Silence is violence

September 14, 2017

The news media has been obsessed this week with Hillary Clinton’s new book, “What Happened.”  Half of those commenting decry her for having the temerity to write it at all, stating that she should retreat to the Chappaqua woods.  Others carp that Hillary fails to accord sufficient weight to her own mistakes as a candidate.  That particular criticism is rich coming from a press corps that defensively denies the role its own imbalanced coverage played in Trump’s victory.  As the Shorenstein Center Report detailed, coverage of Hilary Clinton during the 2016 election cycle was light on policy and overwhelmingly negative (62% negative vs. 38% positive).  While Trump’s coverage was also more negative than positive (56%/44%), given the seriousness of the genuine scandals in which Trump was embroiled, his higher positives simply make no sense.  (Source:  “News Coverage of the 2016 General Election:  How the Press Failed the Voters,” by Thomas E. Patterson, Bradlee Professor of Government and The Press, Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at The Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, 12/7/16).

Despite the fact that we now know that the shadowy Russian Internet Research Agency posted damaging stories about Clinton on Facebook in key jurisdictions during the election; despite the fact that we now know that Russian bots organized anti-immigrant rallies on Facebook Events during the campaign; and despite the fact that we now know that strict voter i.d. laws may have disenfranchised as many as 200,000 Black voters in Wisconsin (a state that Trump won by 22,000 votes); too many people still cling to the narrative that Hillary’s mistakes were the principal cause of her defeat. They demand that she stop talking.

This is of a piece with efforts to silence the voices of women and people of color who call out misogyny and racism from the administration.  Just this week, ESPN sportscaster Jemele Hill, tweeted that Trump was a white supremacist who surrounded himself with other white supremacists.  ESPN clarified that Hill’s opinions were her own and apologized.   We could be forgiven for asking where was the lie in her tweets.  As if to confirm the veracity of Jemele Hill’s statement, The White House has called for her to be fired AND refused to say that Trump will sign a Congressional resolution condemning white supremacy. 

This is hardly surprising.  Every action and utterance of this administration is shot through with, racism, sexism or both.  The Trump administration has nominated 42 people for U.S. Attorney, but only one woman (Source: CNN Politics, 9/12/17).  This is a slap in the face to women, who have constituted close to 50% of law school graduates for two decades.  In addition, this week, John Lott testified before the “Election Integrity Commission” and recommended background checks for voters.  This, from a party that won’t agree to background checks for gun purchases.   The commission is nothing less than a naked attempt to codify the disenfranchisement of Black and Latino people. It is clear beyond cavil that this administration in particular and Republicans in general, crave power at any cost and are intent on silencing those with whom they disagree.  They want the freedom to harm us with impunity and want those of us who dare to speak out silenced and punished.  So folks need to be careful about who they tell to sit down and shut up, because if they succeed with us, you might be next.

#Whathappened

#JemeleHill