“Call him Voldemort, Harry. Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.” — Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
In the weeks since Trump took office, I’ve seen a few variations of a post offering tips for people to resist in these times. Much of the advice is great: support the arts, document the changes we see unfolding, and remember this is a regime and not a lone actor. But the very first suggestion I see on every one of these lists reads, “Don’t say his name. Call him #45.”
Each time I read these posts, I remember the scene from “Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix” where Harry is in Professor Snape’s office trying to sort out the visions he has been having. Harry realized he is sharing thoughts with his mortal enemy, a man who is trying to conquer the wizarding world, and name drops Voldemort. Snape recoils and hisses “Do not say the Dark Lord’s name!”
White folks have been giving a lot of reasons why they don’t want to name Trump. First, he’s a bully who likes attention, and we don’t want to feed into his game. I’ve also heard people say they are “tired of politics ruining everything” such as the Super Bowl, Facebook, and family holidays. Folks are worried that they will lose friends, family, jobs, and community. Others are feeling defeated, and uttering the words “Trump” only makes the powerlessness more real.
Whatever the reason, it is important to know that something happens when we stop naming our targets. They grow to something bigger than their bodies. They start to feel as though they are hiding everywhere. They become limitless and undefeatable. After all, it was Voldemort who made his name a taboo after realizing the only people using his name were those willing to organize against him. Once Voldemort gained power, any wizard who spoke his name could be located and arrested. This taboo spread massive panic. Broad cooperation with the taboo allowed Voldemort to root out anyone resisting very quickly, and to repress them.
In our Muggle world, the Trump naming taboo becomes particularly dangerous when white people, who are responsible for the rise of Trump, are trying to organizing against the Trump regime and instead spread panic and demoralization. When we refuse to name Trump, we only create a sense that he will not be defeated, and that he has more power than he actually does. We also leave the deep, difficult, and even dangerous work of confronting Trump and Trumpism to people of color who are fighting at the frontlines against raids, deportations, pipelines, travel bans, and anti-Black racism. Whiteness is what elected Trump, and white people need to be on the frontlines, too.
I often wonder what would have happened if every wizard in Harry Potter’s world had refused to honor the taboo? Even when Voldemort was in control of the Ministry of Magic, the Dementors, Hogwarts, and Azkaban prison, he did not have the power to respond. Voldemort’s strategy to stifle Dumbledore’s Army and the Order of the Phoenix would not have worked. The taboo would have been worthless, and his grip would have lessened.
Or what if we, white people, insist on naming Trump and Trumpism everywhere we see it? What if we refuse to be timid and cooperative, and instead break down our own social taboos about when and where we talk about Trump? Why not name Trump at work, family dinner, the laundromat, PTA meetings, in our places of worship, and when we are out with friends? These are spaces where we can reach our people and flood our communities with messages of white anti-racist organizing.
In Harry Potter’s story, we don’t see a character aside from Harry or Dumbledore name Voldemort until “The Order of the Phoenix” (book five). In the previous books, Harry’s struggle with Voldemort was isolated and individual. In “The Order of the Phoenix”, Hermione comes to Harry and tells him that this struggle is beyond him:
“Harry,” she said timidly, “don’t you see? This … this is exactly why we need you…. We need to know what it’s r-really like … facing him … facing V-Voldemort.”
It was the first time she had ever said Voldemort’s name and it was this, more than anything else, that calmed Harry.
From there, Harry, Ron, and Hermione form Dumbledore’s Army — a youth-led, direct action group that joins with the rest of the wizard resistance to defeat Voldemort. There were many struggles, setbacks, battles, and devastating losses — but, in the end, evil was thwarted. The full-fledged resistance couldn’t begin until Hermione, and subsequently the rest of the wizards, said Voldemort’s name.
It took four books for the wizards to name their target and start organizing. We don’t need to wait that long. Let’s name Trump, make it clear he is our target, and start organizing the full-fledged resistance.
