model legislation’ bills passed. it’s on everyone who is not paying attention!
renegademama
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 18:55I actually heard my point as it flew over your head. Stunning.
Torri
Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 at 22:01Everything I’ve tried to say sounds so trite after all the pain I’ve just read. You women uplift me and Renegademama- you had me before ‘fuck.’ I now have renewed energy to combat the ignorant, racist horror that has befallen us. I am an us, and I have shame for not speaking up.
Thank you ladies for sharing your wisdom and your pain.
Pamela
Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 at 14:37This is painful to read. You are right on point that this is “us”. But this is NOT ME! I did not vote for this! But we must not be silent. Silence is tantamount to complacency. We must show up, stand up, speak up where ever and when ever injustice and evil rears its head. To do nothing would allow this evil to win!
Jamie King
Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 at 15:17All I can say is thank you for your words. Thank you for encouraging us all to be brave and do something about this. To stand up against what is so very wrong.
Proud Non-Racist White Guy
Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 at 17:12White guilt is getting so old. Trump is not racist. He doesn’t wantto banMuslims he wants to ban refugees from 7 particular countries, he doesn’t want to deport Mexicans he wants to deport illegal Mexican immigrants. And it’s irrelevant who endorses Trump, he has no choice over who does it. America has been racially divided for a very long time before Trump was elected, he’s just getting blamed for it by the corrupt mainstream media. It’s yet another sickening article, in my opinion with very loose relation to any actual facts.
K
Tuesday, 26 September, 2017 at 11:30Your white male privilege is showing.
trump is divisive and it doesn’t help LITERALLY anyone. Except himself.
Rebecca
Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 at 22:34This article and the perspective behind it is one of the reasons Trump won. When the left shuts itself in an echo chamber and calls every other perspective racist/bigoted/etc. that’s when conversation is shut down. I read the article and started scrolling, wanting to comment but then realizing that any comment contrary to the article’s view point would likely get me attacked. When conversation shuts down and everyone who doesn’t agree is a racist bigot, you get a Trump presidency.
This ^ is why we are where we are. People who have been silenced for so long, who have concerns about where the country is going finally said their piece, in the voting booth. Where no one could call them a bigot.
And if you know any Trump supporters – the author definitely thinks you do, you’d know they aren’t racist bigots. They have different concerns than you. And Hillary was more of the same. And clearly at least half of the country didn’t want more of the same.
Lee
Monday, 28 August, 2017 at 4:24Rebecca – Exactly!
Kelsey
Tuesday, 26 September, 2017 at 11:35I know some racist bigots. In my own in-law family. And I’m not sure if they understand they’re racist bigots or if they don’t think they’re wrong. And I work with some racist bigots. And my husband works with some racist bigots. And hell, I remember a few years ago when I moved to the deep South and realized that I harbored some racist thoughts too and I did a lot of soul searching and reading and talking to people who didn’t look like me and I wonder why other people aren’t doing the same and getting angry that the country (probably the world, too) is just supremely flawed and we’re exacerbating it. “We’re” meaning ALL humans, but white people are not helping, and so by not helping we’re actively harming our country. Why is equality and respect and empathy and compassion such a horrible set of values for us to attempt to achieve!?!?!
Amy
Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 at 23:15And, she’s back! Great post, Janelle. I started reading you 5 years ago and keep loving what you write. I’m white and did NOT vote for Trump. But all of my family did. They are kind people and we have inter-racial marriages in my family. They don’t see the structural racism all around us. But OF COURSE we benefit from how the system currently is! Your posts help me point it out to them. Keep on writing.
