REWRITING AMERICAN HISTORY WITH REPUBLICAN CONSENT

By Ruth A. Sheets

Trump proves daily that he is an ignorant would-be tyrant, and he is well on the way to achieving that goal.  He knows nothing of history, yet wants to dictate what it should include.

Russell Vought of “Project 2025” fame, knows nothing of history either.  He’s just  a whiny white boy who is too rich for anyone's good and who has been sponsored and coddled by a bunch of racist, misogynistic cowards at the Heritage Foundation who are too scared of anyone who is not rich white and male.  OK, they are terrified of them too; they could turn on him and his kind in an instant.  It has happened throughout history.  So, Vought, Miller, Bessent, and a collected crowd of scared white men and the women who love them want to get their Baby Donnie to  make history less scary, less filled with ways white men have oppressed and abused people, less information about outstanding women, and people of color, and white men who don't buy the scared white male BS.  The Trumpers are not a large group, but want everyone to think they are all-powerful, so we will be cowed into submission. 

Trump’s next target is the Smithsonian Institution, often fondly referred to as “our nation’s attic.”  Trump and his buddies who know nothing of history, science, art, and this nation, want to have oversight for all exhibitions, displays, etc.  What!  They would be lost in the jargon of science, history, art, and the rest.  Those whiny rich boys would bring nothing positive to the museums or anywhere else they plan to try to control, just lies, inaccuracies, and their personal fears, resentments, and ignorance, none of which anyone in this country needs or wants on display in an honored institution. 

Smithsonian Secretary Bunch and the rest of the amazing people you work with, don't give in!  Ask the American people to help to support your work more now that Trump and his fascist crew are trying so hard to rewrite American history, and thus a part of the history of the world. 

When I worked for the Smithsonian, I loved working with the designers of exhibitions and giving tours of their fine work.  I can't imagine what a tour of Trump's history would sound like, a lot of lies, disinformation, and would not be worth the effort.  I am trying to imagine Trump as a tour guide of his brand of history and realize he wouldn't get past the first display because he wouldn't have a clue what was there.  He and his buddies like to whine about whites being discriminated against when that is so rare as to be nearly invisible, but Trump wants that insignificance to be more than visible, actually prominent, even if they have to make it up. 

The Smithsonian crew are going to have to be very creative to get around the ignoramuses of Trumplandia.  The residents of Trumplandia, toddler men and a few women know so little it is embarrassing.  Their ignorance is the reason only fools and the incompetent, serve as secretaries and department heads in our current government.  For Trump, ignorance is bliss.

However, Republicans in Congress, mostly white men, like the Trump takeover of our national entities like the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian, and say "sure, Mr. Sir, whatever you want, we care nothing for this nation, our oath of office,  and the people who elected us, just the money we can collect in gifts (bribes) and we are getting a lot right now, so, it’s all good,  whatever you want, we’re behind you, can you feel our presence back there?" 

THE THING WE WON’T TALK ABOUT

By Ruth A. Sheets

One positive thing that might come from the current Musk/Trump insanity is that we may force ourselves as a nation to take a serious look at the thing that can’t be mentioned. 

Many Americans voted for Trump and his crazies because of their embedded racism and misogyny, wrapped in sayings like "the price of eggs."  Maybe if we can be honest about that, people can see that voting for someone just because he is white, male, belligerent, and has a big mouth over a woman of color who unlike Trump, is actually more than competent will never save their lives, fortunes, or sacred honor.

I get it that by tradition, white and white wannabees , and many men are scared of anyone who is not them and will lash out at those folks who are more competent and skilled than any white male folks they know, but we don’t have to go along with it.  We the People keep pretending that racism and misogyny are things of the past, and they are, but they are also things of the present and future if we do nothing to call them out wherever we see them and bring it to the attention of the racists and misogynists who are using issues like the economy to cover their hatreds and bad behavior. 

Trump, Musk, and nearly every person nominated and approved of for high positions in our government, male and female are both racist and misogynist, yet our Senate Republicans and a few Democrats voted for them anyway.  A host of Republican representatives at all levels in our nation are racists and/or misogynists (usually both), but keep being elected because their opponents are not "supposed" to mention that, and it might not matter anyway since their constituents often share their racism and misogyny.  Those representatives though, are permitted to call THEIR opponents all kinds of racist and misogynistic names not only with impunity, but gaining them higher approval points. 

President Biden declared the ERA the 28th Amendment of our Constitution, which it should have been declared by Trump 5 years ago when Virginia became the 38th state to ratify, but I have not yet heard that the archivist was forced to actually see that it is printed in all copies of the Constitution, as she should have done since all of the requirements were met as described in our Constitution.  And, yes, women can be as misogynistic as men, often to please the men in their lives.

Where is the racism?  It is nearly everywhere if one takes a moment to notice.  The Washington, DC government as ordered a street mural for “Black Lives Matter” removed at significant cost because Trump threatened to cut their funding if they don’t, a minor but powerful instance.  The plans for cutting programs that serve disadvantaged communities as well as DEI are a much larger example.  In neither case has Congress stood up to stop the actions.

