My sister called me, sounding upset. "I wasn't going to tell anyone this, but here I am telling you." She explained that she had been having an email conversation with her 27-year-old son about the election. "John" had often been a conservative voice in our family discussions about politics, but I welcomed his input because he seemed to have made a careful attempt to learn about the issues and consider various perspectives. The tenor of his most recent email, however, was different - and shocking.
He began, "You're not going to like this, but a lot of white men feel the same way I do." He then described his worry that Obama "will spend a lot of time trying to give blacks more rights, more welfare money, more affirmative action, and find clever ways to keep them out of jail and back on the street with me...Another thing that has always scared me about liberals in regards to blacks is that the liberal media stations hide so many black atrocities (mainly black on white crimes) that are going on right now in order to try to maintain better race relations, and the people who understand that are scared of the liberal agenda to ignore many of the horrible things that black criminals do in America today....If a Black man becomes president I fear that this agenda will become even worse."
I had never heard of this so-called coverup and did some research - apparently the "victimization of whites by blacks" is a stock assertion of white supremacists, but it was debunked years ago as based on faulty logic:
http://www.splcenter.org/...
My sister said she had been unable to sleep since reading his email. She is an extraordinarily loving, generous, and gentle person. John had his troubles growing up but with her unwavering support he ended up going to college, finding a nice girl, and getting a good job in sales. My sister didn't know where this disturbing viewpoint had come from. Worse, it made her want to recoil in disgust from her beloved son.
I fear I did little to comfort her. I reminded her that John had always been deeply insecure and as a teen had gravitated toward other misfits. Maybe the specter of an oppressed people rising up threatens someone with a tenuous grip on self-esteem. His distant relationship with his father had left him vulnerable. He was young and would grow out of it as he gained confidence, etc.
I didn't tell her that his email unnerved me almost as much as it did her.
I don't understand why people believe outlandish things. I've felt disconnected politically from many Americans in the age of Bush - because electing someone who had a long history of risky behavior with poor outcomes so clearly went against reason. I was raised in a liberal family in a liberal suburb of Boston, so I'm used to feeling disconnected with conservative America.
Like everyone, I've been sickened by the hatred and ignorance on display at the McCain-Palin rallies. But to find a similarly toxic viewpoint springing up in my own family, among our own children, is disturbing and perplexing.
John was born right after my daughter. They played together as kids and have remained close. I love him as I would a son. I want to reason with him, but I suspect that reason would fall on deaf ears. There's something in him that wants to believe this stuff. But why?