Everyone is wondering where the current worldwide conversation will lead; whether the current worldwide wave of protest will lead to lasting change.
There is hopefulness in some of the changes happening now, but there is fear too.
Fear on our side that there will be backlash as good old bois feel the rug slipping out from under them just a little bit more.
And fear on their side that they try (unsuccessfully) to hide behind long guns and treason flags and general bluster.
It’s time to let them know that we know they are afraid. Time to let them know that we know they fear the outcome of November’s election just as much as we do, if not more.
White men valued (even worshiped) democratic rule when they were the only ones voting. But since the inclusive justice movements of of the 60s and 70s—rights for blackfolks and women and LGTBQ and liberalized immigration—began shifting the balance of power, they saw the handwriting on the wall and went into a panic.
Reagan gave them a breather in 1980. They put their best strategists on the problem: what can we do to maintain our power once folks who are not like us outnumber us? They formed an uneasy alliance with conservative religious folks: stop birth control and abortion on the one hand; put women back in the subordinate position dictated by scripture on the other hand. It ballooned the size of their mailing lists, and gave them access to ready made locally-based organization in areas where they were worried the most about losing ground.
The fall of the apartheid regime terrified them—not so much the fall but the reconciliation process that followed. If something like that ever happened here… who knows what would be uncovered?
Then the roof really caved in. In spite of a GOPropaganda effort like we had never seen before that point, a black man was elected president. Obama scared the crap out of them. This was the beginning of the end. They bought guns and hoarded ammo and behaved like scared animals backed into a corner.
DJT gave them another breather. They eagerly accepted the help of Daddy Vladdy, brushing aside the 33 years since the Evil Empire speech like Reagan never happened. DJT made open bigotry acceptable again. Just like the good old daze when women and blacks and LGTBQ+ and immigrants and people of other religious beliefs had no rights a white man was bound to respect. What a relief! They didn’t have to hide anymore! Maybe everything was going to be all right after all!
Nevertheless, we persisted.
This confused them.
They won, didn’t they? Why didn’t we just roll over and bare our throats? How dare we take to the streets? Don’t we realize that America is great again? Why are we giving them a hard time? Why are we oppressing them with continued demands for inclusive justice? They won, but we refused to let them feel like they won. And that made them even MORE furious.
They demographic loves to claim they don’t own any slaves and don’t have any privilege and haven’t benefited from racism and blah blah blah. They feel cheated because they missed out on the life their grandfathers and great-grandfathers had when the laws and the culture made sure there was no one to compete with them at the top of the heap. A mediocre man with few skills and poor education could be king of his castle back then. No matter how badly he was treated by more powerful men out in the big bad world, he could always come home and kick the dog, beat the wife, molest the children, and still feel he was better than “those people” of different countries, religions, races, sexual orientations, gender identities, and cultures.
2020 started out so well for them. A booming economy for people at the top, an acquittal on the impeachment charges and nothing to prevent 2016’s election interference from playing an encore. Hell, their guy might never have to leave office at all! They were riding high and nothing could stop them!
Then the world turned upside down. They tried to deny the effects of C19 and claim it was only killing “those people”, gleefully grateful that the blue states were hardest hit.
That didn’t last long.
On top of that, all of a sudden the whole world is watching and the whole world is marching. The “comply or die” policing they took for granted for generations and centuries is suddenly facing its first serious sustained opposition. Defund the police? WHAAAT? How dare we challenge their right to use police brutality to keep the angry black people under control? How dare we question whether an officer was in fear for his/her life, or whether they are being truthful in police reports, just because of some teenager’s cell phone video? Black folks make them feel uncomfortable! Police guns or their own guns are the only thing standing between them and…
Between them and…what, exactly?
The very concept of beloved community progressives long for makes it impossible for them to sleep at night. Because in that world they would be...ordinary. Not king of the hill or top of the heap. Anywhere. Not feared. Not given unearned respect. What if they end up on the receiving end of the injustice system that served them so well for so long?
The last three weeks of sustained protest, and the historic court decisions today? This will terrify them and make them act out and lash out even more.
As has been said many times, and most recently with great passion and power at the end of this episode of Last Week Tonight (skip to 31:53 if you’re short on time): they fear that if we get equality we will seek revenge.
If they thought they had been behaving justly and morally all these years and centuries they wouldn’t have any reason to fear revenge, now would they?
That’s how you know. That’s how you know that they know.
That’s how you know that they know what they’ve done, and/or what their ancestors have done.
That’s also how you know that they know what they have NOT done in the present-day to right old wrongs and make amends.
That’s why they are grasping at straws, desperate to do anything that will let them cling to the last vestiges of patriarchal white supremacy.
And that’s why there is nothing in all of creation that will make them abandon their mentally unstable and incompetent president. He is terrible at every single aspect of his job except one and that’s the only thing they care about:
helping them believe their reign isn’t quite over yet.
*
you know the nearer your destination the more you’re slip sliding away
Link to other diaries in the True Blue Report series