So, it is time we as a people fully acknowledge our complicity with the racism and misogyny rampant in our nation.  It does have economic costs since most of the billionaire class are white and male, just as one would expect and they intend to stay on top no matter what they have to do to maintain their position and wealth.  It really is up to all of us who recognize racism and misogyny when we see it to take a stand.

• We must demand better candidates and of a greater variety. 
• We need audits of our elections to see that people’s actual votes are being cast and tallied accurately. 
• - We need advertising that shows what racism and misogyny are and how they can be identified and challenged. 
• - We need more movies and TV programming to deal with racism and misogyny head-on, emphasizing the cruelty and evil nature of both as well as positive examples of communities where the people are effectively dealing with both. 
• - We need quality journalism at all levels from local to international, telling the truth regularly, about the impacts of racism and misogyny.
•  

We can do this if we really act as our Constitution claims to want to do, “form a more perfect union.”  That can’t happen when racism and misogyny reign.

ONE-UPMANSHIP IN OUR REVENGE CULTURE

by Ruth A. Sheets

The states in the former Confederacy and Confederate wannabees are pushing to make more and more restrictive laws on their citizens, particularly those citizens who are not rich, white, straight, men. 

I know the main purpose of such laws is to gain power for those rich, white, straight, men, but it is at least as much to keep others from having power.  In the past few decades, women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community have been gaining some ground in being elected to office and holding slightly higher positions in business and industry.  The privileged white men see that as a decrease in their own power and now it is time for them to take revenge.

The most blatant actions being taken are on two fronts:  limiting or eliminating abortion and other reproductive rights for women, and limiting or eliminating voting rights for people of color.  Despite the fact that Rowe v. Wade is the "law of the land" states have defied it to pass extremely restrictive bans on what is legal.  How does that work?  I guess when rich  white straight men and the women they have recruited to their cause decree it, anything is worthy of being ignored, even the law.  As of this week, in Kentucky it is now completely "illegal" to perform or obtain an abortion, even though it is legal in this country to obtain and perform abortions.  Hmmm! 

This Kentucky event did not come from nowhere, formed whole.  Over the years, all kinds of restrictions to having a legal abortion have been tacked on.  Then when other states saw that what another state had tried and found it had worked, the original restriction was extended:  a 24 hour waiting period, then 48 hours, then 72 hours, often requiring the woman to return to the abortion center multiple times for no medical reason, while missing work or having to find child care for her kids. 

When the time extensions worked, they moved to invasive procedures before the abortion could take place:  vaginal ultrasound, lying about dangers of having abortion, forced counseling using lies and misdirection, requiring various permissions to have an abortion:  parents, husband, rapist, etc.  Those didn't prove sufficient to stop abortions, so, states declared that aborted fetuses had to be buried, abortion centers had to meet building standards that were completely unnecessary and doctors and others who performed abortions had to have privileges in local hospitals even though abortion is among the safest medical procedures performed.  Of course the hospitals in the former Confederacy and other white states would not give doctors those privileges, which they should not have needed at all.

Texas passed a law that not only banned abortions after 6 weeks when a "heartbeat" could be detected (not a heartbeat since there is no heart yet, but who cares about reality and science?), they deputized anyone anywhere to report anyone anywhere who helped a woman to obtain an abortion in Texas – vigilante law.  And, those snitches get to claim $10,000 for their reward.

A few other former Confederate states have jumped on board the vigilante wagon.  They also want to jail doctors who perform abortions for 10 years, eventually imprisoning women who have abortions too.  Missouri didn't want to stop there.  They want to put women to death for having an abortion.  That one didn't pass, but not by much. 

The Supreme Court has allowed all of these extensions of illegal abortion restrictions through refusing to hear cases or as in the Texas case, through the Shadow Docket, a sneaky way to rule on something without accountability or hearing a case, or a public ruling with the names of the justices attached.

Voting is also working its way through the one-upmanship treatment.  In 2013, John Roberts and his conservative Supreme Court decided to tear apart the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which had required states with a history of discrimination to get permission for any changes in voting policies in their state.  He, a privileged white man, claimed racism was a thing of the past in this country so . . .

Immediately, state after state in the former Confederacy returned to their discriminatory ways with a host of bills to keep the "wrong" people from voting.  When people found ways around some of the worst restrictions, new ones were introduced.  When Black people voted on Sundays as congregations, Sunday voting was scrapped.  When people who weren't the right kind of rich white male were elected, voter fraud was called.  When election workers picked up mail-in ballots from Native American reservations, laws were passed making it illegal for anyone but designated family members to hand in ballots. 

After what was nearly universally described as the best run and safest election in American history, Republicans in one state after another declared fraud and passed all kinds of additional voter restrictions from matching signatures of voters, (some signatures 50 or more years old when everyone knows people's signatures change over time), to forbidding anyone to give anyone food or drink while standing in voting lines that were designed to keep people of color waiting to vote for up to 8 hours sometimes in severe heat.  Those long lines would never happen in the areas of the state with mostly middle to upper class white people because those are the people Republicans think they can count on, and usually they can.  Besides, those white folks could cause trouble.