Clay
Thursday, 17 August, 2017 at 3:29There is so much more you need to wake up to. Our problem is not just racism, and picking on minorities. There is a class war going on in this country. Please, as you are waking up to the issues in this article, please look at everything else, because our lives depend on it. We need to put an end to lobbyists, an end to our elected representative taking money and future jobs to sell us out to the mega-rich. They are feeding us poison, and now food that is not even real food. They are destroying our organs with poisonous substances that have passed the FDA. They hypnotize us to get us on medications we don’t really need that attack our organs and our neural pathways. They distract us with things like white supremacy marches. While we are up in arms about what happened in Virginia, what are they doing that we are not seeing? For goodness sake, the mouthpiece for the white house in regard to this incident appears to be a woman of color and she is comparing the confederate flag to the gay pride flag and saying they are have the same meaning. They clearly don’t if you read what each of their creators said/wrote about the meaning of the flags they created. She is either incredible stupid and uninformed or someone who will do anything for money (give that any name you prefer). In this day and age, why are we still having issues over oil, like the pipeline? How many oil spills have to happen? Why wasn’t anyone really punished for selling nuclear weapons that they were not supposed to, you know Mr. North has his own cable show now? Nobody gets punished because it’s easier to let them distract us and we forget so easily. The nuclear war heads that N.Korea now has, came from us! They are the ones Mr. North sold to the French. Why did we not hold France responsible for selling our nuclear war heads to Korea? This government is ours, it’s us, we have been too lazy to take responsibility for what it does. “Politics is boring.” “I only vote for president because nothing else really matters.” “I wonder what Kim K. is doing?” “I’ve got to make a million by the time I’m 30.” “I’ve got mine, fuck everybody else.” You know everyone of these examples are what people think is more important than taking the time to think about and research their vote. Frankly, I believe they hypnotized you into thinking you couldn’t trust Hillary, why? Everything about her has turned out to be lies. The woman knows so much more than she can tell while she is alive, and she was ready to do something about what she knows. You elected trump, the enemy of us all, because he cares for no one but himself, even his children are just pawns to him. Please, stop buying into catch phrases. Stop letting them hypnotize you, and please know that is what has been going on. It is no much more.
Clay
Thursday, 17 August, 2017 at 3:35Of course that was “It is so much more.”
C.O
Thursday, 17 August, 2017 at 10:37Thank you for speaking truth to power
Liza
Friday, 18 August, 2017 at 0:32One thing to make clear – rabid racism of the Trump minority ISN’T the majority of our country … and while it is very serious – we have to remember that the voter turn-out was only 57 percent of eligible voters. Then Trump won 46.4% while Hillary won the majory of 48.5% of those voters.
That means that less than a 25% of all eligible voters voted for Trump, and many of those were as mentioned by one woman early on are single issue voters, who would vote for ANY pro-life candidate no matter what. Further, the slice of Trump voters who are clearly pro-KKK/Nazi sympathizers is even smaller.
Why do I say this? Not to mitigate the reality and horrors of racism – but to offer some perspective. I am a white woman who has known of the ugliness of racism since I was a child – it is a long story, but suffice to say – none of this surprises me. I told my friends, who happen be a diverse crowd, that if Trump got elected, the revolution would come – in the sense that his race-baiting behavior is so egregious that things would continually heat up, rather than cool down.
( https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/voter-turnout-fell-especially-in-states-that-clinton-won/ )
I understand your anger, for a couple of years prior to this, I was writing angry political blogs, addressing the numerous injustices that the U.S. is engaged in, structural racism being just ONE of many.
But I stepped back from anger, because I saw that I was becoming what I hated – someone that stereotyped every human being that disagreed with me and my values. Racism is a POLITICAL idea, that divides people so that we cannot see the humanity in each other. And the wider these divisions become, the more fearful we are of each other. What we need to understand – is how to address the fears and fits of anger that are coming out via racism.
I know in my family, the racism came due to the incompetent governance of Detroit for generation, and the crime that ensued from a desperate economy. On a person by person basis, my father’s family took people as they came, but as a group of people – my family was furious toward black people.
And from my friendships with non-white folks – whether African-American, Asian, Hispanic, African, etc – they too, take people as they come, but are furious against white people/societies who have historically oppressed them.
Racism is like cancer – all bodies have cancer cells, but some bodies will die of cancer, and other bodies can fight it off, and still others are in the balance between fighting for life and dying. Being born in this country, in this world, really, you will be racist, whether you are white or not … our governments have taught us to hate each other, so they can control us. One classic Political strategy is called – Divide and Conquer – and racism is one of the tools leaders use to divide our strength as a populous.
