Post racial Kool-Aid hangover packs hell of a kick!!
Well, before I start this, please listen to what everyone that tells you. The response to this is to get away from your computer and get active locally and in politics. Make that list of important actions to take and organizations to support and do that.
That said - this post racial Kool-Aid hangover packs hell of a kick!
I don’t think that we’re headed for the fascist hell some fear. From indications of appointments, it seems that there are going to be some rich establishment folks in charge - hedge fund managers and lobbyist are on the short list. There will be some fringe racist chuckle-heads in prominent positions, but in large, this will feel like it will be some fun combination of Reagan trickle-down economics mixed with some Patriot Act level civil liberties and anti-immigration flavors from Bush deux. The Supreme Court could get ugly, but remember Reagan gave us Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy. No matter how you slice it, we have a mixed bag of shit headed our way.
‘What about all that racial hate, Jamil?”
Ah, that’s that post-racial Kool-Aid hangover head ache you’re feeling. You thought that you were living in post-racial world where there was no way an overtly racist man could be president. Well, we had a somewhat then and overtly now racist man as mayor of our liberal NYC. He’s going to be attorney general probably (yippee!). The lie of the post-racial america ran deep. Some thought racial equality was actually an issue, but the truth is that no recent national election has had ‘achieving racial equality’ actually be a central issue. Obama’s message was one of hope. Yes, some people believed that by voting for Obama racial equality had been achieved. Surely you remember that, during the presidential debates, they argued about how each candidate was going to break down the prison industrial complex and reform law enforcement to end racial profiling?? Um...No, because that didn’t happen. Well, national sentiment about race must have moved in the right direction. Surely you remember that, due to videos, from several different states, of unarmed black men being killed by law enforcement, Americans became so empathetic to what was happening in black communities that laws made it to Congress for law enforcement reform? And that it became a must -answer question for candidates of all political views?? Um....No.
"What about the outward violence toward immigrants?"
Please read a history book. Xenophobia in our land of immigrants is some stupid bullshit we haven't been able to shake for even a minute.
"What about the violence toward women and gender equality, Jamil?"
Okay, now I drank this gender equality Kool-Aid and I am still feeling that kick - hard. As the father of a young daughter, I really thought a new day was here. Once again though, I will refer you to the issues people vote on and the debates. While equal pay has been in the spotlight somewhat, has it really been a central issue on a national level? A lot of us, who think of women as equals, fooled ourselves into thinking the nation was already there and could not possibly vote for the president who said, "grab them in the pussy." We were wrong. I had to read about why the Equal Right’s Amendment failed. I question how much we’ve moved, if at all, from that failure.
So, where do we go from here?
We clearly have a portion of the country that believes that solving racism and gender equality aren't the most important issues. I think that the only silver lining on this shit-cloud is that these people have stood up and been counted. It's difficult to have a movement for equality when you don't know who or what you're up against. Well, you have a clearer picture then you've had in a long time in America. You can look at that electoral map, by district, to see where those who will stand up to open racism and sexism and those who won't live. So what are you going to do about it? I already told you in the first paragraph - go figure out how you're going to fight the good fight!
