I know it is not productive, but as a brown person, it's impossible to ignore the silence and/or active cheerleading of the affluent white liberal for the people and process that have gotten us to this moment in history. The tide of danger has finally reached their level of the social hierarchy and many are now (correctly) alarmed. However, while the tide was drowning those below them they responded with book clubs and twee window signs while still voting for the same actively complicit politicians and scorning any sort of meaningful change.
So here we are and I don't think it's inappropriate to ask why the affluent white liberal believes they must never be under threat when so many of the rest of us constantly are. I find this to be indicative of the type of white supremacy that animates the Democratic party.
I don't believe in karma, but maybe this is just what America, and Americans deserve? Maybe there is, in fact, a cosmic price to pay for genocide, slavery and building an entire society on the premise that wealth is the highest moral good.
I don't know man, I'm just waiting for the meteor.
Thank you for articulating this. My brown friend and I have bemoaned the political death spiral for thirty years. She always said: nothing will change until white people are at risk. And I always hoped we, collectively, could break the cycle. And here we are. Not just in this country, but UK and elsewhere. At this point, I'm waiting for China or Russia to send help.
If someone was to believe that Trump is an aberration, a 1000 year flood event and not the logical and inexorable outcome of the cynical farce that is national level American Democracy that would be their right. But they would definitely be missing my point.
Sure but clearly brown people don't mind unleashing the white supremacist police state on other brown people, otherwise they wouldn't have chosen him. They have agency.
you may be surprised to learn how many latinos consider themselves white.
I don't disagree with you, and I have my own thoughts about non-(cis,white, men) who find themselves cheering for conservatives.
But my point was that the horror of this current moment has simply been reality for many folks for many years and the people who like to call themselves liberals haven't shown much inclination to meaningfully challenge the economic and political systems that they may find unsavory but ultimately benefit from.
The truth of the matter is, Brown and Black bodies have always been used and abused to create and sustain all current empires.
We are nothing special. We (I'm Brown too) achieved more due to Black people fighting for their systems to support them too, so we have more to lose. That's all. We should have fought all of this when voting rights and abortions (amongst other civil rights) were taken away right in front of us.
But white people (even "progressive" ones) will now suffer and become the marginalized. Sucks to suck, I suppose.
Use a Bell Curve to depict Left to Right ideology; the vertical dividing line near the center. The Far Left AND Far Right minority (less than 5%) direct our economy to benefit their own concerns. Mussolini used the term Fascism to define a government controlled by powerful business interests. The most powerful among them are involved in the sale personal cars, and commercial trucking and shipping the longest distances.
Closet Conservatives pose as Liberals to get elected, then answer
mostly to their ruling class and departments of highway liars.
This affluent white liberal has always (always!) been open to practical, feasible actions within my personal financial, geographical and physical scope that I might take, not just to support brown people, but to make life fairer and safer for anyone who's economically or socially vulnerable. (Nope, no twee window signs for me, and as for book groups I generally prefer philosophy.)
Qualifying words can be good in this context, i.e. "SOME affluent white liberals". This is one of the remedies for all-or-nothing thinking.
Yeah I don’t know man, if somebody is telling me of their existential distress it’s not necessarily my reaction to tell them of my preference of philosophy over other book clubs and that an inclusive speech that accounts for the fact that „notallmen“ goes a long way to stay in my good graces.
I can gladly report that I do actually not wonder about any of their positions, I feel I know more than enough of this affluent white liberal who is so notably not like some others. Semirelated: https://youtu.be/lz9GxmOB86A
Sit this one out? (red flag to a bull.) It certainly can be about the philosophy and language use.
But I also think it’s good to be up front about feelings as opposed to making universal statements or commenting on language for that matter, so here it is: I’m feeling resentful right now. Likewise I acknowledge the feelings of (what comes across as, since I'm not a mind reader) frustration and anger on the part of others.
However, allowing genuine feelings to morph into negative stereotypes thwarts inclusion. Inclusiveness has to be wide, maybe even universal, to be meaningful. (oops, sorry, more philosophy and linguistics.)
