2016 Postmortem

I have mentioned before that I have black family members. I have hispanic family members. I have LGBT family members. I have disabled family members. My family just spent the last week doing everything we could to provide the best possible Christmas we could for the young children of an immigrant mother who got stuck out of the country. When they lost their power we were desperately trying to get it back on for them, cooking their meals, doing their laundry.

I didn't even know any of these relatives were going to vote for Trump because, like many here, I made the mistake of viewing things through my own personal perception. But I am a political junkie who follows this stuff year round. We are NOT normal in that regard. Most people only pay attention at the very end of the race. Trump attracted a lot of people to rallies because of the Apprentice. Many of those people don't pay close attention to politics or understand what kind of a danger Trump is. He was famous, politically incorrect, and tapped into their frustration and anger.

If you really want to put a dent in racism and institutional bias that exists in society then throwing around the accusation of calling someone a racist so casually has GOT to stop. When I see or hear racism I call that shit out immediately and have my entire life. I CARE about the issue a great deal. I've seen my own relatives be the target of hate speech. I find racists to be the most disgusting and ugly people on the planet. Guess what...someone here basically called me a racist for "defending Trump voters." Talk about an unfair punch in the gut. I've spent my over 50 years doing ALL I can to fight social injustice yet someone who doesn't even goddamned know me at all can just say something like that so casually about another person they don't know and a whole bunch of other people agree with them. Do you think if that happened enough times to someone who is NOT a racist that they might eventually get jaded and angry? Do you think they might stop caring about the cause?

Tossing around such an ugly accusation so callously is not only hurtful to the many innocent people being slandered but also hurtful to the cause of fighting racism. Every time an innocent person is alienated that is one less person who will fight for your cause.