Monday, February 4, 2019

Dear White People Who Can't Figure Out if What You Did Is Racist Or Not

Dear white people who can’t figure out if what you did is racist or not, 

Stop waiting for black people to explain why some of your actions are racist. You already know they are racist when you do your best to claim such behaviors aren’t who you are, or you pretend they never happened. I say this, because of the debacle Governor Ralph Northam of the Virginia Commonwealth caused for himself.
In case you haven’t heard, the extreme right went on a hunt to discredit Northam. They uncovered a photograph in his 1984 medical school yearbook that showed one student in blackface and the other in a KKK robe and hood. They were after Northam because of a bill he was trying to get passed concerning late term abortions. It appears the extreme right will go to any lengths to ensure women, even if their lives depend on it, cannot have access to safe and affordable abortions. Their love of fetuses outpaces their love of people by eons. They’ve even killed for the cause.
I don’t understand their position, because if they made sure women had access to affordable birth control and reproductive healthcare, as they did under the ACA until the right dismantled it, the number of abortions would shrink to almost zero, and the procedure would only be used as a last resort, say in the case of rape (no, a baby conceived by rape is not a gift from God; It is the result of a violent physical attack.) or the mother’s health risk. But the extreme right doesn’t care, because embryos and fetuses mean more to their cause than people. If even one of them told the truth, they would tell you that what it really means is that they would fulfill their belief that women should be oppressed and submissive to men, and they should not be allowed to make decisions about their bodies.  I know this because of the number of men who claimed support of pro-life legislation, but were also caught telling their mistresses to get abortions so the men would not be found out and would not have to support a child they didn’t think was worth their support. In their case, the baby was certainly not a gift from God; It was the inconvenient result of caving to lust.
So they went digging to discredit Northam. Apparently they didn’t have to dig too deeply, because there was the photo in his medical yearbook, and another interesting tidbit in another yearbook: one of his nicknames was “Coonman.”
Many Democrats and liberals called for Northam’s resignation, along with the hypocritical right. It doesn’t matter who went digging, it matters that the incendiary photo existed at all. And it doesn’t matter what a stellar civil rights record he has. We live in different times. There was a time white men fought for civil rights, but were perfectly fine leaving systemic racism in place. They wanted to continue being the power brokers, decision makers, and leaders. There was no room at the table for anyone who looked different or thought differently from them. Those days are over. The 2008 election broke the glass ceiling for people of color, and Hillary Rodham Clinton’s run as the Democratic candidate in the 2016 election broke the glass ceiling for women. Not that there hasn’t been backlash. There has been a strong and sustained backlash. Trump is the face of that backlash. Nevertheless, we persisted in the 2018 election with the greatest turnover of Congressional seats in the history of our country and the most diverse Congress ever.
Northam, so far, refused to resign. On February 1, 2019, he issued an apology for appearing in the photograph. On February 2, 2019, he claimed he wasn’t in the photo and someone had put it on his page without his knowledge. He also admitted he had engaged in putting on blackface once for a Michael Jackson dance contest—he even said he only put on a little shoe polish since, if one had never done it before, one might not know how difficult it is to remove later. He even went so far as to consider giving a demonstration of his dance skills, but one can hear his wife caution that it is “inappropriate circumstances.”
It’s beyond inappropriate. In 1984, the year the yearbook was published, every single American would have known, with the exception of avowed white supremacists, that blackface is offensive and the KKK is a terrorist organization. Engaging in such behavior, particularly when one hopes to serve individuals as their doctor and, later, as their government representative, is egregious.
Some pundits are calling for statements from Obama and the Virginia Deputy Governor, Justin Fairfield, who would step into the governor’s position should Northam step down. No, they don’t have to weigh in. They will only be criticized, and, white people, you don’t need them to tell you what Northam did was racist and that he should step down. We know he should be held accountable. The only one who appears not to know is Northam himself.
Except, let me make a larger statement to the extreme right: You can’t call foul on liberals and not disavow Steve King (Iowa) who is a blatant white supremacist and trump who has an equally egregious record on race relations dating back to the 1970s when he wouldn’t rent to people of color. Remember, he also pushed the birther conspiracy and kept it going long after that horse was beaten to death. They should both step down, too. And you? You must start legislating equality.
So, let’s be accountable. The extreme right needs to stop doing whatever is necessary, including cheating at the polls, suppressing the vote, conspiring with a foreign adversary, and discrediting their colleagues on the other side of the aisle, to get their ideologically discriminatory beliefs into the mainstream. There is a reason there is separation of church and state. Do what you want in your churches, as long as you are not abusing people through conversion therapy or sexually abusing parishioners or doing anything else vile under the guise of God’s will, including believing that God favors white people over all others and that gives you permission to discriminate and hate anyone who doesn’t look like you. And stop looking for dirt to discredit Fairfield, too. Your methods are obvious and disingenuous.
Note: after I published this it came to light that the allegations against Fairfield may have come from Northam's camp. It has not been confirmed, but if true, this shows Northam's utter disregard for people of color as he is willing to crush another's career to save his own. This story is getting deep.
Note 2: An second allegation, this time of rape, against Fairfield. Fairfield is demanding an investigation, but it appears he must step down, too, even while third in line has his own black face story. The Commonwealth of Virginia is in trouble.
Northam, resign. White men have to stop expecting second, third and fourth chances when they mess up. Women and people of color still have to fight like hell just for one chance. Just because you are liberal and believe you are supporting righteous legislation for equality, doesn’t give you a buy. In fact, it holds you to a higher standard. Do the right thing, or risk discrediting the Democratic Party, because of your own self-interest. If we, the party of all people, can’t do the right thing, why would we expect the GOP to do it?
The rest of us will continue to fight for the right of all people to be equal under the law and in society, and we will let you know when we witness racist behavior and also unethical politics to support extreme ideology. We’ve proven these last several years that swimming in the muck of humanity makes us terrible people. That is why we must hold everyone to a higher standard.  Governor Northam, be the first to prove why taking the high road is the right road to take.

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