Something I keep coming back to is how quick this all feels. It's been 5.5 months! But then I have to remind myself that none of this was quick. This has been in the works for decades. Reagan's tax cuts, Clinton's massive reduction of the federal workforce, George W's creation of the Department of Homeland Security, TSA and ICE in order to strip away our liberties and create the beginning of a surveillance state, Obama's complete inability to be the person he said he was going to be, RBG not fucking retiring....etc. etc. etc. The most heinous, racist, classist, fascist power brokers have been waiting for this moment for so long. And they've won. They've climbed the mountain. They have carte blanche. And it's horrifying.
These are the 7 demands for our #EyesOnICE protest group in Baltimore. We meet weekly at one of the busiest street corners in the city, have a demonstration with speakers, chant, and then we end with a march to the ICE field office. NJ has been having a DAILY #EyesOnICE at the Delaney Hall private prison- they’re beast mode up in Jersey.
If you have a weekly anti-ICE protest or demonstration in your community or are interested in starting one, adopt the 7 demands. We should plant the flag at what we want our society to be and work to THAT vision, just like Stephen Miller and his fascist band of thugs are working from a White supremacist blueprint.
Abolition- Abolish ICE and DHS and build a humane immigration system in its place.
Amnesty- Grant Amnesty and pathways to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented people living and working in this country.
Justice- Ensure due process for all and the release of all immigrants being held in detention for non-violent offenses.
Freedom- End the private for-profit prison industry that generates billions from mass incarceration.
Privacy- Eradicate the mass surveillance state that tracks and monitors immigrants and is being weaponized against all of us.
Equality- Stop our immigration system from being used as a tool to advance a White supremacist agenda.
Accountability- Prosecute all who cover faces, shield identities, and avoid accountability as they violate human rights in this campaign of terror against immigrants.
The observation that our neighbors can be disappeared and our lives just carry on as "normal" is the same unnerving sense I've had for the last few years. The genocide is happening and I'm sipping my coffee. Grocery shopping. Reading this! Normalish. But not. Because it's a gnat in my ear and a barbell on my chest. And I've no idea how to do this: to live with the banality of evil.
Americans (including me when I was younger) have always had this weird idea that huge dramatic historical occurrences happening e.g. wars, a fascist dictatorship taking over, world historical atrocities going on, would somehow mean the end of "normal" or "banal" life for this of us in the belly of the beast in the American Empire, that if some heavy shit went down it would be the end of normal life for most and people would stop going to sports events etc. This of course is nonsense as most of the world has been close to these type of events and people continue to lead normal lives, watch TV, play sports, open businesses etc. in all but the most absolutely extreme cases i.e. Gaza, where the horrors are just inescapable. I saw some new term I'd never seen before recently. I've forgotten what it is but it described a situation where a nation state is ostensibly a democracy i.e. there are regular elections and no overt declaration of dictatorship or martial law, but in reality the state is much closer to an authoritarian dictatorship. I think this is the direction the US id headed
I moved to America when I was 5, from Pakistan, and I got my US citizenship around 1997. I have brown skin and I’m scared.
I have a very fortunate life here that I’ve built, and lots of resources, but I don’t want to be kidnapped and taken away from my wife and small kids. What personal self defense / safety measures can I take?
Get to know your neighbors and be a part of networks of mutual care. You may not be able to take a front and center part of the resistance for personal safety reasons, but find it and take part in it in ways that feel safest to you. Church-based, activist-based, neighborhood-based. Whatever it is.
Whatever community you find and work to create will have your back if something were to happen to you. They will fight for you. I hope it never comes to that for you, but your best defense will be your community.
And together, all these pockets of resistance will stitch ourselves into a massive quilt that will smother and extinguish this White supremacist movement- it will be a long struggle, but we will get there. Wishing you and your family safety
Los desaparecidos americanos...Who would have thought? My heart is broken for where we Americans have put ourselves. Neither our own nor international law seems to even pertain to "us" or at least the powers these days. Lord, have mercy
It is well known in transportation planning that building more traffic lanes increases the number of cars on the road. It is the same with prison cells. If you build it, they will come (by force).
One concrete step those fortunate enough not to be in the line of fire could take is to voluntarily fill those cells. Of course, they would probably solve that problem by overcrowding those cells with the "undesirables" they wished to put in there in the first place, but it would shine a bright light on the problem. What if all the retired people of means, and celebrities were suddenly behind bars? I know this is highly improbable, because, while I would like to think I would be among the first to practice civil disobedience to get myself a spot in Alligator Alcatraz, I'm not sure I'm actually that brave. However, when I think of what is to be gained and lost by inaction, I think it would be utterly stupid and insane not to.