So … like it or not … here we are. WE all love our country, and in order to keep total mayhem from taking over, and losing more lives, destroying property, etc …. It is time we do the hard work of educating ourselves about how to MAKE peace.
IF Trump has his way, havoc will reign, and he gets to call a National State of Emergency, where he gets to play dictator. This is where everybody loses. Even the Nazis/KKK don’t want that – so on that everyone except the wealthy elite behind Trump can agree.
Before we get to that point – let’s try not to alienate each other – let’s try to find commonalities – let’s ask questions – let’s get out of our bubbles. Make a frenemy, and see how we can change this country around through finding solutions to common problems that lead to this violence, fear and anger – rather than just kneejerking toward rage. Rage feels powerful in the moment – and in certain cases it is an effective tool for rallying – but if it is our ONLY tool – it is alienating and pushes people further and further away, so they hardly seem human any more.
Lee
Monday, 28 August, 2017 at 4:23I was a Liberal all my life and an activist. The Left and being Liberal has gotten so out of hand that I can no longer partake in the madness.This has been quite a revelation to me. There are none so blind as those who will not see.
E.L.
Saturday, 19 August, 2017 at 7:46I’m an Arab American and I think that this anti-white hatred is insane and dangerous. How can you solve a problem by using the same logic that created the problem? It is evil to treat someone differently because of their skin color (something no one can control). Then why is it okay to hate white people? My family came to America from Syria where they were going to be killed by Muslims for being Christian, so don’t lecture me about how we need to bring more Muslims into the United States. Muslims as individuals should be treated with respect, obviously, but the Islamic civilization is NOT COMPATIBLE with Western civilization. I have read the Koran, the Sunna, and the Hadiths. The axioms are the exact opposite of Western civilization. Simply read the history of how Islamic conquest spread – it is not an ideology that will peacefully co-exist; it requires total submission. Trump was the only candidate who understands the existential threat Islam poses to Western civilization. Most Americans know nothing about Islamic conquests, slavery, rape, and genocide. Europe took in large numbers of Muslims and look at the terrorism there now. Why would we want the same here? Leftist Americans are incredibly naïve about Islam…they lecture everyone about how they are “bigots” and “racist” whenever anyone dares to bring up well-documented problems with Islam. By the way, Muslims have been photographed holding up signs in the UK saying “Islam will conquer the world.” Maybe talk to a Christian who lives in an Islamic country and see how they have been treated. Americans should listen to the voices of apostates – see for example Sarah Haider, in this great article: https://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/articles/9551.
Also, I’m married to an African and we both love America and think it’s a great country. If America is such a “white supremacist” country where it was impossible for any “people of color” to succeed, then why would “people of color” even want to immigrate here? Does it make any sense? My husband has never experienced any racism here but has in other places of the world. I don’t deny that there are racist people in America but racism is FAR WORSE in other parts of the world, particularly in the Middle East. If white people are uniquely evil, then why were white people the first to abolish slavery? (Saudi Arabia didn’t abolish slavery until 1962.) Maybe you should talk to some Africans to see if they would rather live in the Middle East or in America. I know a lot of Africans who, far and away, prefer to live here.
Furthermore, why are African Americans not responsible for their behaviors and choices? Why do liberals always finesse away all the personal responsibility? I taught in a program designed to help minority students achieve their academic and career goals for many years. It is a great program. There are so many opportunities available to help minorities in this country; every single university has many administrators and programs available to assist minority & low-income students. There is no law in America that is racist or sexist and there are innumerable legal remedies available if someone is the victim of discrimination. I have seen many minorities succeed in America.
