Month: April 2024

Almost daily, I’m tempted to throw up my hands and surrender this crazy fight to preserve the civil liberties of all Americans. Negative news reports, unhinged poll results, and ridiculous social media posts set my heart racing. I’m stressed and have to take frequent breaks to relax so I can regain my rational thought in order to respond prudently. I often posit that since most young people are too pre-occupied to pay attention to the wrecking ball coming for their freedoms, then perhaps I should just let it come. It would certainly be less stressful. But even if I respond on social media, Facebook and Instagram have minimized my political posts in accordance with their new community standards so that it feels like I’m shouting in an abandoned forest. And that’s frustrating!

The problem is that I care. I care about my children, nieces, nephews and grandchildren as well as my former students. I care about their ability to live their lives in accordance with who they are and what they value. I care about their ability to breathe clean air and drink clean water. I care that they have opportunities to thrive. I don’t want them to live their lives under religious tyranny, legalized discrimination, lack of affordable health care, or constant threat of violence or climate related natural disasters. So, I fight on even when I’m infuriated by their lack of attention and willingness to engage in their own protection beyond the task of voting. So, I push for at least that (voting) while simultaneously reminding MAGA lawmakers and their supporters that there are Americans who oppose their agenda. In my thinking, silence is a form of consent and pushing people to defend their position can have a moderating effect.

Fighting is hardest when you’re dealing with stubborn and uneducated people who have been led to believe a fictional version of American history and who have a distorted view of Christianity, our constitution, and humanity itself. It’s mentally taxing and takes a lot of time and emotional energy to listen to their unsubstantiated pronouncements, deeply flawed and even dangerous proposals, threats of violence, and incomprehensible defense of Trump as their persecuted “savior” who will right this sinking ship.

I’m thankful for the rising voices of Christians who are finally speaking up and proclaiming that what these MAGA are promoting is not in fact “Christianity” but a dangerous form of white nationalism that completely contradicts the teachings of Christ and gives Christianity itself a bad name. MAGA claim that this country was established by and for white Christian protestants and that the original constitution provided freedoms intended for them. However, they are willing to extend a measure of freedom to the rest of us. In other words, second class citizenship awaits women, people of color, and LGBTQ folks if they were to take power. The freedoms we enjoy today will be gone tomorrow and our lives will be subjected to their self-serving view of “Judeo-Christian” values and their unscientific view of humanity and the planet on which we reside. And because they believe climate change is a hoax, they will drill and thwart any efforts to address environmental issues in favor of cheap energy.

Given the current make-up of the Supreme Court, if Trump were to win this next election and if the GOP capture both the House and Senate, I predict several immediate outcomes: 1) All legal actions against Trump will end. 2) Trump will hand Ukraine over to Putin and encourage Israel to completely remove the Palestinians. 3) There will be mass deportations across the country, creating a shortage of workers to be replaced by prisoners as legalized slave labor, child labor and the impoverished elderly. 4) There will be a nationwide ban on abortions followed by an attempt to ban contraception, endangering the lives, life-prospects, and livelihoods of women. 5) There will be a gradual elimination of the safety net, forcing labor and stretching charities to the breaking point. 6) There will be a ban on gender reassignment surgery for everyone, increasing suicides. 7) There will be a ban on same sex marriage and public displays of homosexuality and transgender. 8) There will be widespread censorship of the media, entertainment, and an expanded ban on books. 9) The Department of Education will be eliminated along with reduced funding for public schools, and the Bible will be required as the main text for morality and science, enraging educators. 10) The guaranteed individual freedoms in the constitution will be suspended in the name of public safety and national security. 11) Environmental regulations will be relaxed in favor of corporate profits, causing more pollution. 12) Massive tax cuts for the wealthy will be passed, defunding government agencies into oblivion. 13) There will be an immigration bill that favors white protestant immigrants and bans Muslims, homosexuals, and others. 14) There will be an uptick in police brutality and arrests along with a substantial growth in the prison population (slave labor) which will grow to include political protestors, abortionists, the unhoused, homosexuals, transgender, rebellious professors and teachers, and the mentally ill. 15) There will be more tariffs imposed on goods coming from China, raising the prices on everything. And finally, 16) There will be actions taken to ensure that MAGA wins all future elections.

