There's a lot to process. But something very important has crystallized for me. It's something I might've ignored had Trump been defeated.
This country is divided. But it's not racial divisions that hold us back. It's white ppl that are most divided today.
Black people came out. Latinos came out. Everyone came out unambiguously, unflinchingly blue. Except white people.
I've been struggling with this a long time. Trying to decide if it's true, if it's fair, what to say about it. I can't sidestep it anymore.
Let's talk about this. Because it's a major shift in my thinking.
First I've been trying to decide if we "liberals" live in a bubble or echo chamber. It's a common refrain. And I've been resistant to it.
Today my conclusion is that, like most things, it's nuanced. Most PoC don't live in a bubble. We cant afford to. But many white ppl do.
White liberals have systematically and deliberately separated themselves from their conservative family and friends.
I've been gathering the data on this for over a year now. Paying close attention and trying to see if there was any self awareness.
While liberals so surprised by all the shit that goes down. So much so that it's a meme. Being "shocked" every time something happens.
Meanwhile the meme among PoC is having to say "I told you so". Being black is being constantly upset that white ppl don't believe you.
White liberals spend way more time denying reality to PoC than they do hearing reality from their white conservative family and friends.
This is not rhetoric. I mean it quite literally. White liberals have walled themselves off from the reality of the racism in their community
White liberals "hate facebook" because of all the racism there. Those are your family and friends, but you won't talk to them.
White liberals from flyover states hate going home for holidays. Because they are surrounded by bigoted family and friends.
White liberals will spend all day today (started last night) finding PoC to apologize and say #NotAllWhitePeople.
They want so badly to not be associated with the rest of whiteness. They want to stand on our side and act like they can't believe it.
Not only do you believe it. But you know exactly where it lives. You know these people better than PoC ever will. They are your people.
The white family, the white community us divided. And as long as that's true, progress will be stalled, halted, reversed in fits and starts.
Let's step back from this and try to put it in context. All the pieces are falling into place for me.
How did we get here? Why is the white community so divided? Because y'all decided racism was over without ever addressing it.
We've talked a lot on this TL about how America has never been forced to acknowledge and contend with it's greatest sins.
There is nothing that happened to change the prevailing white racist sentiment. It's still there. Always has been.
What did happen was a critical mass of whiteness broke off and managed to vote with us to change some things for the better.
We ended Jim Crow, got the vote, the Civil Rights Act. None of that could've happened without white allies.
But instead of these being moments of healing from past sins for the white community, all it did was create a deepening rift.
The white ppl that broke with white racism didn't fix anything. They just never went home.
Because they didn't actually fix anything, they had to do something to avoid the inevitable dissonance. So they created liberal enclaves.
Look at the electoral maps. Drill into the states. What we see is singular blue counties, clustered around cities, in an endless sea of red.
Part of this is explained by the fact PoC tend to be clustered around major metro areas. Forced segregation, danger in rural areas, etc.
But my theory is it's not just us. White liberals have also been running away from the ugliness of racist reality to create liberal bastions
This makes perfect sense when you consider what whiteness has been taught to do. If you don't like something, wall yourself off from it
They've done this to us for centuries. Whites have always reacted to discomfort by creating an environment where they don't have to face it.
That's what happened last night. The bubble you intentionally created to shield you from the reality of this country popped.
So many ppl on here. So many ppl I know. They're saying "I didn't know things were this bad" or "I thought we were better than this".
You created that narrative to keep yourself warm at night. That warmth made you complacent. And you forgot why we were fighting.
There's so much more here. But I'm gonna pause for a while. I need to hug my wife and my baby.