Finally, I’m PhD student who has, for the past several years, studied postcolonialism, feminism, and critical race theory. Academia, particularly the humanities and social sciences, has been taken over by postmodern neo-Marxist ideology. After it became clear what happened in the Soviet Union and China (Stalin and Mao, by the way, were the greatest mass murderers in history…they killed more people than Hitler) it became impossible to say that one was a Communist publicly, so there had to be another way to sneak Communism into America slowly. In 1962, the Congressional Record documents the Communist Plan for the takeover of America (it is a 45 point plan – http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1561529/posts); they have achieved a lot of it by taking over academia. The postmodern neo-Marxists simply replaced the proletariat/bourgeois theory with “oppressor”/”oppressed” — the oppressor is the “white male” and “people of color” are unequivocally “oppressed.” (A good book on this is Steven Hicks’– Understanding Postmodernism). This ideology is a scourge on academia, particularly on humanities departments, because the obsession with “race” has created an ideological tribalism in academia and it has spread into the country. The Democratic party used to be moderate and liberal – it was taken over by an extreme Left ideology and does not represent the values of the average American.
By the way, I am not a conservative, more of a libertarian and a classical liberal. In academia, the ideological tribalism is so extreme that anyone who dares to even mention conservative, libertarian, or classical liberal positions is shunned, mocked, ostracized, called a “racist,” “bigot,” “homophobe,” “fascist,” “sexist,” etc. It is impossible to even get a job in academia unless you are a progressive activist or at least remain silent about your (non-progressive) political views. Left-wing bias in academia is a well-documented fact – see Heterodox Academy: https://heterodoxacademy.org/problems/
Identity politics is a scourge, a cancer, in this country. If it’s celebrated for everyone to organize based on their identity groups and fight for their own interests, then why would we be surprised when white men do the same? Identity politics is a cancer that will tear down this country – we have to not see ourselves as our identities but as humans only. Something has to hold this country together – there have to be shared, FUNDAMENTAL VALUES – the Constitution & Bill of Rights.
I have read the actual documents of the Founding Fathers (not the brainwashing about America by Socialist academics who have an agenda to destroy the country so they can place their elites in charge of the masses because they think they are smarter than everyone else). Anyway, once I broke free of my ideological chains, I saw the actual values of America: a constitutional republic with limited government designed to protect individual liberty and freedom. Period. That is what America is about. It’s a beacon of hope to the world. The people who voted for Trump who I know are great people, not at all racist, they love America and the values of this country.
Just because some idiot KKK Nazis did a little march doesn’t mean we have to burn down the whole country. Ignore ‘em – they’re a vanishingly small minority. But the more you try to suppress an idea the more attractive it becomes.
If it wasn’t for America my family would have died in Syria.
GOD BLESS AMERICA AND GOD BLESS WHITE PEOPLE!
Monica
Wednesday, 23 August, 2017 at 14:50I’m so glad I took the time to read this! I hope that sheds a little light on the political stance she takes 🙂
Lee
Monday, 28 August, 2017 at 4:16Extremely well said. God Bless you keep you well and prosper you.
Monica
Wednesday, 23 August, 2017 at 14:37Wow. I don’t know whether to laugh or cringe sometimes when reading about the left and such a panic you guys are always in nowadays. As a Hispanic woman of color, I entirely disagree with liberal politics. I follow you because I agree with most of your parenting posts, but I cannot keep scrolling past your political posts anymore. The left has been violent, too! I’ve personally encountered very hateful liberals who spew out hateful RACIST things at minorities who support Trump. Telling full blown citizens who are minorities that they will get deported is one. Telling them Trump and his supporters see them as “insert racial insults that were never actually spewed by the POTUS here” is another. I actually think it’s insulting that you guys consider yourselves “privileged” to be honest.
Please just try to unite with your fellow Americans. Most Trump supporters and Trump himself try time and time again to explain that they love ALL Americans regardless of color and want the nation to come together. I don’t know how you keep missing that? Watch his live speeches (such as the one he gave at the Arizona rally) instead of the biased news.
renegademama
Tuesday, 29 August, 2017 at 11:43Um, you just mentioned the Arizona rally as an example of Trump loving all Americans regardless of color even though he just pardoned an Arizona sheriff CONVICTED OF RACE-BASED CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS, and refused to disavow the KKK or even call self-identified Nazis NAZIS. So as long as Trump SAYS he loves all the brown people, we can just ignore his REPEATED ACTIONS that prove otherwise?
God I kinda want what you’re smoking. Must be some good shit.