Of course, no one really knows what Trump will do because he doesn’t articulate policies beyond his desire to get revenge, deport and ban undesirable immigrants, remain in power with absolute immunity, and bask in the adoration of his followers. To these ends, I predict that he will do the bidding of the nefarious characters around him who have a clear vision for remaking America. I predict that they are going to need a lot of complicit able-bodied police, a lot of loaded guns, and a whole lot of new prisons to accomplish their vision because I also predict that the youth and pre-occupied adults who aren’t paying attention today, will be more than willing to fight then.

Lately, I’ve met the nicest people during my trips to the grocery store, the doctor’s office, the post office and to restaurants. People seem to be going out of their way to be kind, engaging, and helpful. Some don’t even work at the place; they’re just patrons like me. Workers and patrons alike are engaging in empathetic conversations with me about food, the weather and just life in general. I welcome the engagement. Sometimes, it starts with a simple, “How’s your day going?” On several occasions, someone has noticed me reaching for a product and asked what I was planning to do with it. Other times, it’s just a comment on a shared circumstance like a really long line. I’ve received a lot of compliments on my gray hair. My everyday lived experience out and about is nothing like what I’m seeing on the news or on social media. You’d think there was a “Karen” lurking around every corner to challenge your right to exist, or an undocumented criminal lying in wait to rob or assault you, or a non-binary person screaming at you for using the wrong pronoun, or some MAGA cult member itching to start a fight over politics. I’ve experienced none of this.

What I realize is that most people are decent. Like me, they simply want to live in a society where people treat others with dignity and respect and where they can simply go about their day peacefully with positive interactions sprinkled throughout. We are social beings who want to be accepted for our basic humanity, and I think that the pandemic really robbed us of the daily connections that helped keep us emotionally healthy. So, I welcome the now more frequent simple and positive conversations with strangers sharing a common space. It brightens my day and I’m pretty certain it brightens theirs as well. I can tell by the smiles and the parting wishes for a great day.

The problem is that we have collectively given economic and social incentives to the media and content providers to highlight the most indecent behaviors. The market rewards poor behavior with views. The more socially deviant, the better because we are mesmerized by violence, sex, and craziness. Videos of outrageous “Karen” behaviors go viral. Other examples of rare but indecent behaviors that are exploited for gain are the rare teacher who pushes inappropriate material on students, the heinous crime of an illegal migrant, the “smash and grab” thieves running wild in a store, the high-speed car chase through crowded streets, the star who wears the most revealing outfit at an awards show, or the politician who makes the most xenophobic, homophobic, misogynistic, and racist statements. Highlighting indecent behavior promotes more indecent behavior. And even worse, the constant onslaught of rare but outrageous behaviors and unusual but scary events, skew our perception of reality and makes us vulnerable to support those who intentionally generalize atypical indecent human behavior as typical to use as a fear tactic.

I am convinced that many of the culture war issues are in fact manufactured. Politicians realize that it is effective to turn rare indecent incidents into epidemics of indecency. Let’s face reality. Not one of us has ever been forced to attend nor to take our children to a drag show or a drag queen story time. It will be rare for any of us to encounter a dangerous transgender person in a public restroom. We are far more likely to be murdered by another American citizen and someone we actually know, than by an undocumented migrant. And almost none of our children have been in a classroom with a teacher who is actively working to make them gay or to question their gender identity. The books being banned are about accepting differences among people; not creating them. And the goal is to reduce bullying by promoting understanding and tolerance.

Are there people in America who lack common decency? Of course there are. I once took a sociology class on social deviance. The professor said it was a class about “nuts, sluts, and perverts.” They certainly do live among us, and we definitely want to curb their behavior when it harms others, not promote it. I don’t know any person from either political party that wants to normalize violence, open borders for terrorists, human trafficking and drug dealing, pedophilia, rudeness, bullying, or the sexualization of children. Anyone who is pushing that narrative is lying. Most people are decent and prefer decency to indecency.