"America is about to fund and build a huge secret police force that will, I promise you, be used to attack and imprison and exile the president’s enemies, of all sorts. Better to look this fact square in the face than to continue to kid ourselves as long as possible as we march down the road to the gulags."
And that, as you point out in your piece, is the REAL intent of the Big Bullshit Bill. All the handwringing about Medicaid cuts—all very real and painful—is a distraction about the creation of a secret police state and eliminating elections. Did any senators/reps sound the alarm? If so, I didn't see any reporting as such. Do they not believe it's coming? Do they not think that they will be incarcerated as well?
Many people are having to confront for the first time the realities of our American prison system and “justice” system. It has always been an irrational system that scoops people of color up for minor offenses or things they didn’t even do and cut them off from their families and deprive them of their civil liberties. This escalation is sickening and yet many aspects have long existed for certain communities. I’m currently reading Du Bois’s “Black Reconstruction in America” and so much of it deals with the fact that white people have never wanted to grant full citizenship to non-white people.
Your closing sentence should be on the signs the lion-hearted carry.
Thank you, Hamilton, for reminding us of the simple things we learned at our mother's knee. We need to keep hearing truth during such distorted, threatening times.
Start liking it. The United States has long been, not a democracy, nor a democratic republic, but an oligopoly with some vestigial trappings of democracy.
What we are seeing now is the shedding of those trappings as the United States ceases any pretense of being anything other than an Empire. This is inevitable, as power is to sociopaths what catnip is to cats.
I know it is not productive, but as a brown person, it's impossible to ignore the silence and/or active cheerleading of the affluent white liberal for the people and process that have gotten us to this moment in history. The tide of danger has finally reached their level of the social hierarchy and many are now (correctly) alarmed. However, while the tide was drowning those below them they responded with book clubs and twee window signs while still voting for the same actively complicit politicians and scorning any sort of meaningful change.
So here we are and I don't think it's inappropriate to ask why the affluent white liberal believes they must never be under threat when so many of the rest of us constantly are. I find this to be indicative of the type of white supremacy that animates the Democratic party.
I don't believe in karma, but maybe this is just what America, and Americans deserve? Maybe there is, in fact, a cosmic price to pay for genocide, slavery and building an entire society on the premise that wealth is the highest moral good.
I don't know man, I'm just waiting for the meteor.
Thank you for articulating this. My brown friend and I have bemoaned the political death spiral for thirty years. She always said: nothing will change until white people are at risk. And I always hoped we, collectively, could break the cycle. And here we are. Not just in this country, but UK and elsewhere. At this point, I'm waiting for China or Russia to send help.
Didn't Latinos support Trump at a higher rate than educated white liberals?
If someone was to believe that Trump is an aberration, a 1000 year flood event and not the logical and inexorable outcome of the cynical farce that is national level American Democracy that would be their right. But they would definitely be missing my point.
Sure but clearly brown people don't mind unleashing the white supremacist police state on other brown people, otherwise they wouldn't have chosen him. They have agency.
you may be surprised to learn how many latinos consider themselves white.
I don't disagree with you, and I have my own thoughts about non-(cis,white, men) who find themselves cheering for conservatives.
But my point was that the horror of this current moment has simply been reality for many folks for many years and the people who like to call themselves liberals haven't shown much inclination to meaningfully challenge the economic and political systems that they may find unsavory but ultimately benefit from.
The truth of the matter is, Brown and Black bodies have always been used and abused to create and sustain all current empires.
We are nothing special. We (I'm Brown too) achieved more due to Black people fighting for their systems to support them too, so we have more to lose. That's all. We should have fought all of this when voting rights and abortions (amongst other civil rights) were taken away right in front of us.
But white people (even "progressive" ones) will now suffer and become the marginalized. Sucks to suck, I suppose.
Use a Bell Curve to depict Left to Right ideology; the vertical dividing line near the center. The Far Left AND Far Right minority (less than 5%) direct our economy to benefit their own concerns. Mussolini used the term Fascism to define a government controlled by powerful business interests. The most powerful among them are involved in the sale personal cars, and commercial trucking and shipping the longest distances.
Closet Conservatives pose as Liberals to get elected, then answer
mostly to their ruling class and departments of highway liars.
