Fight Racism by Taking Action to Effect Positive Change Where It is Needed Most

Last week, I hit my threshold for Trump bashing. While it gives me the so-bad-it’s-good thrill to listen to my favorite late-night talk shows and podcasts rephrasing my thoughts in a clever way that makes me laugh because I agree with it and feel like I’ve found a soul mate in all the craziness, I feel like I’ve gotten a stomachache from too much sugar. It has been delightful to watch the downfall of the Trump administration. Every week brings the new drama of a firing, or Trump said something crazy and the administration is clearly descending into madness, or legislation that I didn’t want to pass didn’t get the votes in a down-to-the-wire showdown and we’re all thrilled because it feels like we won! It feels good to see something I’ve been so adamantly against for (what seems like) such a long time go down in flames. Everyone has a hard time resisting the pulls of the “I Told You So” dance.
Things changed last week with the events in Charlottesville and the ensuing righteous indignity. Those of us who were always saying that “Make America Great Again” was code for “Make America White Again” felt vindicated by this clear display of white supremacy and extremism. The first thing I wanted to do was jump on Facebook and make a statement about it- we were right! Trump supporters are racists! I knew it!
But the fact that more people can see it now does not mean that our country is not still in the grasp of the effects of hundreds of years of enforced slavery and the legal murder of an entire people. The first step to being able to fix the disease is diagnosing the problem, and in that way, it’s good that so many white supremacists came together so visibly in Charlottesville with torches and swastikas. Anyone who thought that we were in a post racial state because of the election of our first black president can see now that we are far from that.
I do think most of us already knew that, though. The marchers in Charlottesville made us look at it and brought us out of our denial. They also were able to take their hate and anger and spread it to the rest of us, so we feel hateful and angry in response. They want to divide us and make us turn on each other. They feel hate and they want us to feel it too. The fighting that is arising from the anger is making everyone react to the madness. And it’s working.
The worst thing that has come from the Trump presidency is the chaos we are inundated with on a daily basis. Deflection is a common manipulation tool in abusive relationships, and Trump is misdirecting us with his madness on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. Every time this happens, we feel rage and we want to jump on Facebook or Twitter and talk about how terrible things are is and the awful things he’s doing. Our entire country is in an abusive relationship with the President, and we are suffering because of it. The textbook abusive things he does — victimhood, jealousy, rage, misogyny, coercion, minimization, justification, manipulation, power & control — are making us feel isolated, angry, and upset as a country and we seek comfort in lashing out at others who are also trying to find a way to resist and get through this era alive.
I wrote about this in January, but we need to find a way to channel our rage into productive action. It is time to recognize that the Trump administration will never stop doing abusing us. Things are never going to calm down as long as he is in the White House. Never. There will not be a peaceful week. As soon as we accept this, we can find ways to ACT instead of REACT. When shameful and terrible things are on so often display on our news feeds, it becomes addictive to keep scrolling for the next item that makes us upset so we can get that dopamine rush of anger. And when we feel anger, our thinking brains shut down. We react.
The events in Charlottesville compelled us to act. Rightfully so — we wanted to stand up to hatred and bigotry. We wanted to shout that this was not right and show these people that they are wrong.
But this is not a new phenomenon. Klan meetings and neo-Nazis are not new in America or elsewhere. They are not a large group. And our reactions are giving them a bigger voice than they ever had before. I’ve heard more white supremacists interviewed on NPR in the last week than in my entire lifetime combined. Our reactions have given them the power they are looking for.
Racism is not new. It has never gone away- it is a scourge upon our country that has existed since before we had a country. The American government allowed slavery for almost 100 years before outlawing it in a battle that took millions of lives. The American government carried out a prolonged genocide of Native Americans that took millions of lives and 90% of the native population. The Nazis and KKK did not do that. Hashtag: this IS us.
We are currently facing one of the worst civil rights crises in sixty years, and in the wake of Charlottesville, I have only see one article about it. I feel like I’ve been screaming about it until my throat is sore, and no one cares to listen. It’s complicated and it’s not trendy to talk about. There’s not a clever protest poster that is getting shared on Instagram about it.
In the 2016 Presidential Election, hundreds of thousands of African Americans were kept from voting because of racist voter ID laws that were put into place purposely in order to keep them from voting. African Americans were targeted as a people in order for Republicans to keep control of the House, Senate, Governorships and Presidency in states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Florida and North Carolina. Those states were all close swing states, and if black voters voted for Democrats, which is what the Republican lawmakers feared, those states easily would have swung the election for Clinton and other Democrats.
We now see Attorney Jeff Sessions working to uphold racist voter laws and roll back Obama-era protections on voting rights. While most of the internet was busy ranting about whatever shiny object he held up for us to yell about that day, Trump was filling federal judgeships with conservatives who will not accept challenges to these voter i.d. laws. This New York Times article outlines some of the ways states have taken action to restrict the black vote through voter i.d. laws, early voting time restrictions, limiting automatic registration, disenfranchisement of people with convictions, voter intimidation, etc.
This is racism in action. This is the result of our racist past manifested in our racist present. These are not the actions of the KKK or Nazis. These are elected legislatures in 2017 taking away the rights of specific race of people of the fundamental right to vote.
We need to focus. We need to tell this story. Voting restriction should be the biggest story on the front page of the news every day. We are focusing too much on Trump and not enough time talking about real things that matter. Trump will be gone soon, but the effects of these laws and the judges he is appointing will not be undone for decades. It’s a fight that needs to start now.
Action steps:
Sign up for Let America Vote to find out where you can donate and volunteer.
Actions you can take from Indivisible.
Make 5 calls to shut down Trump’s Sham Election Commission.
Sign Kamala Harris’s petition to resist Trump’s request to share voter data.
