America has a new found fascination with the white working class. I’m so over it.
A friend posted a thought piece about how the Liberal Media has been overlooking and basically shitting on white men and they’re (white men) so mad about it that they are shitting themselves.
It’s middle child syndrome played out on a National scale. You’re not listening to me? Watch me put salt into the sugar bowl, spit on my little sister while you’re not looking and, oh yeah, elect a man who will drive the country into a ditch, then jump out and light the bitch on fire.
People want us to take a moment and listen to what they are saying. Hold their hands. Look into their eyes, and listen…
I’ve already heard it.
Well, to be fair, I’m a Black man, so I’ve only heard what they feel about me and not the world in general. Here’s the trajectory of every conversation that I’ve had with one of these sensitive-ass Americans.
Sensitive-American: Police brutality affects all of us.
Me: You’re right. It does, so…(I was going to say, why not support BLM, or form an ALM movement that actually does something.)
Sensitive-American: I mean, more white men were killed by police than Black men…
Me: Yeah, but Black people only make up 12 percent of the population and Whites make up 63 percent, but anyway, why not… (still time to suggest solidarity in the fight against police brutality)…
Sensitive-American: BLM is as bad as the KKK
Me: What? The KKK terrorized and killed thousands of…
Sensitive-American: What about Chicago?
Me: Wait. I live in Atlanta. You live in Montana. Why are we talking about Chicago?
Sensitive-American: Obama made racism a thing again.
Sensitive-American: …at least they aren’t rioting…
Me (being petty): Nah, you’ll riot over a pumpkin festival or a pedophile losing his job at Penn State. You know, classy riots.
Sensitive-American: Here’s how we cure racism. By not talking about it. You’re being divisive. You should be more like MLK….
And…end scene!
Here’s the thing. People are talking about how they are disinfranchised and all I can think of is how Black and Brown people have been disinfranchised in this country for generations, and they were willing participants.
Ever since the Bacon Rebellion in 1676, when poor Whites and poor Blacks rose up and told the one percent, “What you’re not gonna do is…” Whites have had the pleasure of saying to themselves, “At least we’re not niggers,” and they’ve relished it.
Before the rebellion, poor Whites and poor Blacks were all in roughly the same shitty boat. Afterwards, poor Blacks went from being indentured servants to slaves, and poor Whites were given a social obligation of keeping them niggers in check.
It was a collosol okey-doke. Joe the Plumber’s ancestors were given the equivelent of a made up manager’s position; no pay raise, no benefits and only one responsibility. Keep you eye on that guy. And they bought it.
They loved it so hard that they tracked that guy down everytime he left the plantation. They strung that guy up every time it looked like he was getting uppity. Every time that guy talked about his treatment in this country they celebrated the dogs and fire hoses that were used to shut them up. Even now, they call the cops on that guy, get mad at that guy for not standing up for the National Anthem, and in general, shove their fingers in their ears everytime that guy says anything they don’t want to hear.
Now the Nation want’s to know how a monster like Trump could be within restraining order distance of the White House? Easy. He tapped into that promise made following the Bacon Rebellion. He pledged to make them feel more special and more important than anyone had in a long time. Show them that they were better than that guy…whether that guy was Blacks, Muslims, smug non-Christians or trans people who need to use the bathroom. There is always another that guy.
It isn’t baffling or magical. It’s also not shocking unless you slept through the Tea Party and have never seen photos of the crowd following a lynching. This is greasy pimp-game 101.
Am I missing something? I’ve read about three think pieces about Trump voters. Three pieces asking me to look at it from their side. Like Jim Gaffigan, they asked us to listen to them. Talk to them. Nowhere did I see this caveat: If you’re white.
If these pieces were designed to get smug city-dwellers to stop treating their country cousins like assholes, I’m all for it. Yawl need to talk.
But I’m not him. I’m that guy. Most Trump supporters think that I am too savage to have an opinion. They think I live on a single street in Chicago, along with every other Black guy, and dodge bullets on my way to the welfare office before I go buy another pair of Jordans.
Trump folk have been conditioned since before this country was a country, to find comfort in the fact that they occupy a higher place on the totem pole than I do. That was exoploited by Trump, but he didn’t invent it and he wasn’t the first person to play it. Echoes of the same idea reverberate through both the Republican and Democratic parties. Yawl didn’t think I noticed?
And after Trump is gone, that idea will stick around like a bad smell. So yeah, yawl need to talk. While you’re at it, check yourself.