THE RACE OF POLITICS
“I hate you. It’s not because of anything you’ve ever said or done. It’s not even because of you as a person; as I don’t really know you or anything about you. I just despise you for the pigmentation of your skin. So, you can never do anything to fix it or make it right. Oh . . . and I hate your parents and all of your kids too.” No matter how tolerant or sympathetic you are . . . No matter how close you’ve been to a person . . . No matter whom you’ve dated or how long you’ve been married to someone . . . You can never truly know the full effect of these sentiments until they have been aimed directly at you by a sincerely devout individual; especially if you live that reality daily.
Of course, life isn’t that straightforward. I actually have more respect for a person who’s honest enough to just admit what he or she is — even if their beliefs are repulsive. But what usually happens is that school districts are designed separately but unequally; laws that negatively affect the poor and people of color get pushed through; or Presidential Cabinets are filled with men who have ties to White Nationalism (which anybody with a brain knows means White Racism). What happens is our country elects a President who has full, open support from the Ku Klux Klan . . . and makes countless racist remarks in public . . . while campaigning . . . and we rationalize that decision. And it wouldn’t be quite so glaringly ridiculous if we as a country had not passed over the single most qualified candidate of any sex or race to ever run for President (and no, there’s no arguing that point), for the least qualified, least knowledgeable candidate to ever run. And that person is an open and unapologetic racist, sexist, narcissistic bully.
Now, I’m not misguided enough to believe that everyone who voted for Donald Trump is a fellow racist and/ or sexist. But it’s obvious that his racism and sexism weren’t repulsive enough to your collective sensibilities for you not to vote for him. In fact, I was online prior to the election and read a post from one individual, stating that he felt that Trump’s shortcomings “didn’t affect national security the way that Clinton’s would”. One could easily extrapolate that statement to mean that Trump’s biases didn’t affect him or his life. At any rate, any serious look at the inept and delusional methods of the current administration will quickly call that individual’s line of thinking immediately into question. There obviously has been a rather large effect. From the ban on Muslims; to the monument to racism, now referred to as “The Wall”; to his support of and part ownership in the North Dakota Access Pipeline; to America’s newly strained relations with former allies and once neutral parties; the effects are there for all to see.
Likewise, The Patriarchy in America is extremely strong. It’s apparently strong enough that even a lot of women have grown to accept it as normal. Long before the advent of President Trump, I witnessed Republican Party members make repulsively sexist statements in public forums; only to have prominent female party members, such as Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin, fully support their campaigns. And female voters followed suit. I recently read that it’s common for women to vote the way that their husbands want them to vote. As a supporter of equal rights for all people, I would sincerely hope that we have all evolved beyond that. However, it has always been more than obvious that many people would have voted for a trained monkey, if it meant never having a woman as President; no matter her qualifications. Soon after the airing of the infamous video, in which Donald Trump blatantly speaks about sexually assaulting women, I read a Facebook post from a Christian minister. The post read: “It’s better that our President grabs vaginas than have one”. This from — not just a fellow Christian but a leader of people — needs no further analysis.
When Donald Trump spoke of forcing kisses on reluctant women and grabbing their vaginas, I was supposed to be okay with it. Well . . . I was not. Donald Trump once yelled: “Look at my African-American over there!” He did so while referring to the sole, misguided Black man at a particular Trump Rally. Donald Trump was pointing out this man like an anomalous beast . . . in a cage . . . at the zoo. And I suppose I was supposed to be okay with that as well. Well, I wasn’t. And many others claimed to share that sentiment. Yet, here we all are, enduring some of the most questionable decisions in modern history. And, after Donald Trump had won the election, becoming President of the United States, many of you were acting as though he had just won a Super Bowl or a UFC title. “Well, he’s won now. Let’s just work together and move forward.” There was nothing in the campaign of Donald Trump that suggested unity or diversity of any kind. And we can see the divisive nature and “alternative facts” that dominate his Presidency. Surely, if there had ever have been a time to “work together”; it would have been in keeping him out of office, wouldn’t it?
