There are two Americas.
In one America, Jacob Blake can try to avoid an escalation, and try to walk to his vehicle, with four policemen pointing guns at him. He can be grabbed by the police officer and shot seven times. He can be paralyzed. He can have it blamed on him that he didn’t “comply”. He can be met with deadly force because maybe he had a knife somewhere in his car and presented an imminent threat.
In the other America, Kyle Rittenberg can cross state lines with an illegally owned AK-45. He will be greeted warmly by police while visibly armed. He can murder two people in cold blood and injure a third person. Then he can calmly walk past the police. He’ll be taken into police custody peacefully. No deadly force needed.
This is America as black people understand it. It’s never been any different. From slavery to Jim Crow to the Civil Rights movement until now, black lives have been expendable. Our every action can be met with bullets from police officers, and white people will try to cobble together a vision of America in which all black people have to do is comply with the law and they won’t be brutally murdered by police officers.
Tell that to Philando Castile, who, in the middle of a routine police stop, was shot and killed in front of his girlfriend and his daughter for lawfully informing the officer that he did have a legally registered weapon in the car.
I’ma just be blunt and straight to the point on this one. I don’t know which America the endless parade of coons (dearest Karen and Chet; never use the word “coon”) lining up to lick Donald Trump’s asshole at the Republican National Convention think they live in, but regardless of what they think, it is almost assuredly the first one.
The Republican National Convention has been marked by an endless parade of conservative black men with bad shape-ups trying to convince black men that they should give Donald Trump a chance. They bring up Biden’s (admittedly infuriating) gaffes while talking up a President who can’t bring himself to say “black lives matter”. They talk about Joe Biden’s role in 1994 Crime Bill, which did lead to thousands of black men going to jail, but only after Republicans repeatedly attacked it as too soft.
They say Democrats take black votes for granted, which, again, does have an air of truth to it, if you ignore the fact that up until *checks notes* Monday, Republicans have all but abandoned any hope of swaying black voters to vote for them. They say Joe Biden said that if you vote for Trump “you ain’t black”, which was stupid and endlessly tiring, but Biden ain’t the one trying to actively dismantle the means by which most black people feel they can vote safely and securely. Democrats aren’t the ones closing polling stations, instituting laws that disproportionately affect black people, and threatening to send armed federal agents to watch polling stations. Democrats didn’t spend years trying to kill the Civil Rights Act, prodding it in the ribs until it found a nice place to stab it and start disenfranchising black folks again.
Kentucky attorney general Daniel Cameron had the nerve, the fucking unmitigated gall to say Breonna Taylor’s name while actively declining to pursue any action against the officers who murdered Taylor — an EMT, a “blue life” if there ever was one — in cold blood, in her own fucking apartment, with a no knock warrant for a suspect that had already been arrested somewhere else. How dare he go on TV and use her death as the reason why black men shouldn’t vote for Joe Biden?
All these knuckleheads are saying the same shit. That black people aren’t a monolith. They speak about being “unchained” while cozying up to massa. They speak of freedom while trying to get promoted to Head House Negro. They’re vying for acceptance from a party that is yelling, practically fucking screaming that they will back police brutality over common decency every single time. They’re trying to sell to black men the idea that joining a party that has for years insisted that diversity and inclusion are things to be mocked and derided and cast aside is the correct move because, um, err… *checks notes* “black people are not a monolith”.
White acceptance is intoxicating. Take it from a black dude who spent far too much time letting white friends talk to me about how I was “one of the good ones” or “wasn’t black enough”, and how thoroughly and completely that shaped my view of the world. You can get blinded by white folks giving you credit for speaking well, or for not thinking like “those other black people”.
Black Republican men and women convince themselves that dismantling systemic racism and oppression shouldn’t be the goal. Accepting it as a reality should be the goal. Bathing in it, being molded by it. Allowing it to happen. Accepting a society in which white people staring down their noses at black people and think we’re not good enough is all gravy. Don’t resist, comply! Eventually, maybe they’ll sort of kinda maybe almost treat us like human beings.
But is living in a world where Daniel Cameron can get pulled over tonight and be dead tomorrow because the police officer thought maybe he had a knife on the passenger seat of the car one where Cameron really wants to live?
Because that ain’t the one I want to live in.
If Daniel Cameron and Tim Scott want to exist in the Sunken Place, that’s on them. They’ve been forced to hide their blackness and capitulate to white men for too long to be saved.
But any black man considering voting for Trump (or more likely, not voting at all, which is what the goal of all these black people showing up and talking about how awful Biden is seems to actually be) need only look to Kenosha, Wisconsin. They need only watch police officers stand by idly while a murderer with a weapon calmly walks past them while people protesting police brutality lay dead in the streets. They need only watch armed and dangerous white men be taken peacefully into custody while the black bodies continue to pile up in the disinfecting light of Trump’s presidency.
They don’t care about you. They will never care about you. They not only don’t think your life matters, they will go on TV and tell you, loudly and proudly, that your life doesn’t matter.
I’m not saying Joe Biden is the best. I’m not saying he doesn’t say stupid shit all the fucking time, because he does. But, even given the most cynical reading of how Biden feels, he’s at least great at pretending to be empathetic towards our plight. We can not and will not get anywhere propping up tin pot, wannabe dictators like Trump and the white supremacists he surrounds himself with.
And we can’t be swayed by bad faith actors, and black men who are trying to convince other black men that the path to prosperity for our community is accepting that we can be killed dead at any time for any reason by the police are definitely bad actors.
