After the Presidential election, we all sat riveted to the television, watching the numbers come in determining who would be the United States president. While we voted on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, it was not until Saturday, November 7, 2020, that the official call was made that former Vice President Joe Biden was The 46th President-Elect of the United States of America. I immediately let out a yell and a deep sigh of relief!
I ran outside among the fall leaves and yelled, “It’s a good day to be in America!” Finally, the nightmarish presidency of Donald Trump was coming to an end! Daily, I woke up wondering what fresh new hell Trump had cooked up for America. I always wondered what would be the latest racist tweet and dog whistle to his base? What new policy would be enacted to make the lives of Black people a living hell? What new legislation would reinforce our knowledge that America did not want any country to give us their tired, poor, and huddled masses yearning to breathe free. In fact, this was now a country where Black people were dying, saying, “I can’t breathe,” and the President defended the very people that had their feet on our necks. Trump worked tirelessly to embolden racists, and when a nation was screaming for justice, he called for law and order, supporting the military mobilizing against innocent people across the country.
As a Black woman in America, I understand this nation was built on racism; however, dealing with Trump and his Cult 45 every single day was taxing. Finally, Trump’s reign of terror was coming to an end, and for a brief moment, I allowed my soul to rejoice. A very brief moment. Because elections don’t change racism.
I faced the reality that while Joe Biden won the election, Donald Trump received over 72 million votes. President-Elect Biden received over 77 million votes (Trump:72,098.741 Biden:77,244,544). According to the Washington Post, “More Americans voted in the 2020 election than in any other in more than 100 years. Nearly 65 percent of the voting-eligible population cast a ballot — a figure that will increase as more votes are tabulated.” While Joe Biden emerged victoriously, the real winner of the 2020 Presidential Election is racism. Millions of people voted for a man that has been openly divisive, hateful, and racist. Over 70 million people disregarded Trump’s failure to warn and lead this nation during the coronavirus, which led to over 200,000 Americans’ deaths and still voted for him. Over 70 million people overlooked Trump’s desire to repeal Affordable Healthcare during a pandemic. Over 70 million people disregarded the fact that hundreds of children were separated from their parents, and Trump’s administration has no plan to reunite them. The list is endless of Trump’s desire to divide and bring down this nation, and still, over 70 million people voted for him. They overlooked everything to vote for a racist. That is the power of racism. Racists will disregard blatant wrongs, even wrongs committed against them if that means Trump will remain in power.
Trump has unleashed something in this nation that resonates with many people. In 2016 many people feigned ignorance regarding Trump and his racism. However, they have experienced the same four years many of us have. There is no more assuming that they did not know. They know. While I understand that exit polls are not comprehensive or exact, they do paint enough of a clear picture for us to understand voters’ landscape. Overwhelmingly White people (57%) supported a racist up from 54% in 2016. All the conversations we had about “the 53%” in 2016 was all for naught as this year, 55% of White women voted for Trump. White people voted in THEIR interests, and clearly, their interest is in upholding and supporting racism.
To be sure, these White people are not 70 million Ku Klux Klan members. They are not 70 million people decked out in preppy gear walking downtown streets with tiki torches. They are not 70 million people with shaved heads and swastika tattoos. That is the idea that many people need to get out of their heads. These are everyday people that you would see anywhere. They are your teachers, doctors, judges, lawyers, police officers. They are your neighbors, best friends, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, aunts, and uncles. They are your waiters, the loan officer, your mail carrier. They are everywhere. We cannot see them, but they are there living and walking among us.
I remember back in the 80’s watching a movie called They Live, a science-fiction, horror film based on the 1963 short story “Eight O’Clock in the Morning” by Ray Nelson, starring Roddy Piper, who plays a character named Nada. Nada discovers through wearing a unique pair of sunglasses that the ruling class are aliens concealing their appearance and manipulating people to spend money, breed, and accept the status quo with subliminal messages in mass media. The glasses also reveal that many people are actually aliens with skull-like faces.