This affluent white liberal has always (always!) been open to practical, feasible actions within my personal financial, geographical and physical scope that I might take, not just to support brown people, but to make life fairer and safer for anyone who's economically or socially vulnerable. (Nope, no twee window signs for me, and as for book groups I generally prefer philosophy.)
Qualifying words can be good in this context, i.e. "SOME affluent white liberals". This is one of the remedies for all-or-nothing thinking.
Yeah I don’t know man, if somebody is telling me of their existential distress it’s not necessarily my reaction to tell them of my preference of philosophy over other book clubs and that an inclusive speech that accounts for the fact that „notallmen“ goes a long way to stay in my good graces.
Maybe sit this one out.
I wonder what they think of MLK's notably documented gripes with the un-caveated white moderate.
I can gladly report that I do actually not wonder about any of their positions, I feel I know more than enough of this affluent white liberal who is so notably not like some others. Semirelated: https://youtu.be/lz9GxmOB86A
Sit this one out? (red flag to a bull.) It certainly can be about the philosophy and language use.
But I also think it’s good to be up front about feelings as opposed to making universal statements or commenting on language for that matter, so here it is: I’m feeling resentful right now. Likewise I acknowledge the feelings of (what comes across as, since I'm not a mind reader) frustration and anger on the part of others.
However, allowing genuine feelings to morph into negative stereotypes thwarts inclusion. Inclusiveness has to be wide, maybe even universal, to be meaningful. (oops, sorry, more philosophy and linguistics.)
Tl;dr
"practical, feasible actions within my personal financial, geographical and physical scope"; just say "comfortable," it's much more efficient.
Did you literally "not all men" this? lol
Something I keep coming back to is how quick this all feels. It's been 5.5 months! But then I have to remind myself that none of this was quick. This has been in the works for decades. Reagan's tax cuts, Clinton's massive reduction of the federal workforce, George W's creation of the Department of Homeland Security, TSA and ICE in order to strip away our liberties and create the beginning of a surveillance state, Obama's complete inability to be the person he said he was going to be, RBG not fucking retiring....etc. etc. etc. The most heinous, racist, classist, fascist power brokers have been waiting for this moment for so long. And they've won. They've climbed the mountain. They have carte blanche. And it's horrifying.
These are the 7 demands for our #EyesOnICE protest group in Baltimore. We meet weekly at one of the busiest street corners in the city, have a demonstration with speakers, chant, and then we end with a march to the ICE field office. NJ has been having a DAILY #EyesOnICE at the Delaney Hall private prison- they’re beast mode up in Jersey.
If you have a weekly anti-ICE protest or demonstration in your community or are interested in starting one, adopt the 7 demands. We should plant the flag at what we want our society to be and work to THAT vision, just like Stephen Miller and his fascist band of thugs are working from a White supremacist blueprint.
Abolition- Abolish ICE and DHS and build a humane immigration system in its place.
Amnesty- Grant Amnesty and pathways to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented people living and working in this country.
Justice- Ensure due process for all and the release of all immigrants being held in detention for non-violent offenses.
Freedom- End the private for-profit prison industry that generates billions from mass incarceration.
Privacy- Eradicate the mass surveillance state that tracks and monitors immigrants and is being weaponized against all of us.
Equality- Stop our immigration system from being used as a tool to advance a White supremacist agenda.
Accountability- Prosecute all who cover faces, shield identities, and avoid accountability as they violate human rights in this campaign of terror against immigrants.
The observation that our neighbors can be disappeared and our lives just carry on as "normal" is the same unnerving sense I've had for the last few years. The genocide is happening and I'm sipping my coffee. Grocery shopping. Reading this! Normalish. But not. Because it's a gnat in my ear and a barbell on my chest. And I've no idea how to do this: to live with the banality of evil.
Americans (including me when I was younger) have always had this weird idea that huge dramatic historical occurrences happening e.g. wars, a fascist dictatorship taking over, world historical atrocities going on, would somehow mean the end of "normal" or "banal" life for this of us in the belly of the beast in the American Empire, that if some heavy shit went down it would be the end of normal life for most and people would stop going to sports events etc. This of course is nonsense as most of the world has been close to these type of events and people continue to lead normal lives, watch TV, play sports, open businesses etc. in all but the most absolutely extreme cases i.e. Gaza, where the horrors are just inescapable. I saw some new term I'd never seen before recently. I've forgotten what it is but it described a situation where a nation state is ostensibly a democracy i.e. there are regular elections and no overt declaration of dictatorship or martial law, but in reality the state is much closer to an authoritarian dictatorship. I think this is the direction the US id headed
100% accurate. I am not stopping. They are literally going to have to fucking kill me. I carry on according to my own values fighting them.