What has the Supreme Court done to end the one-upmanship?  Mostly nothing.  OK, they have arbitrarily allowed or disallowed gerrymandering, when gerrymandering should never be permitted in a democracy in the first place.  So far, they have permitted everything else states are doing. 

What can we the people do about the white state one-upmanship?

- We can demand that each woman has sovereignty over her own body and can make decisions for herself asking for advice and support only when she chooses. 

- Congress can stop the Rowe v. Wade challenges by codifying a woman's right to decide for herself into law.  Certifying the ERA which has been passed by the required 38 states would help too.

- Putting abortion in the realm of medicine where it belongs, monitored by medical personnel instead of ignorant vengeful politicians and judges.

- Voter registration be made automatic on the day a citizen of this country turns 18.  That would stop the challenges to the kind of license presented when a person first registered to vote because every citizen would be able to vote.

- Gerrymandering would be made illegal and every state would have an independent board to determine the maps each decade with legislative input, but not final say on the maps used.

- Election day should be a holiday and every workplace would be required to give employees paid time off to vote.  That wouldn't be a problem if every state had unrestricted vote-by-mail. 

Let's face it, racism and misogyny are alive and well in nearly every corner of this nation.  It is mostly the states of the former Confederacy and Confederate wannabees run by Republicans who are doing the most damage to the rights of women, people of color, and LGBTQ persons.  We need to call them out for their prejudices whenever possible and be sure we in other states are aware of our own biases so we are not participating in the revenge culture that demands we get even with those we think have taken what belongs to us alone.  We can do this.  It all starts with education, helping children of privilege see they don't deserve more than anyone else has, and it's OK.  Then, there's voting.

THOUGHTS ON JANUARY 6TH

 by Ruth A. Sheets 

Happy New Year!  I remember beginning 2021 with great hope that 2021 would see the end of COVID-19 (it hasn’t) and that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would bring some strong positive changes to our nation (they have).  I also hoped climate change AKA global warming would become the top priority it should be (it hasn’t but some small movement is happening).

I knew Donald Trump could not let go of power and was scheming to keep Biden/Harris from taking office.  I had no idea his obsession with power would lead him to incite an insurrection.  That horrific event unfolded in front of the nation on TV, radio, and social media.  I had known in the past that rioting sometimes happened when poor, disenfranchised people had given up hope that their lives would improve and that they would finally be treated like full citizens of this country, but not a riot by privileged white folks. 

Trump’s supporters are not disenfranchised, though some are poor.  Most are white and have the privileges that provides.  Despite this, Mr. Trump and his entourage had convinced a significant number of them that they are owed something and had the right to claim it by whatever means necessary.  In addition, Democrats in general and minorities in particular had cheated Mr. Trump of the presidency and his followers had the right to take it back for him.

As a former teacher, I can’t help but wonder why the teachers of the insurgents hadn’t gotten them to understand how our government works.  When a fair election is held (as the 2020 election was), the actually elected president and vice-president would assume their positions at the head of our government. 

Where is critical thinking among the Trump supporters?  How is it they would believe a man who lied more than 30,000 times in public in the four years of his presidency over the thousands of Republican and Democratic election officials throughout the country who had certified the election for Biden/Harris? 

I remember reading that if a person has been entitled and given all kinds of advantages, equality seems to them like oppression.  I think that is what is happening here.  Trump and his entourage are tapping into the deep fear among some white folks that somehow they will lose their advantages which, of course, they don’t see as advantages, but rights.  They are so used to everything being a competition where someone wins which means the rest have to lose.  They have no concept of a win-win scenario where everyone can win.  People of color can obtain full citizenship without causing white Americans to be less than full citizens.  Too many of the Trump supporters think that somehow they have the right to become millionaires because that is their destiny, so taxing millionaires and billionaires at fair rates might cause them to lose some of their “hard-won” money. 

I have been pondering this for a long time.  How did such a large segment of our population come to be so fearful of everyone and everything that they don’t fully know?  I believe it is largely because over time there has been very little accountability for this group’s behavior.  There has always been double standards for the ways white people and people of color have been treated in our country.  From the very beginning, white individuals and groups have perpetrated violence against those they don’t like or trust.  Rarely have they been held responsible.  In fact, they have often been encouraged. 

Even though most white people in the South, for example didn’t own slaves, they saw slavery as their right.  Most white people didn’t wreck the homes of Black people moving into their neighborhoods, but they saw it as their right if they had chosen too because “those people didn’t belong here in our neighborhood anyway.”  When Chinese-owned businesses were destroyed, it was often seen as just the way things were and “if those people didn’t like it they should go back where they came from.”  Rarely was anyone even charged for these crimes.  Lynchings were often public events, family fare.  If anyone questioned the behavior, they too could be targeted no matter their color.  Few spoke up against the US Government’s imprisonment of Japanese-Americans during WWII.  It is rare for charges to be brought against workers at detention centers who abuse, even kill the immigrants imprisoned there.

