I am so tired of America demanding I not believe that which is front of my own eyes.
I’ve written about this before, about the gaslighting of America, but my god, it’s coming at us from the fucking left, too.
Let’s talk about those Covington boys. Let’s talk about the sneering video and then the counter interpretation and then the counter interpretation to the counter interpretation. Whatever.
I don’t want to recount the details in excruciating detail because it doesn’t matter. IT DOES NOT MATTER. Yes, I understand some Black Hebrew Israelites were slinging terrible slurs at the #MAGA teens.
And that’s wrong. Yes. Excellent. Thank you.
I also understand that this has no material effect on what happened there, other than to give Trumpers and white middle-of-the-roaders everything they need to frame those boys as victims and uphold the white patriarchy they embody.
We all saw that teenager’s sneer. We all know that grin, because it’s not new. Those assholes aren’t new. I know them. You know them. We all went to school with them. We encounter them daily still.
That is the shit-eating grin of white supremacy.
At this point you have to be downright delusional to argue that Trump supporters are anything other than:
- Outright racists; or
- Accepting of racists as long as it brings them something they want.
And the line between those two is thin as hell.
Okay, so we see a group of Trump-supporting youth sent to march for “life” (hahaha) or, in more accurate language, against women’s reproductive rights, and then we see them chanting and blocking and sneering at brown people, and moderates are like let us not jump to any conclusions.
Motherfucker the conclusion has already been jumped. IT JUMPED TO ITSELF. The conclusions were jumped at the appearance of the red #MAGA hats.
At this point, it is unequivocally true that wearing a Trump hat is screaming into the world: “I AM AT THE VERY LEAST COOL WITH RACISM.”
So get the hell out of here with “Let’s not jump to conclusions.” Those are tiny misogynistic racists acting like tiny misogynistic racists who will become big misogynistic racists just like their parents, Brett Kavanaugh.
Yes, both parents are Brett Kavanaugh.
The willingness of people to show up for these boys. To minimize their racism. Why? Because people were mean to the boys?
Is the entire context of this situation – namely, boys screaming I AM A BIGOT AND LOATHE WOMEN’S BODILY AUTONOMY – erased because they were called names?
Once again, we bring knives to a gun fight. We are so fucking quick to let them mostly off the hook. We are so quick to see them as victims and declare that we just shouldn’t “ruin their lives!”
These are Hitler youth and we’re worried about their futures.
We are staring into the face of fascism and saying “Let’s just hear out both sides.” We are staring at babies in cages demanding the officers have a chance to explain. We are Donald Trump saying surely there are some “very fine” Nazis. We are getting angry that Antifa broke ATM machines during a white nationalist rally. We are yelling at #BlackLivesMatter protesters for shutting down our freeways.
These boys did not happen in a vacuum. They cannot be separated from the social situation surrounding them.
And those hats, those boys, hold all of it. All of that context.
They are pussy-grabbing.
They are “Why is the term ‘white supremacist’ a bad thing?”
They are “brown people are dangerous.”
They are babies in cages.
They are “laziness is a trait in blacks.” – Trump, 1999
They are “shithole countries.”
They are remove access to birth control but also abortion but also you need to sleep with your husband at all times.
They are “that rapist has such a promising future ahead of him.”
They are the endless lies streaming out of Trump’s mouth.
They are the deconstruction of the free press.
They are the government shutdown and government officials calling it a “free vacation.”
They are the trans military ban.
They are the shit-eating grins of white supremacy, and we saw it with our own fucking eyes, and instead of recognizing this, people are concerned about the boys’ feelings, with making sure we aren’t mean to them, that we get them every benefit of the doubt, that we protect their fragile little selves.
They made clear where they stand when they put those fucking hats on. Why are we so hesitant to make clear where WE stand?
They’re over there screaming “I hate brown people!” and moderates are like, “Oh, honey. Were those black people mean to you? I get it, sweet boy who looks like my son, you were overwhelmed. It was complicated.”
Oh, you were praying for your safety around those mean black men? TOTALLY GET IT NOW, JOSH.
You think the Trump-sycophant GOP is telling everyone not to jump to any conclusions about brown people? About women who say, “I have been raped?” (It’s a very dangerous time for men, you see.) You think they’re extending grace and decency to the children ripped out of their mothers’ arms at the border? Are they respecting Americans while they feed us endless lies to further their nationalistic, authoritarian agenda?
I’m not saying “They did it to us so let’s do it to them.” What I’m saying is that we need to stop playing nice while these motherfuckers are happy to let us die, to kill us, to decimate democracy, to remove my daughter’s rights over her own body.
Fuck the expectation that I allow these assholes a way out from themselves because some PR firm wrote an adorable letter stating his shit-eating grin was actually the face of a humbly praying, scared young man.
I am tired of not calling this what it is: Racists acting like racists, gleefully.
We will gaslight the hell out of people to protect white patriarchy. All we have to do is flip the narrative to turn the white man into the victim and boom! Miracles happen! Now #MAGA smirk guy is all over TV, adored across the land.
No more unearned “grace and courtesy.”
I have an idea: If you want grace and courtesy, stop supporting a neo-fascist who refers to human beings as “vermin.”
If you want grace and courtesy, speak out against what your party has become. Speak out against this racism.
Sure, not every Trump supporter is an overt white supremacist, but every overt white supremacist – KKK, neo-nazis, white nationalists, proud boys – is a Trump supporter.
Mere coincidence?
Nah, it’s because that is the party, the platform, Trump himself, and a person wearing that hat is loudly declaring they are just fine belonging to the party of Nazis.
I don’t care that they’re teenagers. They are the face of the next wave of everything disgusting about our country, and we’re over here worried about paving the way for them to succeed. Actions have consequences, and all these boys learned, as well as all the boys watching them on TV, is that they can be race-based bullies and not a goddamn thing will happen to them.
In fact, they will be coddled and celebrated.
Can we please for the love of god stop being so fucking “polite,” stop playing by the rules in the name of some faux wokeness we’ve invented for ourselves? Can we recognize the part of ourselves that defends white patriarchy? Can we face our own lingering investment in white supremacy and the benefits it affords us?
We need to fucking stand for something, just like they do.
All of this middle-of-the-road false equivalence delicate flower bullshit is partly what got us into this mess. The GOP is a flaming pile of dog shit, but they sure as hell own that pile, don’t they? They have built an entire platform on bigotry but goddamn that message is clear, ain’t it?
The Trump GOP stands for evil but by god it STANDS FOR IT.
Can we do that? Can we be absolutely unwavering in our fight against Trump and everything he stands for?
We aren’t being deep over here in the gray area. We aren’t being a “bigger person.”
Change comes through those willing to stand on the right side of history even if it makes them uncomfortable, and they do it every time.
They believe that which sneers before their very eyes.
****
Hey, hi. I wrote a book, and the paperback comes out May 7, with new content in the back.
