Thread by @dEMMAcratic

Trump suddenly condemns “all types of racism and acts of violence.” Yet he still hasn’t condemned the Charlottesville nazis a year later.

Maybe he doesn’t understand what “racism” is. Sad! But America is better than he is. Let’s talk about why racism matters.

🇺🇸Thread🇺🇸

Oppression is about power: a group with more resources uses those resources to control a group with fewer resources. Often it’s the majority holding down those who are different. The balance cannot shift without a shift in resources, so we don’t give them a shot at the resources.

Sometimes advantage comes from an arbitrary characteristic like skin color. Whereas there is no such biological concept as “race,” we assign it social meaning to classify people. We see some groups have fewer resources, and we implicitly or explicitly assume their inferiority.

Let’s look at those assumptions. People who don’t have as much money/as good a job/as nice a car, etc. as we do are dumber? Weaker? Lazier? Slower? Taking advantage? Not here on their own merit? Dirtier? More likely to be addicts? Sicker? Morally bankrupt? Less loved by God??

What’s more, people are neither oblivious nor immune to others’ assumptions of their inferiority. They react, some by suppressing, others by internalizing, still others by resisting. Internalized oppression, especially, is a festering lesion feeding off America’s darkest spirit.

And hatred is born. Hatred of that which is “other.” Hatred of “those people.” Hatred of our own fear of losing our advantage to someone we have been taught is inferior to us. And fierce, fierce protection of “what’s ours.” We don’t want to share. After all, resources are finite.

You may have heard you’re privileged. That doesn’t mean you didn’t earn your way, so stop that thought train now. It means that, for at least some steps along the way, you succeeded because you had some resource that someone else did not. It was hard, but you were resourceful.

Resources can mean tangible goods (like money or medication to help you function), people connections (like knowing a good lawyer or the PTA president), or the “right” skin color and clothes so you don’t get arrested or shot when pulled over for going 44 mph in a 35 mph zone.

You succeeded because someone believed in you. You worked your tail off because you COULD work your tail off. You weren’t working late shifts to put food on the table. You weren’t unfairly fired because a customer thought you got an attitude with her. You did it. But life helped.

Let’s look at this practically. Maybe the odds against you were 3-0. But for someone without your resources, they would be 5-0. You’ve come through a lot, but some people have it even harder than you do.

You run into a wall. Someone with fewer resources runs into 200 of them.

So, with oppression, you get stuff because of resources, so you oppress others to keep resources. But sometimes the dividing line or criterion is race. The effect of racism extends beyond resources. You’re hated because of who you are, not even because of what you have.

That hatred gets internalized by us (the haters) and them (the hated). We swallow it and insist we’re not racist, but we still have implicit biases we don’t even know are there. Society teaches us. And what’s worse, we pass it to our children just as we pass our DNA.

Come with me to an old record shop in Durham, NC. If you’re Black, odds are you’ve felt or seen people watching you in this store (or perhaps another). I really don’t notice it. I’m white. The experience of being differentially monitored is stressful. I don’t have that stress.

Over a lifetime, the stress of being discriminated against builds up. You learn to let it go, but you can never fully forget how much hatred is thrown at you. This effect is called weathering, and it changes your biology and can be passed through generations. Racism IS alive.

Over time, weathering wears down your body. This stress is linked to almost every health condition. It’s not good for your job, either.

You may not be racist. You had nothing to do with slavery. But if you are in the majority “race” (i.e., you’re white), you are a beneficiary.

In sum, of COURSE the tyrant in the White House doesn’t understand racism. He accepts no blame and sees no faults in himself.

So We, the People, will take up the cause for him. This is a deep and painful journey, and each of us has a lot to learn. But we’re better for it.

As we remember #HeatherHeyer, let’s be conscious of ways we propagate hate, implicitly and explicitly. Racist hate has deeply scarred our past, but it need not cloud our future. Let’s vow never again to allow hate to win because of our own lack of concern. Will you stand with me?