Racism is not pro-life.
I want to conclude my discussion of some of the Lies That led US Here by directly addressing one of the most stupid points the “anti-cultural Marxism” folks have made about opposition to Trumpism. They love to claim they aren’t racist just because they voted for Trump. I want to propose that they are lacking in self-awareness and blatantly wrong.
Here’s why:
When Donald Trump used weasel words to pretend he wasn’t being racist by going after the Central Park innocents, it didn’t change the fact he ruined lives. When he has gone after Black Lives Matter, who have advocated for the kind of protections that would stop the young men being arrested and talked into a crime they didn’t commit, he has shown his hand.
Racism, like abuse, is hard to pin down, but it can be seen in who agrees with you most of all. When David Duke is praising you, you should disavow him. Trump lied about knowing who David Duke is, possibly because he liked the praise.
Racism, as borne out in the actions of police in Louisville, Kentucky and Minneapolis, Minnesota, is endemic in American systems. This isn’t hard, for those of us who have lived elsewhere in the world, to see. Yet, Trump’s focus is law and order for poor people, but not for his supportive criminal friends. Certainly, there is more going on there than racism alone. But it is interesting who he respects and who he calls a "son of a bitch."
The most blatant sign of Trump’s racism is the normalizing of murderous white terrorists, who marched through Charlottesville, Virginia, angered because they wanted to keep Confederate statues. Heather Heyer was murdered by one of these angry insurrectionists, but the president did nothing to rebuke white supremacy. Instead, he called white terrorists, “very fine people,” along with average Americans who did not deserve this abuse.
Praising the Confederacy, valuing that history without any shame or mourning over its cruelty and evil, is brazenly racist. And yet, Christians in America still argued that Trump was “not racist.” It was clear what he was when he refused to condemn David Duke. Sin is a disgrace.
We need to get to a place of real talk in America: racism is as racism does. Claiming the president cannot be an American because his dad is Kenyan, is particularly racist. The current president launched a smear campaign to discredit the previous president, which made it very clear that president was not welcome in the current president’s view. Such questions were never asked about the other presidents, who were all white.
The xenophobia of this president has racist roots: calling African or other poor countries, “shitholes” is purposefully racist, as is treating the children of refugees and poor South Americans like dirt, separating them from their families and enabling a climate where online commentators would blame their parents as irresponsible, for bringing them here, for a better life. The cruelty of that gas-lighting abuse, is unbelievable.
What Trump did was create the freedom to say all the cruel things these people were always thinking, and it is ugly. Telling people to “go home” when they’ve had to flee home, is unbelievable evil. The phrase, “the cruelty is the point,” has been popularized during these times, to suggest that the Trump administration does things on purpose to be cruel.
The cruelty has no point, as I see it.
The Trumpism we’ve got does things and says things because it can, no matter who gets hurt. This level of racism, goes past hate, to indifference.
Hate cannot be reasoned with, but at least you can walk away. The indifference of this kind of racism, to the sufferings of others, is like having a knife twisted in your side. Not only can you not reason with it, it makes no sense and these people do not care who is harmed, who dies, or how bad things get, as long as they are on top. It’s narcissistic abuse with a large helping of callous disdain for those it considers itself to be better than.
When Black Lives Matter as a movement began to raise awareness of systemic racism, to our shame a lot of white Christians either didn’t listen or didn’t think the issue was as bad as they said. We looked at their website and didn’t agree with all the solutions, so we ignored the movement, although we moderately sympathized. We didn’t care because it didn’t affect us.
Then George Floyd was murdered, and we saw the life being drained from a man on camera, and we realized this was what Black Lives Matter had been saying all along. We looked back at other lives lost and realized we are racist, because it didn’t matter to us until it affected us. It had to invade our lives for us to care. And so we said, “Black Lives Matter,” regardless of the stigma, because that’s what a pro-life ethic is all about, right?
And this president tear gassed peaceful protesters for a photo op and his administration, not just his supporters, smeared protestors as the rioters and looters who set the church on fire, never mind he had church members tear gassed, to get them out of the way.
We had seen armed white people protesting staying home during a pandemic facing no such repercussions. We have now seen protestors charged with a felony for demanding justice of a black woman murdered in her bed.
But they still say Trump’s supporters aren’t racist. They still claim you didn’t have to justify his racism to vote for him.
They are wrong. You had to overlook outrageous abuse to vote for that man. America supported white supremacy by electing that man. Just because you don’t like being called racist doesn’t mean you are innocent of it. Christians don't have the right to claim we are being persecuted or, God forbid, "canceled," if we are held accountable for our racism.
Racism is not pro-life; racism is death for those dehumanized by it. It is the destruction of lives.
One of the most appalling parts of seeing Trump elected is knowing that Christians voted for him because his abuse and racism wasn’t a serious enough sin in their eyes to vote for someone else or to abstain from supporting evil.
God help US.
Kommentare