Toni Morrison: Fear of losing white privilege led to Trump election
In a piece called "Mourning For Whiteness," Toni Morrison explains how the fear of a diverse United States led to the election of Donald Trump.
Toni Morrison published a powerful piece in the Nov. 21 print issue of the New Yorker, which went online on Monday, called “Mourning For Whiteness” in which she explained how the fear of a diverse United States led to the election of Donald Trump.
“Under slave laws, the necessity for color rankings was obvious, but in America today, post-civil-rights legislation, white people’s conviction of their natural superiority is being lost,” Morrison wrote in the piece.
“There are ‘people of color’ everywhere, threatening to erase this long-understood definition of America. And what then? Another black President? A predominantly black Senate? Three black Supreme Court Justices? The threat is frightening,” she said.
–Toni Morrison explains the moment racism will end–
She went on to say that white people, in particular white men, are so afraid of losing their privilege that they “flocked to a political platform that supports and translates violence against the defenseless as strength.”
She concluded by saying, “On Election Day, how eagerly so many white voters—both the poorly educated and the well educated—embraced the shame and fear sowed by Donald Trump. The candidate whose company has been sued by the Justice Department for not renting apartments to black people. The candidate who questioned whether Barack Obama was born in the United States, and who seemed to condone the beating of a Black Lives Matter protester at a campaign rally. The candidate who kept black workers off the floors of his casinos. The candidate who is beloved by David Duke and endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan.”
Read the full, amazing essay here at The New Yorker.
