I am on an email list of really interesting people that makes an effort to be forthright in discussing race and oppression issues.
Steve Bannon was supposed to come to Harvard yesterday to speak at The Kennedy School of Government, but word went out that his appearance was cancelled, presumably because they got wind of a planned demonstration. (Hundreds of people demonstrated anyway.)
In discussing the cancellation among this email group, someone posted the opinion that it was a missed opportunity for liberals to hear what the other side thinks and learn the strategies they used to win the election. The email went on with the themes we have all heard over and over (and over) during the last three weeks: stop thinking of Trump voters as enemies, try to figure out why they have come to this belief, stop pushing them away, welcome them in and listen to what they have to say, remember they are our grandparents and parents and aunts and uncles, they aren’t bad or evil, and if we don’t do this we fall into the same trap as the Obama haters who claimed everything BHO did was wrong and bad.
I guess I had heard this one too many times.
So I sent back the following:
I very much appreciate the honesty in your message.
I am going to be honest too.
I am very confident that I already know what the other side really thinks. I already understand the strategies used to win the election. I know exactly how he got to the hearts, minds, and beliefs that many people still have in this country. I monitor the cesspool media outlets where they think they are only talking amongst themselves. Anyone who wants to know what they think can go there. Or read the comments section of any unmoderated news forum.
I can think of these people as political enemies AND understand why they have come to this belief. They are not mutually exclusive.
It is horrendous what they are planning. How excited they are about the pain they are about to inflict. On the one hand it breaks my heart. On the other hand I am ready to fight with everything I have. I don't have much to fight back with. Just words and righteous anger. But I plan to go down fighting.
With all due respect, anyone who was shocked has not been paying attention to the realities of misogyny and homophobia and racism and xenophobia. In a backhanded way, it is actually a gift that they revealed themselves so openly during the campaign and in the days immediately following the election. It will wake up some folks who did not realize how bad things are.
{{{a lot of people who voted for Trump are our grandmothers, and grandfather, our uncles, aunts, or our parent's best friends, and for some of us our parents.}}}
LOL thank God that does not apply to me, but honestly I feel for those of you who are just finding out that truth in your own family circles. People who know and claim to love and care for you just voted for someone who does not think you deserve the same civil rights, voting rights and healthcare as white heterosexual cis males born in this country to parents who were also born in this country.
Maybe they aren't bad or evil, maybe they are not aware their vote enabled a lot of bad and evil actions, but if they don't understand how they endangered you, with all due respect, that is on you and what you did not share with them before the election.
Now that the worst has happened, you have to tell them what they have done and how they have hurt you.
Doing the work with people you actually know and love is a VERY important step in changing hearts and minds. Much more important than anything Bannon might have said today.
So yes, identify the people in your actual life who voted for Trump and ask them if they really want to ban not only abortion but contraceptives as well. Ask them if they want to take the right to vote away from black and brown citizens. Ask them if they want a constitutional convention to repeal the 19th amendment. Or the 13th.
Challenge the propaganda they have unthinkingly swallowed about immigrants and blacks and Muslims and Democrats and gay rights and women's rights. Slowly and gently expose them to facts. Attempt to debunk the sources they trust. But first, prepare yourself to hear them say things you have never heard said to your face. Steel yourself for the worst. That's the #1 reason people do not have these conversations with their grandmothers, grandfathers, uncles, aunts, and parents. It hurts like hell to have them push you away in person just as they pushed you away politically.
Last but not least, we are not in the same trap as the Obama haters, because they were acting on things they imagined, and we are acting on things the other side has actually done and actually wants to do. They only imagined Obama wanted to take their guns even though he never said or did anything of the kind; we have already seen their side enacting laws to take away our rights, and talking about doing much more now that they control all three branches of government.
If the reason they canceled the Bannon appearance today is because they did not want to deal with a demonstration, that is excellent news in my book. It means that somewhere deep inside they know their views do not represent the majority in this country. Half the voters did not vote. More than half of the ones who voted, voted against them. Their mouths say mandate but in their hearts they know they are outnumbered. That's why they act like desperate cornered animals all the time.
I want members of the incoming administration to get to the point where they are confronted every time they step out of their bubble. Every. Single. Time. They will not smugly parade their hate agenda in our faces and expect us to meekly accept it as normal. Not at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, not at the Smith's grocery store, not at the Kennedy School of Government.
And when they come to the People's Republic of Cambridge, they should expect resistance.
I heard back from a couple of folks who said they wanted to post it to Facebook, so I have published it here to make it easier to share.