The Southern Poverty Law Center documented 19 incidents of hate activity from the White House last month.
We all know that since Trump came to power, participation in white supremacist hate groups is on the rise. The same is true for violence by white racist terrorists. White racist terrorists have not been treated as a serious threat in spite of the fact that their acts of violence are a major threat to the safety of people of color in America.
White racist voters elected Trump.
It’s not surprising that in the face of such blatant racism, white supremacy, and violence, Latino and African American voters have turned out in support of Democratic candidates. Republicans have openly embraced white supremacy. Please do not compare the Democrats’ response to racism to that of Republicans. We have this base voting for us because we are not the party of racists.
2018’s “blue wave” was actually a brown wave. According to the DCCC, Latino turnout was up by 174%, and African American turnout was up by 157% over the previous midterm. The Latino vote is credited with bringing the Democrats wins in the Arizona and Nevada senate races.
Let’s not forget that Doug Jones beat Roy Moore in Alabama thanks to the vote of African American women.
To put it bluntly, if the Democrats want to win outside of the Northeast and Western coasts, we need our Latino and African American base to VOTE.
And yet, many do not. A 2014 Pew study on non-voters found that a whopping 43% of non-voters are African American, Latino, or belong to other minority groups. The same article discussing the study argued that:
“Civic engagement—best exemplified by voting—depends upon an engaged and informed citizenry. But in America, it’s hard to be a good citizen if you’re poor, ignored, or vilified. Life is just too hard to worry about lofty issues such as public policies and partisan political intrigue. Indeed, among too many poor and minority Americans, voting and choosing elected officials just isn’t viewed as essential to their lives.”
I might quibble with some of that argument, because I don’t believe that people are as uninformed as this makes it seem, but in my non-scientific experience as a brown person, I agree that voting isn’t always seen as essential. Many of the people of color I have known simply don’t trust our political system. Reasons for that vary. Minority voters have a wide variety of perspectives. In my mind, however, it’s not surprising that people of color have little faith in a political system that treats us as poorly as our current government.
The premise that our minority base will support the Democratic party because Democrats are more likely to support legislation that benefits minorities is fundamentally flawed. Why? Because it rests on the idea that minorities have the same faith in government as most white voters. It does not account for a certain element of mistrust. It does not account for how that trust may be broken when white elected Democrats do the things these Virginia politicians did, and when white Democratic voters vocally support them.
Again and again I see commenters and diarists excusing the behavior of the white perpetrators. “They are or were too young to know better.” “They were provoked.” “They were a product of their upbringing and environment.” “It was a long time ago.” “I teased people too.” “But the Republicans . . . “ On and on the excuse making continues.
I could talk about how disturbing the history of blackface is in America. I could talk about the Sambo character and how it was used to dehumanize African Americans. I could talk about the insidious nature of this dehumanization and how it still plays out in the justice system and in career advancement. I could talk about how people already knew it was bad in the 80’s. I could discuss how people today are still wearing it on a regular basis – perhaps those of you who keep saying it doesn’t happen anymore ignore these stories every Halloween. I could talk about how “Cinco de Drinko” and brownface “dress like a cholo” parties thrown regularly by frats and others similarly hurt and dehumanize Latinos. However, I think most of you already know about these things. Besides which, you all have Google and the ability to educate yourselves on the issue when you are ready. You can start with a piece by the current president of the NAACP here: www.usatoday.com/...
Instead, I will bring it to your attention that many of you have failed to consider the impact of all of this on the Democratic base. Some of you have rushed to identify with the perpetrators. This means that you haven’t bothered to identify with the people of color who have stood by you, voted with you, and gained power for our party in the House.
What does it look and feel like for us to see two state leaders with such an ugly side to them maintain their seats? What does it look like to see white Democrats rushing to defend these politicians? How would you feel about having a governor who had a history of dressing in a way that demeaned your existence?
Many of you are taking a population who hasn’t trusted Democrats, but who came out in recent elections and voted anyway, for granted.
Many of you are giving us a reason not to trust again.
I hope white Democrats stop propping up white supremacy. I hope that those of you who keep defending the indefensible stop and realize that you are hurting our base and ultimately our party. More than anything, I hope you try to understand how it hurts to hear your defenses and denials of racism.
I just hope it doesn’t take 2020 to make that happen.