I am amazed at how hard this post has been to write. As a Jewish person in the USA, I have seen and experienced profound racism and anti-semitism. I have even been forced to leave a small town in a southern state due to my religious beliefs.
Minorities in this country will tell you that the racism has always been overt; I am one of them. However, white privilege is being able to plausibly deny systemic racism, even in the face of so many news reports documenting it.
To most of white society, racism is something that has nothing to do with them. They are not affected by it, so it is just too easy to look away. It is easy to see it as an aberration and not the norm.
Even the news helps. When a white terrorist is shown in the news, they are depicted as lone wolves. An aberration.
But, they aren’t. Hate groups exist on almost every level of our society from fringe militias to, now, mainstream political organizations.
Just as our current President. More than one overt racist works in a high level position in his administration. We all know who Bannon is to Trump, but can anyone tell me what Sebastian Gorka does for the administration?
This, alone, emboldens the hate groups. Immediately after his election, this country saw a rise in hate crime. This is not entirely true. The hate crime has always been here, but now, the news has found a reason to report on it more.
This also emboldens the supremacists and Nazis. As the old saying goes, “It is better to be infamous than to have no fame at all.” But still, the haters used to hide their faces in the shadows.
The fact that our hater-in-chief (he started his real estate career discriminating against minority renters) can be so prolific in his rants and tweeting for, seemingly, every subject under the sun, but remains silent about a race riot is probably the most emboldening thing to the haters.
It is silent assent. But, it is assent. It is proof to the scum that they don’t have to hide behind masks anymore. In their eyes, this is their country and getting rid of minorities (both cultural and religious) is equivalent to “making America great again.”
Charlottesville was a perfect example of this. Even the klansmen were exposed. This is their America. To them, and to a lot of us, the President is one of them. So why hide?
In the aftermath, however, they are finding out why they should continue hiding. After being exposed, some of them are having their lives destroyed. I hope so.
But again, this is nothing new. In Denver, in 1992, the haters came out in force on Martin Luther King day. At least one of them learned his lesson the hard way. Cockroaches stay in the shadows for a reason. The organizer of that rally lost his job. I was surprised to learn we worked for the same company. I was gratified by that company’s response.
Hate is ingrained in our society. The one good side to Trump is that white society in general is now forced to see it.
We are at a nexus. Either we sink into the hate, or we recognize it and eliminate it. Silent assent must end.
Which side are you on?