What Black people need in America are those sunglasses like in They Live. I wish I could put on the unique sunglasses and see who voted for Donald Trump. Who smiles in my face, all while calling me the n-word behind my back. I wish I could put on those sunglasses and see who is denying me a home loan because I am Black, who is refusing to hire me because I am a Black woman. I wish I could wear those sunglasses and see which doctor will overlook my symptoms because I am Black. I wish I could see who is secretly calling 911 on Black people for existing. Sadly those sunglasses do not exist.
They Live was a science fiction horror movie. However, what Black people are experiencing right now in this world is real. We do not know who the 70 million people are but know they exist. They walk among us. They live. And while many believe our nightmare ended with the election of Joe Biden, we know the horror of racism is merely continuing for many of us.
Categories: Current Events, Politics, Race Relations
Hannah, you done SAID the thing, and it’s what everyone is contemplating write–I mean, right–now.
I cannot understand why you are celebrating. You want more immigrants and yet, it is a known fact that American descendants of slavery have had to train their immigrant replacement and go home, jobless. In fact, 60 Minutes did a segment about that and I blogged about it. Ask Robert Harrison if he is celebrating. But I think I know the answer to that. He’s not, because he had to train his replacement from India, was given a severance package that amounted to nothing and was told that he no longer had a job. And yeah, he was a Black man who had a family to take care of. I guess they are sitting up in a homeless shelter right about now.
And tell me, who was president when Eric Garner was caught on tape exclaiming, “I can’t breathe?” Was it Trump? I’ll give you a clue, dude had a permanent tan. Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, Philando Castile, Tamir Rice, and Akai Gurley are just a small sampling of black people who died during President Obama’s watch and what did he do about rampant, out-of-control racist cops murdering Black people? Obviously nothing since you’re speaking of George Floyd, talking about how he couldn’t breathe under the knee of Derek Chauvin. But Obama gets a free pass?
Not to mention, white supremacists were doing what they’ve always been doing even under Obama’s watch and I guess you’ve forgotten about this: avowed white supremacist, Dylann Roof massacred nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, during a prayer service in 2015. That was also on Obama’s watch and what did he do about that? Why he attended one of the victim’s funeral and sang a song penned by a known flaming slave trader by the name of John Newton. The song he screeched out was “Amazing Grace.” Remember that? Over Reverend Pinkney’s dead body?
And why does Biden illicit cheers and tears of joy when millions of American descendants of slavery are still sitting up in prisons thanks to Biden railing for hours on the senate floor stating that Black children were predators who needed to be locked up and thanks to the Clinton/Biden 1994 crime bill, that is exactly what happened. Kamala Harris called herself, “Top Cop” when she was the top prosecutor in California and locked up broke Black mothers for their child’s truancy and laughed about it. Was against the legalization of weed, but is now for it. Seriously? She locked so many Black men up for misdemeanor drug crimes, it should have been a shame and then sent them out to fight wildfires when they had no formal training and many died. But that’s all kosher now, I suppose.
So, it’s time to get out the balloons, confetti and believe that Biden/Harris are going to be what Trump was not. Not one Black person in America was under any delusions BEFORE Trump about racist whites and that those racist whites are not just the ones who march through the streets in sheets and hoods, but are in fact our doctors, lawyers, judges, bankers, CEOS of every single corporation and the list is endless. This did not just become problematic during the Trump Administration. Racism defines America; always has and always will. However, there is not a thing to celebrate and you should know this.
I think I was clear that racism is America.
What you made clear was that you celebrated the fact that America is only exchanging one racist for another. To me, that is nothing to celebrate.
Okay. Thank you for reading.
Ok, are you saying that all Trump supporters are pretty much all the same? No they aren’t.
Not all of them stormed the Capitol. Not all of them believe the election was stolen. Some of them are like us. Normal people. Some of them could literally be your friends cause they don’t even care about politics OR shove their political beliefs down your throat.
Basically, some of them are normal
Btw, Biden isn’t much better than Trump imo
Once again you are stuck in the “not all”. Free your mind. Read the not all blog and the 10 steps to facing racism. You are stuck at not all.