No, we won’t ‘move on’ from the racism that led Trump to the White House
A rapist always wants the victim to quit crying, screaming, and fighting because it attracts attention to their crimes...
A rapist always wants the victim to quit crying, screaming, and fighting because it attracts attention to their crimes.
Once in the courtroom, they seek to craft a narrative of consent to minimize the appearance of wrongdoing. Similarly, many in white America dislike and deflect the narrative of black history, identity, and politics that points to any guilt in their community. What’s sadder is when black Americans also adopt this deflective mindset, unwittingly assuaging the justifiably stained conscience of America.
One such black American is Jeremy Hunt, who recently penned an article for FoxNews.com entitled, “Why I Find the Black Community’s Response to Trump’s Election Embarrassing.” In the article, Hunt narrates his upbringing under black liberation ideology as a child who narrowly escaped a cult’s indoctrination, citing Christianity as the redeeming force in his household.
What’s interesting is him forming faux allegiances to the black lower class and his attempts to segregate black Trump-phobia to the middle class. He claims to take the side of the poor, as if alt-right racism is only going to be their problem. Mike Pence, who openly called for the police to stop entertaining claims of institutional racism, will extend his reach far beyond just the black ghettos.
What’s bothersome are attempts in the article to disguise his shame in the black community beneath a pseudo do-for-self ethos, harkening back to the strength of our ancestors. Mostly, his claim is that a “victimhood culture” is the real danger in the black community. Black victim psychosis, not white supremacy, is apparently the most noxious foe we must be vigilant of.
Racism should “never” cause us “to fear” nor be black America’s “primary concern,” Hunt writes. Ok, cool.
I wonder if brother Hunt is aware that the Southern Poverty Law Center has tracked 701 incidents of “hateful harassment” since Trump’s victory on Nov. 8.
With all the swastikas magically appearing all over the country, and the rise of the “alt-right” political movement, it may be to time to put this group under the microscope. There is an age-old tradition of white-denialism when it comes to the suffering of black people. From the days of the cotton field, where whites convinced themselves that slaves sang because they were happy, the dominant culture has sought ways to dodge criticism of the human cost of their behavior. White people once believed that slaves who wanted to escape slavery were afflicted by a mental disorder called “Drapetomania.” I mean, who would actually want to live in freedom, right?
Charges of ‘whining,’ ‘reverse-racism,’ and ‘race-baiting’ often come when real racism is called to the carpet. These same people who call blacks thinned-skinned complainers also want to boycott Hamilton after the cast confronted Mike Pence on his right-wing policies. They claim that #AllLivesMatter only after blacks justifiably cry out against extra-judiciary police murder. The backlash against political correctness proves how fragile the white ego is. Have they forgotten that this is the first time in 500 years that white people have even had to watch their mouths? If they say the wrong thing, they could get sued these days.
When blacks said the wrong thing back in the day, they would get lynched. Eye contact, loitering, and whistling at women held steep physical consequences, up to and including murder.
Dear Jeremy, in case you hadn’t noticed, racism is not a victimless crime. Therefore, like rape, any narration of that crime will disclose a victim, and a victimizer. Did it dawn on you that black people have a numerically quantifiable reason to be afraid? If our culture did indeed learn victimhood, is it because we had very capable teachers? The history of white and black relations is nuanced, but indeed, that train went one damn way.
What’s my evidence? Well, you and I are both African people typing these articles in the English language. Why aren’t we typing in Mandinka, Yoruba, Mende, or Xhosa? Better yet, why aren’t white people reading, writing and dreaming in these languages?
How did all these Africans get here, and why do they believe America is their national origin? How did they forget, and who is to blame? With that line of questioning, the line of causality becomes clear. This non-immigrant population of blacks suffered a crime against humanity so vile, so immense, so large in scope that it becomes like the sky; so big you can’t see it anymore.
I’m sorry that our reaction to an openly racist, incompetent narcissist being given the nuclear launch codes and the largest military in the world somehow made you feel ashamed of your own people.
We should keep it down next time…. if there is a next time. Lord knows Massa hates when us coloreds gets unruly and the like. I invite you to notice the mechanics of what could be unacknowledged self-hatred. Black self-hate doesn’t show up as raw, murderous rage; it shows up as shame. It shows up as embarrassment over your own people for fear of judgement in the white gaze. It’s the “these Negroes is makin’ us look bad,” syndrome.
We have been cultured to take their opinions of us deadly serious, because it might be. White opinion of black people has been a life-or-death matter for longer than it hasn’t been these last few centuries. This must be brought into conscious recognition to be combated no matter how well educated we become.
The numbers speak for themselves. White victimizer culture has been let out of the bag. Black self-reliance should be taught, and must be done in context of the obstacles it overcame.
That obstacle is white supremacy, and we have come a long way in the face of it. Denying its existence spits in the face of the ancestors who knocked it back onto its heels, and our contemporaries, who, thanks to Trump and his supporters, must face this monster again.
Theo E.J. Wilson is a social commentator and columnist for the Denver Urban Spectrum. Follow him on Facebook here.
