December 13, 2019
Something in us is broken. We have long known that Trump has weaponized whiteness, inciting Americans to cling to their fading sense of superiority and defend it with violence, if necessary. It is a source of political power for him. He has trained those chasing the chimera of white supremacy to disdain democracy and ignore his corrupt criminality. What we haven’t realized is what it has done to the rest of us.
By targeting every marginalized group and relentlessly demonizing us, he has put the nation on edge. We have transformed from a country that at least gave lip service to celebrating our differences, to one where any deviation from the artificial norm of a straight, Christian, white man, is cause for suspicion and revulsion.
Those of us who inhabit even one disfavored identity, be it Black or Jewish or Queer, have grown wary and weary. We view our fellow citizens with distrust, waiting to be attacked in the middle of a quotidian task or targeted and killed while praying.
Living with the heightened adrenaline of constant vigilance can warp us in ways we do not realize. We internalize the drumbeat of division and regard each other warily, thinking that, “perhaps these people are all anti-Semitic,” or “perhaps these people are racist.” Acting on fears we never verbalize, we shun the “other.” Consumed by mistrust, we deny them the same thing that Trump denies us— their individuality and essential humanity.
It is easier, of course, to retreat to stereotypes, to react to a perceived threat by treating groups of people as a monolith, to preserve a false and fragile sense of safety by othering our allies. Yet that way lies destruction. We are more than our lizard brains, doomed to toggle back and forth between aggression and fear.
The beautiful mess that is America has always contained multitudes. The paradox of our legacy is that the same Founding Fathers who exalted democracy and individual liberty, forged a nation through subjugation and genocide. We can’t cherry pick our history, but we can choose what part of our legacy lives on.
We can win if we can remember that what unites us really is stronger than what divides us. We can defeat the ascendant forces of hatred, but only if we remember who we are.
#Epluribusunum
“Weaponized whiteness.“ I can’t get it out of my head.
Beautiful post Lisa. I have been thinking a lot about the same things you wrote on, but could never verbalize it even remotely as eloquent lol. Thank you for putting words to how many of us feel.