…yes, white liberals, y’all are just as much at fault as conservatives. If not more so.
Note: After years of subjecting myself to interactions (and inevitably, micro-aggressions and flat-out bigotry) with y’all, I generally aim to not center my writing around white people by actually talking to y’all. This post will be a rare exception.
So, the election has come and (finally) gone, and ‘Murica has decided on our new President-Elect: Donald Trump…still haven’t been able to fully process that fact—I’m actually convinced the universe is just making fun of us, at this point—but here we are. There are a lot of things that can be said about this election, but y’all know why I’m here…main thing to say right now is: white people, this is 100% your fault.
First, let’s acknowledge the fact that Trump swept white voters in every, single category. No matter how you break down demographics, Trump swept virtually every, single facet of whiteness.
You don’t even really have the safety net of “it was just old white people”…because he won with young white voters, as well.
And you can’t even claim it was just the “uneducated” white people, because he won with white college graduates, too:
Now, I know that your first instinct (in true, white supremacist fashion) is pretty much always to look for a minority group to blame. So if you really need to scratch that itch…well…white women are right there for you:
And although the data didn’t capture this distinction, I have a very strong hunch that that, when it came to the LGBTQ community, WhiteGayze™ took the largest slice of Queer people who voted for Trump (by far). Additionally, just by looking at the numbers, I’m fairly certain that a lot of white people who openly claimed democrat, or otherwise not republican, made their true allegiances known when they got behind the voting booth…but leaving that alone.
The numbers don’t lie: you can’t remotely blame this on us. Black folks and other People of Color came out and voted for Clinton in numbers that rivaled those of Obama in 2012…despite the fact that she, democratic party, and even Obama, didn’t remotely deserve that support. If y’all are looking for someone to rip apart, maybe go against your first instinct (i.e. resist the usual urge to blame Black & Brown folks for all your own bullshit) and go at the real source of the problem: your white supremacist friends and family who actually voted for Trump…as well as yourselves for enabling it. I don’t have enough energy for white people to go into full detail of every way your liberalism gave us this moment in history, but I’ll go over some.
First, white liberals tried it, even before the results came out. During early voting, liberals questioned why Black voters weren’t coming out to vote in the same numbers. Never mind that voter ID laws are increasingly making it hard for Black folks to vote…or that Black folks, as I already mentioned, ultimately showed up for the democratic party again, anyway (despite all of my encouragement not to). This all speaks to the entitlement that I’ve long been talking about with white democrats & liberals. You do nothing but pander to Black folks on the campaign trail, collect our votes, then promptly throw us under the bus upon being elected…yet have the gall to act surprised that we’re not jumping to vote for your faves? ……K. And after election day, against all numbers and logic, a lot of white liberals are still reaching for ways to pin this on Black & Brown folks…whatever.
The most obvious fuck-up, here, was in that you were dead-set on stubbornly putting a shit nominee forth in Hillary Clinton. Y’all were determined to make sure Clinton had the turn that she was “entitled” to. Many white liberals have been salivating for it since you had to watch the negro “take her spot” in 2008. But truth of the matter is, this was her election to lose…her record is right-of-center sewage and she’s largely disliked by her own base. Let’s just be real: hella people had to plug their nose just to vote for her. Her own perpetuation of white supremacy is well-documented (but of course, many of y’all deliberately ignored—if not attacked and/or attempted to silence—those of us who tried to point that out). I wanna say I’m shocked that she lost to someone like Trump, but honestly? I really can’t.
What’s probably most laughable—if not galling—is, in this wave of resistance (led by far too many white people for me to care) to Trump’s victory, white liberals are now jumping to call for “peace.” After months of white liberals declaring that Trump is the face of white supremacy, comparing him to Hitler, beating everyone over the head with how dangerous he was, etc…now liberals are calling to “put aside differences” with Trump and the GOP…the sentiment has been echoed by several democratic politicians. The implication made by this complete 180 is clear: white supremacy is far more tolerable for you than you were previously willing to admit…typical of white liberals.
In addition to that, white liberals, for as much as you claim to be against racism and other bigotry, refuse to check those around you who perpetrate it. You claim to find all of these Trump supporters so disgusting and irredeemable, yet you continue to be friends with and break bread with them. You rationalize their white supremacist bullshit as a “difference of opinion,” and you’re far quicker to gaslight Black folks who try to say something about it. You’ll hop into the inbox of Black folks and tell us about the tasteless “joke” your friend made about running over Black protesters and how much it “hurt” you (possibly triggering us, in the process)…in lieu of actually confronting your buddy Blaine and checking him on it. Not to mention, you covertly participate in all of the white supremacist bullshit, yourselves. You actually have a voice that the people closest to you might be likely to listen to, yet you let all of it go unchallenged, then wonder why these bigots who find Trump perfectly acceptable are so widespread.
(…and all of this led me to create the hashtag, #whiteLiberalsAreUseless. /cheap plug)
And then, in response to the uptick in danger that Black & Brown folks face, white liberal “all-lies” have now adopted a new gesture (which ultimately just serves to bolster their own egos): Safety pins. I won’t go into detail, here, but all of the issues around this latest form of performative “allyship” are very-well covered in this piece.
A safety pin is cute but i’ve seen solidarity trends come and go, and i haven’t actually felt safer around people who label themselves as allies. I’ve seen white people avoid oppressive situations, avoid interactions which require more than a shake of the head all because it was too much work
But the most sad (if not egregious) part of this whole thing is it didn’t even have to get to this point. A Donald Trump presidency was 100% preventable.
Black folks have been trying to tell you all of this for years (decades, if not centuries, really), but you refused to listen. We asked you, in every way possible, for your help in fixing this system…particularly, as people who have been essential to keeping your preferred politicians in power for as long as we’ve been able to vote. But what do we get in return? Silence, willful ignorance and gaslighting, if not some of the very, same bigotry that overt white supremacists dish out. You chose comfort, privilege and complacency over actually doing the work of deconstructing white supremacy (y’know…like actual progressives). President-Elect Donald Trump is just a logical result of that.
I’ve been discussing white liberalism and all of its bullshit, since well before I even had a blog or any small semblance of a social media presence. And now, it’s just funny seeing how virtually everything I’ve said about you has materialized, just in these last few, post-election days. This isn’t even about gloating (I actually wish y’all would stop being so damn predictable and just prove me wrong, for once). But alas, here we are. If you wanna be mad over the election results, fine, but recognize that it’s entirely your own damn fault. Maybe next time you’ll listen to us.
…LOL…nah, we already know better, and you won’t.
You never do.