We’ll lose. So what? Fight anyway.
I moved to America when I was 5, from Pakistan, and I got my US citizenship around 1997. I have brown skin and I’m scared.
I have a very fortunate life here that I’ve built, and lots of resources, but I don’t want to be kidnapped and taken away from my wife and small kids. What personal self defense / safety measures can I take?
Get to know your neighbors and be a part of networks of mutual care. You may not be able to take a front and center part of the resistance for personal safety reasons, but find it and take part in it in ways that feel safest to you. Church-based, activist-based, neighborhood-based. Whatever it is.
Whatever community you find and work to create will have your back if something were to happen to you. They will fight for you. I hope it never comes to that for you, but your best defense will be your community.
And together, all these pockets of resistance will stitch ourselves into a massive quilt that will smother and extinguish this White supremacist movement- it will be a long struggle, but we will get there. Wishing you and your family safety
Thanks Jess for writing, and your kindness; I really appreciate it. Great points.
Even though we don’t know each other, it’s really moving and heartening that we’re all in this together. All my best to you and yours as well.
Thank you, Hamilton. Right on target, as usual.
Thank you! You help me stare it all in the face. I’m not looking away.
Los desaparecidos americanos...Who would have thought? My heart is broken for where we Americans have put ourselves. Neither our own nor international law seems to even pertain to "us" or at least the powers these days. Lord, have mercy
𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘺𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴, 𝘶𝘱𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘴, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦, 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴. 𝘐𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘵𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵; 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘩𝘺𝘮𝘦𝘴.
--Theodor Reik, 1965
It is well known in transportation planning that building more traffic lanes increases the number of cars on the road. It is the same with prison cells. If you build it, they will come (by force).
One concrete step those fortunate enough not to be in the line of fire could take is to voluntarily fill those cells. Of course, they would probably solve that problem by overcrowding those cells with the "undesirables" they wished to put in there in the first place, but it would shine a bright light on the problem. What if all the retired people of means, and celebrities were suddenly behind bars? I know this is highly improbable, because, while I would like to think I would be among the first to practice civil disobedience to get myself a spot in Alligator Alcatraz, I'm not sure I'm actually that brave. However, when I think of what is to be gained and lost by inaction, I think it would be utterly stupid and insane not to.
"America is about to fund and build a huge secret police force that will, I promise you, be used to attack and imprison and exile the president’s enemies, of all sorts. Better to look this fact square in the face than to continue to kid ourselves as long as possible as we march down the road to the gulags."
And that, as you point out in your piece, is the REAL intent of the Big Bullshit Bill. All the handwringing about Medicaid cuts—all very real and painful—is a distraction about the creation of a secret police state and eliminating elections. Did any senators/reps sound the alarm? If so, I didn't see any reporting as such. Do they not believe it's coming? Do they not think that they will be incarcerated as well?
And lest you think that the local and state police won't gleefully go along with all the rounding up of political prisoners, read about what happened in my hometown: https://www.worcestersucks.email/p/the-backlash-blues and https://thisweekinworcester.com/union-threats-police-chief-haxhiaj/
These are truly terrifying times, Hamilton. Thanks for posting.
Many people are having to confront for the first time the realities of our American prison system and “justice” system. It has always been an irrational system that scoops people of color up for minor offenses or things they didn’t even do and cut them off from their families and deprive them of their civil liberties. This escalation is sickening and yet many aspects have long existed for certain communities. I’m currently reading Du Bois’s “Black Reconstruction in America” and so much of it deals with the fact that white people have never wanted to grant full citizenship to non-white people.
Your closing sentence should be on the signs the lion-hearted carry.
Thank you, Hamilton, for reminding us of the simple things we learned at our mother's knee. We need to keep hearing truth during such distorted, threatening times.
Start liking it. The United States has long been, not a democracy, nor a democratic republic, but an oligopoly with some vestigial trappings of democracy.
What we are seeing now is the shedding of those trappings as the United States ceases any pretense of being anything other than an Empire. This is inevitable, as power is to sociopaths what catnip is to cats.