The insurrection, as I see it, is an outgrowth of irresponsibility.  The media covered Trump as though he were worthy of attention beyond anything he had done.  All he had to do was read a script on the teleprompter and he was “acting presidential.”  The media when he ran for election covered him and his antics many times more than Hillary Clinton who actually deserved quality coverage because she had experience and plans to help the people of this country, while Trump had neither.

Trump was given the OK to speak outside the White House on January 6, 2021, another speech filled with lies and insults of people he didn’t like.  He claimed there was so much fraud in 6 of the states that he actually won the election.  His speech has been replayed in part and whole during the past year, so anyone who pays attention knows what he told his most rabid supporters. 

Trump and his cronies had planned a lot of what happened following his speech.  The goal, stop the formal electoral college count no matter how.  (OK, it is just another proof that the electoral college needs to be gone, but that is an aside.)

The insurrection began at the Capitol.  It went on more than 3 hours before Donald Trump, President of the United States sort of called it off.  By then, 5 people were dead, the Capitol, our Capitol was trashed and pooped on by people who carried Confederate flags, wore Nazi symbols, and used American flags to assault police officers.  They also terrorized our elected leaders.  No one was arrested and taken to prison at the time, the claim, the police were overwhelmed.  The FBI and others are still sort of looking for additional participants.  The accountability is still lacking, a year later.  The most serious sentence so far, just over 5 years for assaulting a police officer.

I can’t help but wonder how things would have been different had those who attacked our Capitol been Black or other people of color.  I suspect there would have been many left dead on the floor.  That was one of my first thoughts even as the attack was going on.  That’s because racism is really alive and very healthy in our nation as it has always been.  Events of this past year make that quite clear. 

- A white man killed 2 men and injured another at a protest he had no business being at and was found not-guilty.   

- School boards all over this country are trying to reinstate the old practice of white-washing American history so fragile little white kids won’t be upset by the appalling actions of people who could have been their ancestors.

- School boards are working to ban books by and about people of color so their straight white kids won’t have to read about people different from themselves.

- Anti-voting bills have been introduced in 48 states and several have passed, particularly in former Confederate states to specifically keep people of color from voting.

- Donald Trump and his racist rants still play very well on Fox “News” and other outlets run and visited primarily by scared whites, mostly men, and he still holds rallies for his racist supporters.

So, it is the anniversary of January 6^th.  What are we going to do about it?  Will Donald Trump and the organizers of the insurgency be held accountable?  I honestly doubt it.  Our Attorney General did not seem too keen on dealing with this event with the urgency it deserves.  Somehow, Donald Trump will again be let off like a spoiled child and our nation will be scarred by our continued inability to hold people accountable for their actions, or rather, the white Republican ones.  Biden is already being held accountable, blamed for not doing something in his first year, I am not quite sure what that is because he rolled out COVID vaccines to all the states with unprecedented speed, passed a bill to financially support families, got an infrastructure bill passed that will fix a lot of our roads, bridges, railways, as well as expand the internet, and appointed really qualified judges for the federal courts.  That’s pretty damn amazing, but not to the media which is already regularly predicting a Republican take-over in this year’s elections. 

Do I think there will be fair accountability for the insurrection?  No, I don’t.  I do want to be proven wrong, though.

OPEN LETTER TO REPUBLICAN TEXAS LEGISLATORS (AND OTHERS OF LIKE MIND)

by Ruth A. Sheets

The new wrinkle to the Texas legislature’s anti-American actions is forcing teachers to teach alternative points of view related to history, in at least one case, the Holocaust.

OMG!  An alternative to the Holocaust???  Don't you foolish ignorant legislators and school district officials know that we, the allies were the alternative to the Holocaust and we didn't do all that well.  We refused to let Jewish and other asylum-seekers from Germany enter the US.  We did nothing to end the death camps even when we knew about them.  Then, we imprisoned 120,000 people of Japanese descent, mostly American citizens in the most horrific conditions in places in this country no one else would live, just because they were Japanese.  Then we forced them to fight for us, their country that had imprisoned them on pain of even longer imprisonment.  Then, we used and abused service members of color through segregation and other humiliations.  

So, tell me Texas legislators, what is it you would have teachers include in their curriculum of lies?   Which points of false history will you have fed to your young white kids?  The truth might be too painful for their little psyches! 

I get it Republicans are totally enamored with lying and cheating these days to get what you want, so what will you white-wash so your poor sheltered privileged little white kids won't have to read or hear about atrocities done by white people, in Europe or here?  Are your kids so fragile they can't learn the truth and discuss it? 

How do you think your kids are going to respond when they learn that you all have worked hard to deny voting rights to American citizens of color?  How are they going to like knowing you chose to gerrymander districts so Black and Brown votes would be absorbed by the fewer white voters now living in Texas?  What about the warped history and possibly science curricula? 

I am guessing you are trying hard to keep them from learning to think critically so they won't notice.  I suspect they are smarter than you think.  They will find out, you know, even if you don't admit what you have done. 

