Cover Your Bases #13
September 6, 2020 #Lucky13. Stop Trump
This week: A reflection on something personal and reflective. Like our President’s move towards a dictatorship, or how white privilege means all white women are Karens right now.
First, an important post: I'm pissed off, and frankly scared, about America right now, by Jamie Sampson. (This post by my brilliant great-nephew (is that even thing, still?) is a must-read:
We’re all in a tough spot. It seems like we have different goals for what we want for our country, and in recent years it’s been incredibly hard to even talk about them together, let alone resolve them.
But if we’re ever going to come to a place where talking about this is even possible (and that’s a big “IF”), I want you to do something for me. I want you to stop pretending.
What does that mean, to “stop pretending”? Well, lots of things.
Stop pretending that you want democracy. The party you support does everything possible to limit voting by people in the other party, and especially minorities. The right to vote is enshrined in the constitution and is basic. You know there’s no real voter fraud. You know that voting by mail is safe. You just don’t want the other party to vote, because you’ll lose.
Stop pretending that the “American people” actually want this version of America. They don’t. You’ve won one popular vote in the last 30 years. The American people are moving on without you, and you know it. If you thought people supported you, you’d try to teach your message and get actual support for actual policies. But you don’t, because the only message you have is “own the libs,” and that doesn’t resonate outside your insulated bubble.
On that, stop pretending that we’re the ones in the bubble. You want to stop progress, keep America white, and think that science and education are somehow “elite”, and things to be shunned. You’re in the bubble, and you’re afraid of everything outside of it. You know this. We know this. So stop pretending that’s not the case, ok?
Stop pretending that your ideology isn’t driven by fear. I get it. 40 years ago you could dick around in high school, and still get a decent job in a trade that had a union, and that union made sure you had health care, retirement, and job protection. But that’s not around anymore (don’t blame us! We support unions.). So if you’re going to succeed in life, you have to study, you have to work hard, and you need a college education. And that scares you. What if you fail? What if you’re not good enough? Guess what?! We all go through that. You’ve just been told for so long that you’re somehow entitled to things without working for them. The jig’s up! Suck it up and open a book. We know you’re scared of what it means to learn things as if you’ll have to re-think everything you’ve been taught, and maybe even admit you’ve been wrong. It’s ok to admit that. It’s what grown-ups do.
Stop pretending that you care about your fellow Americans. Oh, I’m sure you care lots about “America”, or at least your ideal version. But America has citizens called Americans. Do you know who else are and were citizens? Colin Kaepernick. George Floyd. Trayvon Martin. Jacob Blake. People who live in Chicago. Democrats. Scientists. Teachers. Everyone here that doesn’t support Trump is also an American citizen. We are all in this country. As far as I can tell, you’d prefer to not have us around. You know what we want? We want everyone to have health care. We want everyone to earn a living wage and have social security as a backup for retirement. Why? Not because of some Marxist liberal conspiracy. It’s because we give a shit about other humans. Start giving a shit about your fellow citizens, or stop pretending that you do and using the cloak of “America” to hide it.
Stop pretending that you vote for Trump because of “economic” reasons. Remember 2016, when there was a Republican primary with God knows how many candidates? You could have voted for any of them for economic reasons. But you didn’t. You voted for the one that said Mexicans are rapists and wanted to build a wall to keep them out. And the one that wanted a ban on Muslims entering the country. And now you're going to vote for the guy that thinks Nazis can be fine people. Own that shit. You want him because you’re racist too, and we know it. So stop pretending you’re not, ok?
Stop pretending that Trump isn’t owned by Russia. You are A-OK with this because it gets you whatever version of America you seem to want. Just admit that he turns a blind eye to Russians paying bounties to kill American troops. Admit that he REALLY wanted their help in the 2016 election and that the Mueller report lays that out pretty clearly, and the recent Senate Intel report lays it out even more clearly. You know that he’s in bed with them, and you know you’re fine with it. So let’s be on the level and why don’t you just admit that?
