What Trump's four years taught me about the two White Americas

[elleng]

'Many scoffed when President Trump declared that he's done more for Black people than any president since Abraham Lincoln. But as I contemplate the end of Trump's presidency, I realize that he has set millions of Black Americans free in at least one disturbing way:

He has freed us of any illusions we may have had about a certain segment of White America.
Even though Joe Biden won this election, Black America has lost some measure of hope. It was heartening to see so many White people dancing in the streets Saturday after Biden's victory was announced. But the fact that a president who is widely viewed as a racist can still command so many White votes -- after also playing down a pandemic that has killed at least 234,000 Americans -- is chilling. . .

Trump's presidency was a super-spreader event for racism. But I wonder if much of White America has built such a tolerance for racism that they see no need for change. . .

The hardest lesson of all

I once thought that the US was on a glide path to the kind of country that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. evoked in his "I Have a Dream" speech. Sure, there were going to be bumps and bruises, but we would get there. We were on our way to becoming the compassionate, multireligious, multiracial democracy that the late historian Vincent Harding loved to evoke. . .

Now I'm starting to lose my faith in democracy itself. Maybe people are too tribal to build a genuine multiracial and multireligious democracy. Maybe Greek philosophers like Socrates were right when they said that democracies were too inherently unstable because people couldn't be trusted to pick wise leaders.

Maybe millions of White Americans will never accept me as an equal, no matter what I or others like me do.
I'm thankful for the many White Americans who risked their lives to stand with Black protesters and other people of color this year.

But I now know that millions of White Americans remain MAGA all the way, even though Trump lost. Some of them even took to the streets this week to claim the election was stolen.

Trump may be defeated, but Trumpism and its brand of White racial grievance are here to stay.

That's been the hardest lesson of all.'

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/08/politics/trump-white-voters-blake/index.html

[unblock]

1. Indeed. I greatly fear that all we have done is to delay the fascist takeover.

I think it will be a rather tall order to win both Georgia runoffs, so likely mcturtle will be able to block any meaningful legislation.

So Biden will be able to rebuild the federal bureaucracy and institutions and restore ethics and so on, but don nothing to prevent the next Republican dictator from tearing it all back down with the stroke of a pen.

So we really need to win congress in 2022. Things look good in the senate with two thirds of the seats up for grabs currently held by republicans, but the house will be in jeopardy as a president's party typically loses seats in the first midterm.

Let's hope we win and make the most of those two years.

We need to solidify voting rights for everyone at the bare minimum.


Our country is for all Americans. Not just the subset of white Americans who can't see others as equal.

[NoMoreRepugs]

2. Zero argument from me on any of your statements - I'm a 71 yr old whiteguy. My granddaughter is 6

and I have tremendous hope for her generation. I'm not giving up, just expressing my opinion.

[BeyondGeography]

3. Excellent...loaded with truth

Not least this bit:

What if there was no pandemic? What if the economy was still humming along and most people's 401(k)s were nice and fat? Would that have been enough for most White Americans to return Trump to office?

I know what my answer to that question is. This election was a near-death experience. COVID stood between us and the abyss. I think we would have been utterly doomed without it. The good chances are, next time, it won’t be a cartoon character like Trump and there won’t be a global pandemic hanging around his (or her) neck.

[judesedit]

4. I don't believe there are as many as they'd like you to believe.

They are the minority. They are just louder and more violent so they get more attention. And not all those votes Dumpy got were legitimately his, I would bet. They've been screwing with electronic votes for more than a decade, flipping votes to their candidate of choice. I am hoping as you are that we are getting more diverse, not less. And our youth seem to be showing us just that. And in all actuality, those whites are proving their inferiority....not their superiority. I am white by the way and believe there is no question. Equal means equal.

[alwaysinasnit]

5. I am still trying to process that 70+ million people were OK with the horrors committed by

45 and his enablers.

[Solly Mack]

6. K&R

[Biophilic]

8. I'm not sure how to state this.

I believe Trump and Trumpism was necessary for white people to really be willing to address racism head on. I can remember 'gently" arguing with friends that racism really did exist just 4 or 5 years ago. Everyone one said it really wasn't a problem. I remember being very embarrassed to explain the difference I felt at night if I noticed a white man or a black man behind me. I knew what I felt was racist. I often had talks with myself when I heard these kinds of things from myself. I believed I wasn't alone acknowledging racist thoughts. BUT no one wanted to address what I was saying. They wanted to just brush it off. I knew differently but it needed something more powerful than 1 person willing to be honest.

I believe that Trump changed that dynamic and for that I'm thankful. Now we have to be willing to address racism head on. It's pretty obvious that it permeates our culture and needs to be addressed if we, as a whole people, can move forward.

[TigressDem]

9. Hey, the KKK may have never given up but White America is getting more and more WOKE.

I have been FOR racial unity since I was a kid, but I KNOW more now about how bad it is and how worse it was.

In school, I learned about slavery and was happy that we made progress away from that. I have been impressed with how the black community keeps working toward full equality - as a woman I can relate.

I knew about how bad Indians were treated and admired much about their spirituality. My heart sings when I hear Gospel music, real Gospel music.

My neighbor in Florida sheltered me from my abusive husband. She was black and I was white, but that didn't matter, we were there for each other.

I live in Minneapolis 10 blocks from Ground Zero where George Floyd was murdered. I feel like a member of MY family got killed. Like a cousin, maybe I didn't know him well, but I still grieve. We are ONE RACE, the HUMAN RACE.

It may sound cruel, but survival of the fittest at this point is going to require we accept the science. The difference in DNA between the races isn't enough to call any one racial strain is superior to the other.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/10/genetics-history-race-neanderthal-rutherford/


We can't change the way people think, everyone can have their own opinion. But as a people we can make sure the laws protect us equally and not back down until that is done.

CHILDREN are NOT inherently racists. It must be taught. THAT is probably the biggest reason to hope of all, because if we aren't born with it, it's nurture, not nature and it CAN be overcome.


SOMETHING THAT I NEEDED TODAY was to reach back to the Obamas because that President really stood for all of US and Michelle was so inspiring in how she was gracious and strong through it all and FOR Barack.

[marie999]

10. White people will become a minority before 2050,

but white voters will still be in the majority. There isn't any hard evidence as to when White Democrats along with enough POC will control federal elections, but it should be before 2060. If we, and I mean the whole world, don't start to do something meaningful about climate change it won't matter.