From your first bill in this recent session to the present including your anti-abortion actions, the legislation you are passing is singularly racist and misogynistic and has nothing to do with truth, justice or what should be the American way.  Neither is any of it about faith or concern for your kids.  It is about control of women and people of color, often through fear and intimidation, your fear of them and thus your intimidation of them

I am interested to see how else you will try to white-wash education for your state’s children.  You've been at it for a while, since Texas began so I suspect you will come up with more ideas and excuses.  After all, the white-washing convinced you to run for office believing you should deny people's rights.  I guess you can pass it down through your family as it was passed to you.  That is how racism and misogyny as well as homophobia and xenophobia continue. 

Scared white people are afraid of losing the unbelievable privilege you of course, claim you don’t actually have.  Like little kids, you will wrap a blanket of vile legislation around yourselves so you won’t have to encounter the “monsters” you fear are under the bed while the monsters you should fear are within yourselves.  

However, you must know, despite what you want teachers to teach, it won't brainwash your kids as white as you would like.  This is still a democracy and your kids have access to the internet and excellent strong teachers who care enough about your kids to teach the truth even if they have to hide it in the garbage you Republicans want taught.    

In some other state legislatures, the white men and some women are licking their lips ready to pass all the same stuff Texas has passed.  However a lot of the people of this country are horrified that such evil is nearly unchecked.  An entire political party has dismissed any morals or ethics it has ever held in favor of fear mongering and passing hateful legislation that helps no one but themselves.  Shame on Texas Republicans and any other states that follow your example.

RACISM ALIVE AND WELL IN OUR LEGISLATURES

by Ruth Sheets

As a teacher, I am appalled at what scared white people will do to keep folks, particularly their kids from knowing the truth about what white people have done pretty consistently to Black Americans for 400 years. State legislators should feel shame that they have benefited and are still benefiting from the abuses of power white Americans have perpetrated against Black persons and other people of color. Unfortunately, sometimes with privilege comes the sense that one’s privilege and entitlement are deserved and that the others (fill in the blank) also deserve what has happened to them: poverty, a messed-up criminal justice system and excessive incarceration, deplorable housing, poorly resourced schools, low-quality healthcare, low-paying jobs, you get the idea.

Every white legislator in this nation should read At the Hands of Persons Unknown by Philip Dray to get an idea of how pervasive and horrific the abuse of Black Americans has been since slavery and how people are still living with the consequences, both white and Black.

So, you Republican/conservative whites don't want anyone to teach about race. Does that mean you want to hide out in the lie that "I wasn't alive then, so it wasn't my fault and I shouldn't be blamed. I have no responsibility for what is happening to Black people today. That’s on them. It has been more than 150 years and . . . . " That’s it? You didn’t enslave people or lynch anyone yourself so you have no responsibility? You might want to remember that white ancestors did the deeds and also rejoiced in the lynchings, the destruction of Greenwood- Tulsa, OK, Rosewood, FL, destruction of the biracial government in Wilmington, NC, the bus riots in Boston in the 1970’s, the incarceration of Black men at far higher rates than would be expected with their numbers in the population, and sooooo much more. Remember that not so long ago, white parents and grandparents participated in redlining and not holding police accountable for abuse of Black citizens. They denied Black people the vote and you, white legislators are working to continue and expand their efforts at voter suppression in states all over the country.

If racism were truly past, you all wouldn’t feel the need to deny any citizen their rights and yet you are working hard to do just that. You would not be pushing over 360 bills in state legislatures to limit voting or make it far more difficult for Black Americans and others to vote. You wouldn’t fight so hard to keep from raising the minimum wage which impacts by percent, Black Americans far more than white Americans.

White people of the American South are desperate to defend the presence of monuments to literal traitors to the United States claiming they are part of their heritage, but slavery isn’t? It seems that rubbing Black people’s faces in Confederate monuments is totally acceptable while teaching about the racism that led to the war that led to those monuments is not acceptable.

So, tell me again why is it you white Republican racist legislators don't want race to be discussed in classrooms and you want to deny free speech to teachers? Is it you want taught only the “whitewashed” history you all have created over time that keeps white Americans at the center of everything, while relegating Black and other Americans of color to positions of either inferiority or invisibility? Your ancestors came here “the right way” while Black persons just showed up here as slaves on the plantations of loving masters and mistresses.

I suspect you know the truth and are trying hard to hide it, or bury it so deep in the footnotes students will be too overwhelmed to investigate. What I really want to know is, to what end? What do white legislators get from keeping students, particularly white students from knowing the truth? Black students already know a lot of the truth because they live it daily. They just don’t get to learn the specifics.

Then you want to go after teachers, teachers who do what, tell the truth? What about freedom of speech, is that no longer in operation in your white Republican/conservative world? Are you frightened that you may have had ancestors who participated in some of the horrors Mr. Dray speaks about in his book? You just told us that you aren’t responsible for what they may have done. Maybe it’s time you let go of your fear of the truth and start to embrace it instead. You don’t need to propose a Nazi or Soviet style silencing effort to subvert the truth if you just accept it, make working with people of color to improve their situation and ultimately the situation of the entire nation your priority, or at least support efforts being put forward by Black people and organizations.

