This meme goes kinda deep.
The truck in the left image, decked out in Drumpf paraphernalia and American flags, represents hate and nationalism to those of who do not support the messages of Drumpf or his administration. The truck on the right represents the same thing, but hidden.
They’ve always been here, and they’re not going anywhere. They’ll just be harder to spot now. Hateful folks are in your gyms and churches and book groups and workplaces and families. They’re going back into the woodwork.
There are pros and cons to this social phenomenon of in/out of the woodwork, one that we witnessed vividly when the 2016 election resulted in an unprecedented rise in hate crimes, race-based murders, and race- or religion-based bullying in kids and adults alike.
The pro of maintaining a society where bigots feel like they need to hide their bigotry because it’s not endorsed by people in power, or by a perceived majority, is that there are less hate crimes and violence due to the fear of being caught or ostracized. This is how we create safe space and reduce strife as social beings: you set a social standard, and you create adherence to the standard by praising those who meet it, and shaming and eschewing those who don’t. Bright lights on a street reduce theft and vandalism because anyone can see what you’re doing and stop you. The lights push people who can’t play nice into the shadows.
The con of maintaining a society where bigots hide their bigotry is that they will find each other in the shadows, and be emboldened out of sight. They’re not gone. They’re out there, together. Together they will be empowered imagining that they are persecuted/victimized by having their bigotry shunned. It doesn’t matter that they themselves create victims in others and themselves; what matters is they have the passion and anger incited by imagining that they are the ones being unfairly excluded from society “just for being who they are”.
Thinking of the kid who shot up the Parkland school: He was a bully who made girls uncomfortable and scared his classmates. He was reported to the FBI multiple times over the years for making violent threats well before the shooting. So, the other kids rightfully ostracized him to keep their social circles safe. In the shooter’s mind, he then became a misunderstood victim of society; and he carried out a horrific plan to de-victimize himself, fueled by the rage and isolation of that perception. That’s what hate does when rightfully pushed to the fringe.
That’s the downside to ousting monsters from the social circle; it reduces hate crimes and creates less victims while creating safe spaces for all, but it doesn’t nullify the threat. And it strengthens everyone in the shadows as they find warped inspiration in their rejection.
We need to keep pushing them out, and away, and keep setting the precedent that hate is not okay. But we need to do more; we need to shine light into the shadows. People aren’t born full of hate. It’s taught.
And it’s not just taught by parents. It’s taught in schools, in textbooks, in film and media, and exemplified by our social and political leaders.
And it’s NOT taught in overt racism or obvious statements of hate. It’s mostly covert. It’s taught through the glorification of capitalism (you’re only not happy because you’re not buying), the generational maintenance of oligarchy (keep it in the family), and the normalization of plutocracy (we forgive billionaires all transgressions and deify them as celebrities, because ‘they earned it’).
It’s the indoctrination of nationalism, the belief that America is the greatest country in the world who has done no wrong; the denial of our own history and the re-shaping of all figures of American history as heroes rather than humans. It’s in the ethnocentrism of our schools and textbooks.
It’s taught through the “pull yourself up the bootstraps” and “anyone can live out the American dream” mentality that we’re taught to relentlessly seek, even though the vast majority of people who “achieve” the American dream are white men who inherited it from dad. The small percentage of women and people of color who manage to make the right connections, who devote their lives to breaking all odds to climb to “the top”, are then held up as examples of what we could all do if we just tried hard enough.
The irony of the individualism of America is that we don’t respect individuals at all. We expect every individual to take care of themselves and pursue success as if we all had access to the same care and resources, as if we all come from safe families and addiction-free homes and supportive schools. But we don’t. Most of us don’t. Lack of “success” — or even just lack of personal health — is then perceived as a personal failing in the individualistic mindset. The truth is that it’s a societal failing of the people, and it is built this way.
As folks have been saying as we awaken to “the broken system” of our justice and legal structures: it’s NOT broken. It’s working the way it was built to work. Not for us, but for the ones at the top. Not for many, but for a few.
Take some relief from the retreat, breathe joy from the hope for safer spaces. And know that this is a vital turning point, a chance for us to gather resources and attack the roots.
There’s so much work to be done.
“At this point in time, there are two visions of America that are at war with another. And these two visions of social change are entirely incompatible. They cannot co-exist.”
-Anti-racism advocate Tim Wise:
Deconstructing the bootstrap myth with Antonio Valdés:
Deconstructing racism with Baratunde Thurston:
Deconstructing pandemic-ing while white with Tim Wise and Roland Martin:
Writing into the Sunset 