The America we live in is one giant plantation. Most black people are still in the field, trying to make a living, trying to survive one more day without angering some white man and ending up dead or in jail. I’d ask how men like Tim Scott and Daniel Cameron can sleep at night knowing that we black people can be shot and killed at a moment’s notice, and the cops will be exonerated and the armed vigilantes praised as heroes.
But I already know the answer. The view from the house on the plantation looks mighty fine. They may not be free, but they have more “freedom” than the rest of us.
And that’s really all they give a damn about.
This. VERY well put, @KC Complains A Lot.
Thank you kindly.
As always – very excellent post.
Every time I see a clip or an article about black Trump supporters, I wonder what he could possibly be offering them to gain their support? Setting aside all the black lives lost (and to be clear, we should NOT set that aside, other than rhetorically) — what could Trump give black supporters that would outweigh the fact that Trump would never let them move in next door? He’s NEVER going to consider them equals, no matter what they do or say.
I can kind of grasp poor white people supporting Trump because he feeds their need to feel “special.” But I can’t see any benefit to Trump support for a black person.
There’s like a 2,000-word post as response to this, but a) there are black fascists, too (cough cops cough) b) internalized racism, they really believe it’s “personal responsibility” for black folks — specifically poor black folks — and not systemic racism ’cause that’s what they’ve been told their whole lives c) some people are just contrarians or don’t know or care d) being a willing token has a million drawbacks but can certainly pay off (I feel confident in saying I would not know who Diamond or Silk were sans right-wing media) e) it’s not like white liberals would let them move next door either without a fight and Trump promised change (note that this half-flew in 2016 but now these people are generally in category a or b) f) what KC said regarding the view from the house and g) they like his style, just like plenty of white folks he’s also hurting, though less violently.
There are more shades, of course, but I feel like that covers the gamut.
I mean…
Let’s be real; there are plenty of black people who would be Republicans because of a whole host of social issues but just can’t get over the racism of the party. Every black person knows an old head who insists that guys like Trump aren’t bad guys. They don’t like immigrants coming in and taking “their jobs”, and they don’t feeling like everyone else’s issues get pushed to the forefront while they have to take a seat and wait. And a lot of them feel like they’ve been lied to by Democrats who make grand promises during elections and then don’t give a shit about them when it comes time to design policy. For those people, the thing that keeps them from wholeheartedly jumping into bed with the Republicans is the blatant racism.
But it’s easier to cross that line than white liberals would think. Especially when you’re exposed to the right (or wrong) white conservatives. Tim Scott mentioned that he was mentored by the owner of a Chick-Fil-A franchise, and I can see how a young, dirt poor black kid with a single mom would gravitate towards a white man “showing him the light”. And then, friends and family start making you to be a stupid asshole for touting Republican talking points, and that can be alienating and make your gravitate even more towards that point of view.
I think a lot of black Republicans enjoy the idea that they know something that the rest of us don’t. They see that the only barrier between us and equality is letting white people get away with racism until eventually some day down the line until we get. After all, they don’t get treated badly by all white people, so why would anyone else? If you just conform, white people will afford all the opportunities they have to black people.
The reality is that they’re getting .000000001% more power than the rest of us, and they’re drunk off it. The more they succeed in spite of systemic racism, the more they’re convinced that racism is merely an illusion of the mind. The truth is that they’re only receiving that power so white people can point at them as model minorities and say “see, if you just acted like Tim and Daniel, maybe you wouldn’t get shot by the police!”.
Ignorance is bliss, and there’s a lot of ignorant mofos like Tim Scott and Daniel Cameron out there.
It’s a denial/delusion. I’ve seen it in myself and among my own relatives.
I joke about myself that I’m a banana (yellow on the outside, white on the inside.) However, I also learned that the brain dead racists of the world ONLY see me as an Asian only despite whatever upbringing I might have had and they don’t fucking care about whatever is on the inside of me either.
I’m on the side that sees me as a human being not as some token or totem.
Might want to change “death” to “shooting.”
The fact that everyone just glazed right past that is kind of damning in and of itself, isn’t it?
Well written, of course. Being white I can’t really speak to the motivations and feelings of someone who tries to get promoted to head House slave, as you say, but I do think back to growing up and how the Black kids I was friends with or had shared interests or actitvities with were always “the good ones.” I’m sure I played a role in that because I vividly remember those kinds of conversations. I wonder how it made those kids feel. My current adult Black friends would likely tell me those kids never really viewed me as a friend, and probably were never comfortable being themselves around me. And I mean, why would they be?
I grew up in SC and closely follow their politics; the thought of both Tim Scott AND Jaime Harrison (Lindsey Graham’s challenger) representing that state seems insane to me. Not only would SC of all places have two Black Senators, it would be the FIRST state to have two Black Senators. The reason I am thinking about it is that they could not be more different, and it would be mind-boggling to watch these two Black men from SC navigate the same waters together using such glaringly different strategies. How well would they work together? I’ve followed Harrison a long time and he’s pretty progressive but has that vibe that he knows how to code switch when he has to. They have somewhat similar backgrounds, too, at least superficially – moved around a lot, grew up very poor but had adultst (Scott’s mother, Harrison’s grandparents) who busted their asses to make sure their boys had a better life. They both tell this similar story about themselves as a way to communicate that they understand what it means to overcome odds and work hard. Yet they landed in completely different places, and would represent the state from such opposing angles. I can’t help but wonder if that would change the political landscape there, and if having a partner of sorts might make Tim Scott more willing to stick his neck out for Black people as most likely the lone Black Republican left in all of Congress after Will Hurd retires. Or would Scott be there solely to sabotage Harrison? Just been thinking about what it means to be Tim Scott if Jaime Harrison becomes your junior Senator.