On Foxes, Wolves, and the Chickens caught in the Middle
“The white conservatives aren’t friends of the Negro either, but they at least don’t try to hide it. They are like wolves; they show their teeth in a snarl that keeps the Negro always aware of where he stands with them. But the white liberals are foxes, who also show their teeth to the Negro but pretend that they are smiling. The white liberals are more dangerous than the conservatives; they lure the Negro, and as the Negro runs from the growling wolf, he flees into the open jaws of the “smiling” fox. One is a wolf, the other is a fox. No matter what, they’ll both eat you.” -Malcolm X
In this election cycle there is no more apt metaphor for the choices which we will be faced with for not only President, but local and state races across America this November. Generally, the Republican Party, keyed by Donald Trump’s notes of fascism and populist calls to take back the country from the Black man who currently serves as its representative and highest ranking elected official, plays the role of wolf, no matter what the position or race is. You know exactly what they want to do: cut spending for social programs, control women’s autonomy over their own bodies with restrictive abortion policies, and write as well as enact laws protecting already over protected police officers. These things are fairly cut and dry as they relate to the condition of Black people in America, and indeed the Republican party has been this way towards us ever since Reconstruction and Black code laws were implemented to control this particular segment of the population post slavery. We understand the wolf rather easily, but the fox perplexes us because the fox will often show itself to be no relative threat, but hides an insidious agenda behind its teeth. Generally, the Democratic Party, plays the role of the sensible parent, the foil to the Republican Party’s out and out racism and vitriol. In this cycle, they have been exemplified by both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, as well as shaped by the Presidency of Barack Obama, as he has essentially become a considerably efficient blueprint for both Clinton and the party to model how they relate to Black people going forward. Appeal to our humanity first, show a hand that communicates that you have been listening to and are concerned with the way we are affected by structural racism that the party and America at large has set up, and then when the earliest possible opportunity presents itself, pull that hand back and tell us that we have somehow sabotaged any hope of change, but we can have this little bit of progress to hold us over for the next two or four or so years.
These are the two general party lines from which we have to choose, we can choose from a clearly unfit blowhard in Trump’s brand of populist Republicanism, or we can choose from a clearly capable, but calculating politician’s politician in Clinton’s rather Establishment flavored brand of Democrat platform. Malcolm X once said that a ballot is like a bullet, and you don’t use it unless you have something for which to aim it at, but what we have here is a do and damned set of variables as it relates to the position of being Black in America. Or being Palestinian. Or being a Mexican or Central American immigrant fleeing extreme violence. Neither candidate offers any solace for either group. Clinton is dismissive of activists who want to hold her accountable, Trump calls for violence against them; so here we have to choose between verbal and political violence vs physical violence, and though neither is a cakewalk, the threat of physical violence is the hallmark of a wolf and I would prefer to know upfront that you want to kill or injure me against knowing that you may not want to kill me, but you just want my legitimate complaints and by extension me to disappear from your spaces. Killing my body or killing my participation in society and democracy.
As it relates to the Palestinian struggle for freedom and independence, Trump has been outright and aggressive in support of Benjamin Netanyu (Israel’s President) and Israel’s assumed right to bomb and kill innocent Palestinians. Clinton has essentially followed the Obama Administration’s lead, which is to say that she too believes that Israel retains the right to aggressively defend itself from what it deems as threats, despite maintaining a clear technological and military advantage over any insurgent Palestinians. Neither position is admirable or even justifiable. Regarding Mexican and Central American citizens fleeing extreme violence, Clinton has seemingly been fine to follow in the footsteps of the President who has deported the most people in American history, and Trump, he has repeatedly declared his intent to build a wall which he alleges will be paid for by Mexico. So again we have the out and out unquestionable bigotry of Trump and the Republicans on display against the more “progressive” method of expressing bigotry under the cover of national security, which has long been a method of oppression and subjugation of undesired populations. So, we have the wolf and the fox clearly set on a collision course in November, and no matter which one wins, the Black feathered chickens in the hen house are doomed to be supper.
As Black people in America, there has never been a “safe” or “friendly” choice on any ballot, especially for President, but that has never been more painfully evidenced than in this election cycle when our choices are akin to a shotgun to the chest or cyanide tablets placed under the tongue. Neither Party has our best interest at heart, and both intend on eating us for sustenance, one while courting our vote and the other by appealing to the racism under-girding America and American systems.
We are dealing with foxes and wolves, and we are the objective. We are the main course of America’s dinner table. Our communities are mined via gentrification, long touted by liberals as rejuvenation projects, but ultimately ending in displacement and White washing of once vibrant cultural hubs. Our communities are over-policed by police departments using a broken windows policing method, long touted by conservatives as necessary to control the criminal element, and it is literally killing us. The fox is crafty, the wolf violent, but the chicken is dead.