How about you stop pretending that Trump isn’t an extremely shitty human being? Do you really think all those women who’ve accused him of rape are lying? No, you don’t. Do you honestly think that he just managed to have a few pictures taken with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, and that's it? No, you don't. You heard him openly talk about grabbing women by the pussy. You see the way he treats women when they challenge him. You know he paid Stormy Daniels however much to be quiet about their affair. How many others do you think there are? How many abortions do you think he’s paid for? He’s a wretched human. You know it, I know it. Everyone knows it. Start admitting that you prefer a wretched human to lead our country; one that lies, cheats, and steals at every turn to get what he wants. You prefer this guy, because anyone else might care about ALL Americans, and you’re threatened by that.
Stop pretending that bigotry and hate are valid points of discussion as if we should listen to your argument about why parents and children should be separated at the border. You know that’s bullshit. You know that no child, EVER, should be taken from their parents and put in a detention camp because their parents simply wanted a better life for them. You’re hiding behind some sort of “well they should know the consequences” argument. That’s crap and you know it. Not only am I not going to justify your point with a conversation about it, but you should be prepared for me to completely dismiss you as a decent human. If you’re going to be a shitty person that advocates for doing shitty things to innocent people, you don’t deserve a conversation. You deserve to be “canceled”.
And last, stop pretending you aren’t pawns in this. You know damn well that Trump doesn’t give a shit about you. You’re just willing to let it happen so you can try to cling to whatever fictional “white” America you think used to exist. Admit that you’re willing to give up your health care, your job security, your social security, your education, your environment, and, for lots of you, your relationships with your family members just so you can cling to the hope that you don’t need to confront what America in 2020 is like; that you don’t need to learn about other cultures, and you don’t need to accept that non-white people are going to be the majority here pretty soon. The entire world is watching you get used by Trump, and they’d be laughing at you if it weren’t so scary and threatening. You should be embarrassed, but I suppose that’s expecting too much of you.
Listen... We know that you know you’re full of shit and that all you want is your “way of life”, and to get it by whatever means possible. But stop pretending you actually care about anyone but yourselves. You’re not fooling anyone.
More: Every white woman is a Karen
On Sept 2nd, Jessica Krug became the latest white woman to be exposed for impersonating Black and Afro-Latinx people and cultures for personal gain. Krug, a white Jewish woman from St Louis, outed herself in a Medium post because Latinx scholars were about to out her and her deceptions. Watching the video of her Bourican New York “minstrel” show, as one former student described it, in front of the New York City Council, was enough to make my head blow off. OMFG.
Michael Harriott, in his spot-on essay A White Woman Admits She's Been Rachel Dolezal-ing Us for Years—and I Feel Fine in The Root, names her cultural theft, writing: “White women were aiding and abetting the strongarm plundering of Black America for more years than I have fingers to count.” He calls out Krug’s white-centered privilege, saying she is “apparently unaware of how her white womanhood may have given her the inherent confidence needed to flimflam the whole world.”
Read more from authors of color about their views of Krug, and her place within white supremacist hierarchies.
The Daily Beast, Jessica Krug Is Just Another Culture-Appropriating White Supremacist, by M Yvonne Taylor. “Colorism helped Krug advance through academe, gaining legitimacy and success that would likely have eluded an actual Black woman.”
Remezcla, Jessica (Krug) Is the All-Too-Familiar ‘Latina’ Karen, By Ecleen Luzmila Caraballo
“All in all, Latina or not, Jessica Krug is an all-too-familiar example of a toxic Karen.”
Medium, Lisa Betty, Jessica Krug’s Medium Post is Not An Apology, “White people commonly, within in the context of the media in particular (for example, the white-male-lone-wolf-mass-shooter as an archetype), use mental health crises as reasoning for racist, anti-black, and targeted acts of violence.”
Bitchmedia: Dolezal 2.0, The Audacity of Cosplaying as Black, by Evette Dionne, “Everything about Krug’s behavior—from her defensiveness and the calculated theft of opportunities from actual Black scholars to her inherent feeling of superiority—screams of whiteness.”
You made it this far, so here is one more thing: one last happier thing
New York Times: Guisado on Sunset: Missed connections This is a charming short piece by the brilliant Terence Nance. Watch and smile. Also, Nance on radical self-care:
Hey—Thanks for reading #13. #14 will hit next Sunday. What would you like me to share?
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Susan