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2017: The Whitest Year Ever [View all]
Michael Harriot
Whiteness is a liar.
2017 tried to fool us into thinking that the collection of unmelanated degenerates who gathered on the National Mall to celebrate the goldfish-cracker in chief was the biggest crowd ever. It gave us a straw-haired skeleton queen named Kellyanne Conway to thrust the phrase “alternative facts” into the American lexicon. It gifted us with Sean Spicer’s befuddled fibbing, Anthony Scaramucci’s confidence-man condescension and Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ blatant bullshitting as they stood in front of the press and lied in our faces. This was the year of “both sides,” “white lives” and “I do not recall.” 2017 lied its ass off.
Whiteness is a thief.
Police stole 220 black lives in 2017, more than the previously mentioned worst year of lynching. White women tried to rob black women of the credit for an Alabama election. They swiped the #MeToo movement from a black woman. 2017’s whiteness tried to steal health care from those who couldn’t afford it. It stole the blame for violence from white supremacists and mass shooters and placed it at the feet of anti-fascists. And Black Lives Matter. And “black identity extremists.” And Chicago’s top gang thugs. And Mexican immigrants. And Muslims. And everyone but white people.
Whiteness is fragile.
In 2017, whiteness felt oppressed. It said white people were discriminated against. It carried tiki torches while whining that it will not be replaced. It rallied for the cause in Charlottesville, Va. It cried when it found out it was in trouble. It called everyone else “snowflakes” but melted down when NFL players took a knee. It boo-hooed about white genocide. It reminded its fellow milky martyrs that it was “OK to be white.”
But more than any other year, whiteness regressed. This country moonwalked backward instead of toward the light. 2017 put us in reverse, and it wasn’t because Americans wanted to go backward. White people did.
snip
They returned to mandatory minimums. They went back to mass incarceration. They took a regressive stance on marijuana. The Ku Klux Klan returned in force. Nazis started walking around proudly. Confederate sympathizers sprang out of nowhere. So did Confederate flags. And swastikas. And hate crimes. And people ranting in Starbucks.
2017 tried to fool us into thinking that the collection of unmelanated degenerates who gathered on the National Mall to celebrate the goldfish-cracker in chief was the biggest crowd ever. It gave us a straw-haired skeleton queen named Kellyanne Conway to thrust the phrase “alternative facts” into the American lexicon. It gifted us with Sean Spicer’s befuddled fibbing, Anthony Scaramucci’s confidence-man condescension and Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ blatant bullshitting as they stood in front of the press and lied in our faces. This was the year of “both sides,” “white lives” and “I do not recall.” 2017 lied its ass off.
Whiteness is a thief.
Police stole 220 black lives in 2017, more than the previously mentioned worst year of lynching. White women tried to rob black women of the credit for an Alabama election. They swiped the #MeToo movement from a black woman. 2017’s whiteness tried to steal health care from those who couldn’t afford it. It stole the blame for violence from white supremacists and mass shooters and placed it at the feet of anti-fascists. And Black Lives Matter. And “black identity extremists.” And Chicago’s top gang thugs. And Mexican immigrants. And Muslims. And everyone but white people.
Whiteness is fragile.
In 2017, whiteness felt oppressed. It said white people were discriminated against. It carried tiki torches while whining that it will not be replaced. It rallied for the cause in Charlottesville, Va. It cried when it found out it was in trouble. It called everyone else “snowflakes” but melted down when NFL players took a knee. It boo-hooed about white genocide. It reminded its fellow milky martyrs that it was “OK to be white.”
But more than any other year, whiteness regressed. This country moonwalked backward instead of toward the light. 2017 put us in reverse, and it wasn’t because Americans wanted to go backward. White people did.
snip
They returned to mandatory minimums. They went back to mass incarceration. They took a regressive stance on marijuana. The Ku Klux Klan returned in force. Nazis started walking around proudly. Confederate sympathizers sprang out of nowhere. So did Confederate flags. And swastikas. And hate crimes. And people ranting in Starbucks.
Read More: https://www.theroot.com/2017-the-whitest-year-ever-1821607427
Why? They believe in the divine right of their whiteness. They believe it is their privilege and right to take what they please.
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