Stop the bullying, the voter suppression, the blaming, the forgetting, the pretending that being in power with no ideas and no concern for the people is acceptable for any American running for public office.

White men and women, Republicans/conservatives in power, racism is real. The acts you are proposing regarding voting are racist. Agreeing to a federal holiday for Juneteenth is not enough, though it is a start. Cutting off unemployment because Black people aren’t jumping in to take those low-paying jobs they once took 2 or 3 of just to survive is racist. Standing against bills in legislatures that propose to improve conditions for poor people, which often means people of color is racist. Telling us you don’t have a racist bone in your body is racist because of course you do, you’re white and all white people have at least a few racist bones in our bodies having been raised in such a deeply racist society. And, ignorance is no excuse. If you just look around, you can notice what is happening, and maybe you can choose to ditch your pre-conceived notions about racism.

Unless you actually do something in support of Black Americans, you are supporting a racist platform designed to keep white men on top, everyone else down, with Black people and some other people of color as far down as the law and the courts will permit, and both permit a lot of down.

We’re watching to see where you go from here and what you do along the way. Will you stand for what is right or just for what is white?

RACISM IS STILL HERE, WHITE PEOPLE

Ruth A. Sheets

So, racism is no longer a problem in the United States of America.  John Roberts told us so back in 2013 when he and the conservatives on the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act that had been passed again in 2006 by a vast majority of Congress.  Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina  repeated the lie in his response to President Biden’s speech ON the 100th day of his presidency.  Roberts is a privileged white guy who can’t seem to connect with ordinary Americans from his Supreme Court position.  Scott is a Black Republican from South Carolina.  They have an understanding of racism in common.

Republicans right now are mostly white people and either are or wannabe rich.  White folks have had so many privileges for so long it is hard for them to even imagine that these are privileges only white people have.  When a plan comes forward to give some assistance to anyone else, white people are encouraged to believe they will lose something in the process.  Republicans have bought into the lie that if someone gets something others lose something.  That is not the way the world has to work, but it is a POWERFUL device for keeping people in fear and getting working people to believe Republicans have their interests at heart.  In reality, most of the Republicans who really cared about working people's welfare died before most living Americans were born. 

The lie works, though because if things are said loud enough and repeated often enough and by men, people who are vulnerable may believe.  This pumping out of the zero sum game theory of life is racist, particularly when those who profess it are white, rich, and Republican.  Even Black Republicans like Sen. Scott and fellow Republican Clarence Thomas of Supreme Court fame bow to white supremacy because it allows them to be big fish in a little pool.  They have manage to be successful and can both claim this is due to their own efforts and therefore, this is not a racist nation.  The country is  racist, of course, but these men have been rewarded handsomely for their lies and submission, so why should they change.  

We as a nation should be able to do better.  Racism is at the center of nearly everything we do, however, so pretending it is no longer a problem will not work to heal our nation.  This is why I am pretty sure Republicans don't want to heal anything.  They benefit more from disunion, blaming, fearmongering, racism, and all the rest.  Their lies get broadcast all over right-wing media and the other media feel compelled to pick it up and keep covering it too, far beyond what any particular person’s or group’s actions deserve. 

It is even better if white Republicans/conservatives can show Black people and other people of color protesting because it fits the Republican mantra that only they care about this nation, only they love this country and are patriotic.  Those protesters aren’t really Americans, so protesters’ honest concerns can easily be dismissed as irrelevant and destructive.  Abuse by police, poorly resourced education, limited political representation, voter suppression, inadequate housing availability, etc., are not real problems. 

The Democratic Party needs to do better in messaging.  The party must show that Dems actually do care about working people and always have, perhaps not as much lately as they should, but far more than Republicans have in decades.  Republicans don't want workers of color to have unions or hold out for higher wages, living wages because it is easier to control people when they are suffering, in massive debt, and desperate.  White supremacy informs white people that others don’t deserve anything through the voting booth or on the job.  We learn that the vote must be kept “pure” from a Texas legislator, code for “white.”  Republicans don’t even cringe anymore when clearly racist statements are made and racist bills proposed.  It’s just another day at the office for them. 

Republican defense of such statements and proposed laws  are that these are really to protect the votes of Black and other voters.  They have created elaborate lies, explanations for their “base” to show their immense altruism, not racism.  Of course it’s racism, but for white people who don’t want to believe they and their party are racist, the deception works.

Congress, without any Republican support threw a monetary lifeline to Americans trying to survive the pandemic physically and economically.  Republican governors and legislators noticed that people aren’t rushing back to the low-paying jobs as businesses start to reopen and demand their return.  Instead of looking at why people aren’t returning in droves, Republican governors and legislators have decided it’s because the financial assistance is too much so people don’t want to work.  They are forcing people back into those crappy jobs by cutting support funding.  People must be forced back to work even if the wages are insufficient to cover expenses, let alone child care.  White privilege tells these governors and legislators (Mississippi being one), that people don't want to work and would rather be on the dole.  More lies, but their white privilege keeps the lies coming and feeds their supporters’ anger at those people.  It also feeds the politicians’ desire for more prestige among scared white voters.  Gotta MAKE those lazy people work for the  companies that will bring the economy back, mostly rich, white men who won't pay workers a living wage.  Yep, that’s racism.  Poor white workers are caught up in this too which is where classism and racism intersect.

Republicans are so busy defending election lies, bad-mouthing the 1619 Project (which tries to honestly look at American racism), and dismissing any curricula that propose teaching about race in America that they don’t see just how racist their words and actions are.  I suspect they feel that if they keep the smoke screen up, their followers will continue to console themselves that they aren’t racist while they support a political party that promotes all kinds of racist actions, the most critical now, voter suppression specifically targeted at Black voters, claiming they are not racist, you know. 

The racism is clear to everyone who takes time to notice and consider the impact of the new laws in Florida and Georgia, for example.  It would be a mistake to think that initiating more than 360 bills in 47 states to restrict voting, all by Republican legislators is not racist.  Of course, it is racist and was intended to limit participation in elections by people of color in particular and non-Republicans in general.  I just heard a journalist claim Republicans are suggesting these laws because of their focus on voter integrity and security.  That is another Big Lie, their smoke and mirrors explanation for their racist acts, but none of it is true.  There is so little voter fraud in the many cases Republicans brought to challenge the 2020 election, they couldn’t produce any instances. 

The voter suppression push is about keeping non-white groups from gaining power.  If we care about diversity and our democracy, we need to stand up to this encroachment on our rights and democratic values. 

Republicans corralled by Mitch McConnell in the Senate have declared they will vote for nothing that will  help standardize voting or insure the right to vote to all citizens.  Republicans will continue to lean on jerrymandering, voter suppression laws, and challenges to election results to maintain power they don’t deserve and keep the lies and racism coming.  They can’t even support one of their own, an anti-almost everything that would help people kind of Republican, but who speaks the truth about the 2020 election.  Liz Cheyney was ousted from her nothing job today.  All the media just had to over-cover it even though it is as Republican as things get.  When a party thrives on lies, truth can’t survive even in the mouth of someone who parrots every other regressive idea recent Republicans have championed. 

Be prepared.  Republicans have nothing positive to offer.  They have no ideas,  lies rule, and their racism is on display everywhere and is pretty potent. 

Don’t lose heart, though because Republicans are the minority even if they don’t think so.  Democrats will need to use their current majority position to make essential changes.  It will be really bad if Dems blow this opportunity.  Manchin and Sinema, you had better get on board.  If you don’t, Republicans will serve you up for lunch and laugh through the entire meal, while they somehow make you look racist.  That’s how Republicans operate these days in their efforts to take our democracy down. 

WHITE PRIVILEGE

 by Ruth A. Sheets

This past week, National Public Radio (NPR) presented interviews with white and Black voters separately.  I noticed some interesting differences between those interviews. 

The white interviewees were to a person, Trump supporters. They claimed “promises made, promises kept.”  I hear that line often, but no interviewer I have heard has asked them to clarify which promises made and kept.  In fact, there is no depth of questions or follow-ups at all, as if these people are children who cannot find depth in what they are thinking.  The interviewers allowed the interviewees to spout Trump phrases like “it is the Democrats who are causing all the violence, the Democrats are against the police, it’s Trump who really cares about us.”  The latter is possibly true, but even that is not supported with much evidence.  Where is the follow-up like “What gave you the idea that it is Democrats who are responsible for the violence, which Democrats would you say are against the police and how do you know, what makes you think Mr. Trump supports you?”  One of the interviewed said how she likes Trump even though her farm is suffering from the trade problems.  Trump is going to make it better, she added.

The interview with the Black persons was really quite different.  That may be because they were not monolithically attached to a particular candidate.  The man interviewed, hinted he might support a third party candidate, but not which one.  These interviewees were asked their response to what is going on and what the upcoming elections could do for the Black community.  They were encouraged to explain and clarify.  Their answers were not blaming, but looking for answers themselves.  The women said they would vote for Biden-Harris with reservations and described those reservations.  Their concerns were about the protests and that they demand and end to the systemic racism in the nation.  The interview was a bit uncomfortable for me as a White person who feels somewhat helpless in the face of their honest critique.  My discomfort with the all-White interview was the lack of depth and the unsupported loyalty to a known racist while blaming the victims for their opposition to the racism.

 The difference here shows part of the divide we as Americans face.  White Americans interviewed by journalists have rarely been expected to defend their thinking or actions, particularly if they had some prominence.  For generations, what White men wanted or said, especially if they had money and power, even in a small sphere, was gospel.  No one asked the white murderers of the African-Americans whom they lynched, why they did it.  Actually, they were rarely even charged.  All kinds of excuses were made up if it was even suggested these White men had committed crimes.  We know the lines, they were protecting their women.  They were securing their way of life.  Those N****rs deserved it; they were getting too uppity.  Those White folks never had to look deeper at their own fear that maybe they were not the be-all-to-end-all they wanted everyone to believe they were.  Keeping others down could make them feel bigger, smarter if they even thought about it at all. 

 This approach to White life has not disappeared over time.  The current White emperor is now in the white house.  He has surrounded himself with like-minded white men and a few women so they can keep up each other’s courage and share new ways to discriminate while calling it something else.  He sprinkled a few Black persons like Ben Carson into positions for which they are completely unqualified so he can point to them – look at the great things I have done for Black people.  “There is no president who has done more for Black people than me.”  His White supporters smile because now they know they are off the hook and are not racist at all, their leader said so.  Donald Trump isn’t racist either.  Those Democrats should stop saying he is.

The uncertainty and lack of trust expressed by the NPR Black interviewees is real and comes from a history of betrayal, exclusion, abuse, and dismissal.  Those in positions of power whose responsibility it is and was to protect  and serve the American people  have decided over time that Black Americans (as well as other people of color) are not worthy of that protection and service.

 White Americans have the privilege of actually blaming Black people without evidence.  We can claim things that are untrue because that’s how it has always been done.  Even White people with few resources or little education are heard with more weight than Black Americans at any income or education level.  White people in power will not acknowledge this because they honestly believe, again, without evidence, that they are the ones experiencing the racism by those Black “rioters,” those Black “troublemakers.”   It has been said that to those who have privilege, equality seems like oppression, and a lot of White people are feeling oppressed right now as people point out their privilege. 

 It is time journalists who choose to interview members of a privileged group in whatever setting go against trend and dig deeper, even if it means introducing or reintroducing the interviewee to an uncomfortable concept.  White people, in general, do not appreciate our privilege.  It comes to us at birth and we breathe it in with the air.  We see it in so many places we hardly notice except when we think we have been cheated in some way, not gotten our due.  White Americans have learned to find someone to blame for any exclusion:  not getting into the college we want, not making the deal we should have made, not winning the contest we should have won, and most of all, not getting the job we applied for.  When the person who got it is Black, we are privileged to be furious and to proclaim it to the heights.  Does anyone ever ask us “Why do you think you should have that rather than the person who now has it?  Not likely!  We commiserate and cry “token” or “affirmative action.”  And, we feel furious, then, resentful because we lost to someone we have been taught to consider inferior.

 To emphasize  Donald trump’s ignorance of his own white privilege, on September 5, 2020, he ordered that no Federal agency can use government money to pay for trainings that address white privilege, or anything that deals with race at all.  That is the cry of a scared White guy (SWG) who is afraid to face the fact that everything he has, came to him because of white privilege.  He would never have been able to get the loans he got for his properties.  He would never have been a public media figure.  His name would never have been worth money on the international market, and he would never have been elected president had he not been white.  That is really scary.  Donald Trump has few skills but lots of family money he could throw around to get whatever he wanted, particularly unwarranted media notice.  Now his power gives him that access. 

 Mr. Trump did not find out about these sensitivity trainings on his own because it is certain he never participated in one himself.  He was clearly informed by a Scared White Guy (SWG) who was “forced” to take the course.  He, possibly she was offended that anyone would even imply that he/she didn’t get where they are now totally on their own personal merit, but that whiteness most likely played a part, probably a pretty significant part.

 Black Americans know what they have been through.  They know about “the talk.”  They know about the looks they get in stores and the rejections they receive that are clearly based on race.  Houses and apartments have been denied them due to their race.  They have been the victims of people crossing to the other side of the street to avoid passing too close.  They have felt the pain of being considered inferior and informed they only got the job, the assignment, the place in college, etc. because of affirmative action.  And, they know their White colleagues resent them for it and regularly show it.

 It is we White people who don’t know.  We can read about the 400 years of physical and social bondage, the fear of but need  for the police, the prisons stuffed with Black husbands, sons, and brothers.  But, we cannot feel what that constant fear and rejection does to a person.  We can say “Black Lives Matter,” but we often feel the push of “all lives matter.”  Donald Trump and his base don’t want to be called racists, but generally do what racists do.  They believe white is better than all even though science tells us all that skin color determines nothing but skin color and the slight tendency to a few diseases.

 So, White people, we need to unite in listening to Black people, to believing their accounts of life among White people, in working to change our own attitudes and beliefs to move from our cultural racism.  We must take and support those training classes that expose white privilege and cause us to look at White privilege head on.  We need to take White off as the default setting for our lives.  We may not have created the white privilege society we live in, but we are certainly benefiting from it, yes, even the poor White folks among us. 

 It is time we work with Black Americans to move us all toward equality and fairness. White Americans are obsessed with the “pledge of Allegiance” but many of us forget the final words “liberty and justice for all,” not just White conservative Americans

 White privilege is real and impacts every person in this nation.  The task is to acknowledge it in all its forms, then note and face our fear and uncertainty, then stand up with Black Americans and shout to the heavens, “Black Lives Matter, and we are going to prove it by encouraging Black people to lead us all into a future where there will be no privilege because we will have lived up to our Truth that all of us are created equal and endowed by our creator with the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  OK, fellow White Americans, take a deep breath, I know we are scared, but we can do this.  Remember, this is “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”