Oh, and you don’t have to be white to uphold white supremacy, so your use of token Trump supporters of color is entirely ineffective, and frankly, gross.
Monica
Tuesday, 29 August, 2017 at 16:03A few things:
1) I am a person of color, I am not using them/us as token supporters, POC’s happen to make up most People in my life and YOU along with other liberals only care about us if we agree with your politics. You dismissed everything I mentioned about hateful RACIST liberals when we POC’s dare vote republican. I didnt vote Trump, but I wish I had in retrospect. I never anticipated the liberals would tear this country apart like this. What’s “gross” is how minorities are constantly told people are out to get us, confirmation bias kicks in, so we can vote your way.
2) There is some serious cognitive dissonance in your assertion that I don’t have to be white to uphold white supremacy. I am a conservative POC that believes in True equality, not pandering to ANY group.
3) In the Arizona rally I mentioned, he condemned the KKK and other hate groups, too. Just because he doesn’t pander doesn’t mean he’s racist. I don’t even care if you guys want to believe in all this social justice stuff, I just care that you guys won’t recognize that unity makes any group strong (countries, included) and can’t agree to disagree, and unite! No, you guys will disown your own relatives if they support OUR president. If this country deteriorates, it won’t be because of of Trump.
renegademama
Wednesday, 30 August, 2017 at 9:38A direct quote by you illustrating tokenism: “Barbara, I entirely agree. She also ignores the non-whites who voted for Trump! Are those racists, too? I know several, personally, and they are patriotic Americans who liked his priorities (America’s success first and foremost).”
That is the literal perfect example of tokenism.
Supporting Trump is supporting the reinforcement and reigniting of overt white supremacy. Period. My hope and belief is that he and his cronies are the last gasping breath of America’s long and sick history of systemic racism, colonialism, and white-washed nostalgia–so, as you say, we can finally come together in equality, as a country we have never been.
Also, I have held my nose and forced myself to listen to his speeches, and what I hear is the empty, vapid rhetoric of a narcissistic, intellectually deficient racist demagogue feeding people just enough bullshit that they can walk away telling themselves he’s “about equality” while he carries on with his white supremacist neo-fascist agenda on the ground, in real life.
So, no thanks on joining the Trump ranks of infinite delusion, but best of luck to you.
Lee
Monday, 28 August, 2017 at 4:14You are what’s wrong with this country.
And you are way off base. If you truly believe this nonsense it’s a wonder you can live here at all. I could never stay in a country I thought to be so awful.
K
Tuesday, 26 September, 2017 at 11:48This is our home. We live here. We were born here. We want to make a it a welcoming place for everyone but that doesn’t seem to be very easy with people telling us it’s okay to discriminate against everyone for every little thing they perceive to be “wrong”. 45 is divisive. I can barely listen to him, he hardly ever makes sense unless someone wrote something for his teleprompter and even then he goes off script and we get a taste of the nonsense that is floating around in his brain. I am waiting for him to do something truly heinous that even the people who back him have to distance themselves. I feel like I won’t be waiting long, honestly.
Spenser
Tuesday, 29 August, 2017 at 11:28May I steal this and put it on my Facebook page?
Spenser
Tuesday, 29 August, 2017 at 11:31I’m talking about your piece Janelle.
renegademama
Tuesday, 29 August, 2017 at 12:01Of course. Thanks
Alix
Tuesday, 28 November, 2017 at 9:47So I keep coming back to this idea. The idea that it IS us. The idea that when we keep responding with, “this isn’t us” after any number of preventable tragedies (or political elections like 2016), we are absolving ourselves of any role we’ve played. By denying our part, we’re refusing to acknowledge that even our inaction is part of the problem.
I just stumbled on this book that isn’t about women but about white people in general (you could argue mostly men, as they’re the ones who have held the seats of power during the periods discussed). It’s called White Rage, and it’s a phenomenal exposure of our past in the US, of the injustices that we’ve actively perpetuated against people of color (this book focuses on black Americans). I’m only a few chapters in, but I keep coming back to your post as I read it. It definitely is us, and it always has been. I think you would find this book interesting (re: also infuriating).