This isn’t what I want to be thinking about, but this week I read an article in the blog aggregator Medium that gave me some insight into Trump voters that I was longing for. The line that really caught my attention is this:
“… It turns out that millions of white people have been desperately wanting an excuse to do the equivalent of holding a pride march and chanting “I’m here, I’m white, get over it.”
… they wanted to do the equivalent of the obscene in-your-face chalk messages and radical performance art that the left pioneered in the 1960s.”
The author, Jack Luna, calls it a “White coming out party.” Suddenly the whole thing makes sense. Of course they want that. Everybody wants to be proud of their identity, and that’s been hard for white people ever since the Civil War. Even more since the Civil Rights Movement. I feel for them about that. My family is those people. Some anyway. What makes me most sad is that what we were hiding from all those years – that made us feel our culture wasn’t interesting – was our racism. We didn’t know the way to really celebrate our own culture is to give up oppressing anybody else’s culture.
The article is here, if you’d like to read it. Caveat: If you lean toward Trump support you may not like it.
https://medium.com/@everythinghereistrue/the-only-way-to-understand-white-trump-voters-6122ed88f4d2
The article is well written and thoughtful, and an extremely appealing feature is that it attracted a rich thread of comments that reflect opinions from a variety of viewpoints that never quite descended into vituperation. Well, some did kind of veer toward nasty. But mostly the Trump supporters expressed themselves reasonably well. Even if you don’t agree with them, it’s an interesting example.
The thesis of the article ponders how the left connects with Trump supporters. Or not. He does it with amazing insight, in my humble opinion. All of us who recognize the importance of anti-racism are now grappling with the complex problem of learning how white people can support Black people while we all grapple with the very things Trump supporters are clinging to. It must be hard for Black folks to have otherwise sympathetic whites trying to “make nice” to the enemy. It can be hurtful.
And on the other side are the Trump supporters. There’s a guy in here who sure reminds me of my dad. The one in the blue cap.
Jack Luna doesn’t provide an answer. He is opening up a conversation to ponder the problem though. It’s a pandora’s box that progressives need to consider as we hear conservatives cocking their AK 47s in fear that liberals and minorities are coming for them. Any de-escalating that can happen needs to include wise address of this very topic. In fact, many of us are having this conversation every day, as you well know, and this is a good backgrounder for it.
My response to the article before I read any of the replies is below. I’d really like to hear from Black Lives Matter people and folks trying to talk to their Trump supporting family and friends. What do you think about Luna’s article? And how do you manage the conversations?
My response to “The Only Way to Understand White Trump Voters” – Sept 17, 2020
I really like this piece and agree that Democrats and left-leaning people have been dis-ing these folks for generations. These are the people who seem to us to be the unworthy ones. The unworthy from the right are the poor and “different” — minorities and immigrants. The unworthy from the left are the uneducated and uninformed — the “hicks” and “hillbillies”. Of course they’re going to distrust “ivory tower professors” and scientists, who are telling them they’re dumb.
It appears to me that dismissal of these folks is part of an embedded authoritarianism the left still carries with it. We’re not aiming our conscious disdain at skin color. We cast our side eye at lack of education…
The absence of holy education is a serious issue. Education transforms the way the human mind works, and the options we have in the world. That’s not to dis education. But it’s a sacred cow assumption that needs to be considered fairly. An uneducated person is still very human and probably perfectly capable in their own way. We’ve forgotten that. It’s part of the very issue addressed here that we’re stumbling blindly over and imagining it’s the fault of the uneducated white voter that they hate us…
I wonder if there are any other Trump supporters who have been a part of Omni? I am a Trump supporter. I. may or may not read the article.
Nobody else has told me about it Patricia. If there are any responses I’ll let you know if you want.
I support Trump and I participated in OMNI events regularly as far back as 2009. I actively participate in a Re-Evaluation Counseling group that was connected to OMNI and placed special emphasis on anti-racism. I also went to Ferguson and a whole string of cities across the US that were experiencing protests as a reaction to officer-involved shootings in order to learn about this problem firsthand from the people who live in those communities. The progressives are wrong about a lot. They’re complicit in problems they claim to be victims of. Their perception of Trump supporters is a projection of things that are true about themselves. I meditate and pray for things to get better instead of worse.
Sorry Adam. I misinterpreted who that post was from. But the message is the same….
Thanks for replying Adam. Both right and left are really afraid of each other right now. It also looks like both sides are saying the same things about the other. That’s interesting.
It does feel like the cooler heads and deeper hearts on both sides need to start talking. Do you know other thoughtful folks who’d be willing to hold a conversation? I’m glad to know the re-evaluation counseling work is beneficial for you. I took classes for several years and really appreciate it.