Racism as a Political Strategy: What About Unifying the Country?
For 400 years America has been paralyzed by a crippling issue — Race. The President of the United States went to Mount Rushmore on 4th of July where Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt sat in stone behind him and he inevitably and predictably talked about “our” heritage. In other words, he talked about being the protector of white America. Ouch!
The complexities of our nation, its people and political system parsed down the middle and distilled to a concrete dilemma — racial unity or racial division.
It is a divide marked by a growing acceptance of white supremacy, misogyny, lies, and corruption in the Oval Office.
I can almost imagine the excitement and adrenaline surging through Steven Miller as he fine tunes the speech he has been preparing for Donald Trump’s visit to Portsmouth, New Hampshire this weekend. It will be a speech filled with an assortment of lies, fantasy, illusion and delusions of grandeur. Filled with threats, bullying and bigotry. It will be filled with code language that signal their collective desire to annihilate and exclude Blacks and people of color because that’s what makes America great.
The speech will be filled with lies that minimize and perhaps even deny the severity of the pandemic, the senseless deaths, the economic fallout, the social upheaval and of course, all the ways he’s been victimized as President — all the hoaxes, witch-hunts, his enemies going after him.
It will be filled with rage and anger at the Supreme Court (which include some of his own appointees) that recently ruled against him; ruled that he was not above the law and sent this tax return case to a lower court in New York. The crowd will roar with angry enthusiasm and the coronavirus droplets will spread throughout the area. Exactly what New Hamphire doesn’t need right now. It’s one of only a few places where the virus is decreasing. However, the President coming to town will almost certainly change that. A clear sign of the lenghts that white supremacist and white nationalism will go to choose itself over a multi-racial America.
On Monday, Kayleigh McEnany will hold a press conference and do her job of softening Donald Trump’s image and provide us with something disguised as public relations. It’s an example of the PR work that White women did for White supremacy in the past.
Let’s think about Kayleigh McEnany.
How is what she is doing in her current role defending the White nationalist words, actions, and administration of Donald Trump any different than what women did in the pre and post-Civil War eras?
If we look closely and intelligently we shouldn’t be shocked.
There are, however, serious ramifications of a President of the United States who is a race baiter because he stands in the way of substantive change.
He is not unique. He is not the exception. It’s dangerous to make Donald Trump an exception because we displace all our sins onto him.
In some ways, Donald Trump is a representation of the rot and malevolence at the heart of America’s racial disease. The hardcore white supremacist racist ideology, which rejects outsiders — meaning anyone who is not white, has wormed its way into the leadership in the White House. The racial ignorance, polarization, hatred and distress we witness and experience at the hand of Trump are a mirror for the nation’s.
Donald Trump is a mere symptom of America’s original and greatest sin, which we refuse to confront holistically and head-on. Our infantile tactics of blaming and attempting to shame Donald Trump while failing to address the policies and systems that made his Presidency possible is analogous to putting a bandaid on a bullet wound. It’s futile.
Donald Trump showed us who he was when he came down that escalator in 2016. Divisive hate speech, racism and violence toward Blacks and people of color are not new and we need to stop pretending as though it is.
A crucial fact remains: The President of the United States is driving a racially charged message of hate.
Just let that sink in for a moment.
It’s the same grumbling that comes out of the racist Southern strategy which is a Black v.s. a white nationalist strategy that appeals to white grievance, white hatred and more importantly — white fear.
I don’t understand the calculus, but I think this is how Trump believes he can win the electorate. He believes (and he may be right) that there are white voters who are indifferent, who believe that the Federal Government has left them behind, who will never accept a Black and brown America, and he can somehow get them excited. But in the process he is losing the suburbs, he’s losing white women and the elderly.
Donald Trump believes that the selfishness of enough white Americans is great enough that they are going to look at their pensions … 401K’s; tell themselves what a great job he’s done for the economy and not give a holy hoot about the 40 million plus Americans who have applied for unemployment insurance or his incessant lying, blaming, corruption, incompetency … or his inexplicable words and actions … or his involvement with Putin … or his dismissing away the countless, and valid sexual assault accusations … or the children in cages, … or your mental health, sadness, grief, anxiety.
Donald Trump, his administration and loyal base does not give a floating f*^k about the wave of death ripping across American society, the nation falling into poverty, despair, sickness —the ruin.
Ouch!
I am not a political strategist. I am a Marriage Therapist who is intimately familiar with divides and the potential for the psychology, emotional, spiritual and economic harm it creates. When couples come to me for therapy, most of them are deeply divided— their couple hood is split into two sides — and it’s painful. So I can see that that Trump is doubling down on hate and — he’s doubling down on division — and that too is painful.
Why doesn’t Donald Trump care enough to work toward unifying the country instead of dividing us?
Ouch!
I believe that the next election could be a reckoning of some kind, and the folks who have shown us over and over again that they are not principled — that they are only acting in self-interest will make that reckoning more difficult — more dangerous.
Until then, part of what we must do in this moment is to engage in a fundamental rejection of the “security” and “safety” that Donald Trump and his ilk represent.
We have to imagine ourselves different.
We have to acknowledge that Mount Rushmore is sitting on Lakota Land. This doesn’t mean we can rectify what happened; it means we can honestly understand, as William James put it, “The bitterness at the bottom of the cup.” We have to confront those kinds of contradictions — not deny them, erase them, but understand that they are constitutive of who we are.
Donald Trump is working at keeping us distracted. He wants us to remain in fantasyland. He wants us to believe that this Pandemic is under control and eventually it will “magically disappear.” We need to wear our masks, wash our hands often, social distance, wear our seatbelts when we drive, smoke only where smoking is allowed, drive the speed limit and embrace the reality of who we are so we can imagine ourselves otherwise.
Becoming President was the one bid for the admiration and respect Donald Trump always sought — but never earned. Now his back is against the wall. What’s someone like him — addicted to power and dominating others; a man without honor, humility, empathy, courage, or principles — to do? This is when he is the most dangerous of all.
Donald Trump is a taker! Donald Trump takes by force … grab by the p*ssy … whatever he cannot have freely.
Ouch, ouch, ouch!
So what’s at stake here?
It’s no secret that the divide in this country is real and will only grow wider and become more intense and chaotic leading up to the election. So rather than each of us going to our sides, our neutral corners and engaging with our algorithmically determined cohorts, this should prompt unflinching, honest and passionate Dialogue. Dialogue that focuses on the moral, religious, spiritual and philosophical underpinnings of our respective views. Dialogue that compels candor and honesty.
The chaos and disruption of the past years can serve as a moral and spiritual reckoning for every American to determine that now is the time for change. Those who profess to be folks of faith and healing can play a role in bridging the divide as well.
Many of us across America abhor the divide that has torn apart families, friendships, relationships, marriages — reduced the exchange of pleasantries, and instilled a silence and contemptuousness marked by untrusting glances and swipes and shares of hatred and disregard.
As painful as this is, it is time to embrace the divide and trust that historically such polarization has revealed the moral conscience that ideally resides within all of us.
What’s at stake? Human lives so we cannot afford to become complacent or paralyzed. White supremacy is as American as cherry pie.
Action Steps:
