Mind What you Say?
Billboards spread throughout the cantons of the country. The radio broadcasts information 24/7. Cable television and video streaming services offer multimedia messaging. They are flooding us with one political ad to remind us of the November 2022 mid-term elections. Meanwhile, social media platforms are expanding, supplementing, or confusing political messages with the noise of misinformation. In less than a month, Americans under oppressive voter suppression in many states will vote by mail or person to elect government representatives.
Why is Owning a Gun more important than Voting?
This mid-term election is a battle for the soul of America, and democracy is at stake. I would argue that over the past 20 years, this battle has been much more than right-wing extremist talk. The fear and anger of the GOP, of the right disguised as "Karens," fascist and authoritarian partisans underlie "KKK" and "White Nationalists" outside and within the GOP. I shudder to think about how this mid-term election will affect the future of our country. Last week, in October, Senator Tommy Tuberville was performing at a Trump gathering, giving the crowd what they wanted and likely needed. The group enjoyed their rage heard, and the senator was required to pay a debt for the former president stumbling for him on his senatorial campaign. So, from one rally to the other, what will a racist diatribe for another racist hurt? I can see the rolling of my eyes and hear the perforated sigh. If I may, the honorable senator called all blacks criminals. It is, therefore, necessary to denounce the lie and the racist statements.
Meanwhile, the former college football coach, once a stalwart in the vaunted football Southeast Conference (SEC) home to the perennial college football champions Alabama Crimson Tide, fed the Trump supporters at the political rally the racial raw meat which they delightfully devoured. Sen Tuberville, believing all black people to be criminals, had no problem as a coach recruiting young black athletes into his college programs. Are we surprised that the GOP senator from Alabama, living in Santa Rosa, Florida (no state tax) before diving into republican politics, harbored racist feelings? Then why would black athletes play for him or coach for him? Simple truth - the same reason his ancestors before him used dark people to do their chores for them. In addition, racism is not a universal remedy. Racism isn't even unisex.
Perhaps Senator Tuberville is a lovely white man playing dirty politics. Still, the GOP regularly trots congressional representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG) as their conservative racial overseer to lash out and remind others of who is superior. MTG used its favorite mega-phone, Twitter, to support the infamous conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. A court and jury convicted Alex Jones of defamation in the Sandy Hook Primary School massacre. MTG said, "No matter what you think of Alex Jones, "all he did was speak words." Please remember those words. Their right-wing punctuators punctuated the headlines of the GOP, suggesting that "freedom of expression could be undermined?". That is seriously interesting since many like MTG showed some disdain and venom towards "Black Lives Matter" and Fox News Tucker Carlson embracing Ye's (Kanye West) "White Lives Matter" T-shirt debut at Paris Fashion Show even after Ye's antisemitic comments. What did MTG say about "… words"?
We cannot allow people to continue to whitewash their racist redefinition agenda. I will not let the GOP escape their "family values" and their advocates of "freedom of expression." Pssst, they have hypocrisy in their slogans. I'll have a lot more to offer on the subject in another upcoming blog post. (Hint - Herschel Walker). The extreme elements on the right and Christian nationalists would like to insulate themselves from any consequences for being racist and using racist words in attacks to normalize its use to the point of removing the former abhorrent shame, view, and feeling that comes with racism and antisemitism. But wait! Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) is Black! Yes, he's black and an American minority, which brings me to the city council in Los Angeles, California. Los Angeles county caught a Latin city councilwoman on tape disparaging, racist comments against another member and family. The councilor has since resigned from her position. Thus, the incidence of racist language is vile and ill in all its forms. But, when your country's government leaders in the GOP (Ron Johnson, MTG, John Cornyn, Paul Gosar, Mo Brooks, Donald Trump) weaponized racist language and used racism to fuel a plan of division that is an entirely different level. In one regard, racist language causes hurt by demeaning a person, such as a white customer hurling a raging racist rant against employees in a store or picking any of the many MTG antisemitism rants.
Most GOP racists don’t believe they are racists or even understand what the fuss is all about because it doesn’t actually touch them really or that racism even exists. So, lack of empathy certainly plays a role, but it’s not an excuse. Most minorities see racism in a different light! For example, a black person with a white friend doesn’t get invited to a family birthday party or picnic because the other white family members don’t understand. But, it's all good, really – why? John Lewis, Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, and many others show us that leaders are born to fight the good fight and never give up. However, given the prevailing civil and racial tension and the fomented division within our country, racial mudslinging is merely the sharp tip of the deep, dark, cold iceberg of racial hatred like Isaac Asimov's "violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." Perhaps racism is the last hammer to nail black people to the proverbial white Christian cross. Or was that Jesus? Then again, it's just words – right?
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