The problem is that the media outlets are incentivized to give the indecent airtime and we are too quick to watch the spectacle on television and on social media. There is an old saying that the things that get rewarded, get repeated. We have collectively rewarded the media and content providers with our views and clicks for which they are monetarily rewarded. They likely know that our viewership and clicks are linked to our disapproval, but that is not the point. Outrage, fear, and incredulity sell best. They know that we may watch a bridge collapse in horror, and that the effect is our fear that the bridge in our area may also collapse. They know that the extra attention given to the nearly naked singer accepting an award on television only encourages other young singers seeking attention to also dress that way. Ratings are not approval, but they are money. Often there is dismay and outrage behind the views, but the goal is to make a profit and that comes from viewership. The negative consequences to societal norms be damned.

I recall when Trump first came on the political scene. I was appalled by his crude and dangerous rhetoric. Almost daily, he would call into NBC’s Today Show and talk nonsense. I actually wrote to them and asked that they stop giving him airtime every morning or I would stop watching. Apparently, I was in the minority and people kept tuning in to hear the next outrageous thing Trump had to say. They continued to take his calls. I haven’t watched them since. The profit incentives within corporate media made Donald Trump a political contender and today they keep his candidacy alive. They know he is a clear and present danger, and yet they can’t forgo the profit from the impending train wreck. I won’t ever forgive them for it.

In short, we get the society we are willing to pay for with our clicks and our views. If we want less violence, explicit sex, rudeness, and lude behaviors to fill our television and social media feeds, then we simply need to turn the channel or scroll past them. Most people are decent, experience everyday decency, and yet also desire decency within the public square. It’s within our collective power to restore it with decent viewing habits.

For most of my adult life I have understood the portion of Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I have a Dream” speech wherein he says that he dreams that one day his children will be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin to be the end goal, the aspiration, and the victory in the fight for racial equality and social justice. After watching multiple interviews, including his Ted Talk, I’ve observed that Coleman Hughes has essentially ignored the situational context of Dr. King’s words and reframed the aspiration of colorblindness as the only legitimate foundation for public policy and moral interpersonal behavior today. While he acknowledges the persistence of racial bias (calling it stupid), he mischaracterizes the opposition to colorblindness by diversity, inclusion, and equity (DEI) advocates as neo-racist. As a former DEI worker, I don’t know anyone on the left who would disagree that colorblindness remains the ultimate goal, in the sense that our race has no bearing on our treatment, opportunities, nor outcomes, using measurable economic, health, and social outcomes as a metric for how we are doing. However, some would argue that it is too soon to center colorblindness in every public policy decision. But I do think Coleman has a point worthy of discussion.

I think Coleman is correct in his assertion that socio-economic status is a more accurate metric to determine government-based policies to help people succeed and for the most part, that is already in place. When using poverty as a measure, programs do in fact capture a disproportionate number of black and brown people because they remain disproportionately poorer. However, Coleman rarely addresses why this remains the case except to blame single family homes, inattentive parents and neighborhood violence. I would argue that many black people remain impoverished in large part due to public policy decisions in housing, school funding, policing, and rampant individual discrimination, so I differ from Coleman in that regard. That said, I’ve seen the poverty-based strategy at work in government-funded Trio Programs like Upward Bound. Entry to the six Trio Programs is based on socio-economic factors like family income and first-generation college status and so students in these programs come from all racial backgrounds and that’s a good thing.

I personally benefited from race-based Affirmative Action programs because in the 1970’s there were very real race-based barriers to college and career opportunities. Opponents, like Coleman and conservatives, often fail to acknowledge that Affirmative Action did not lower admission standards or job qualifications, but it provided preference to those whose race had historically (and legally) prevented their access. There were no quotas, but public schools and employers were required to give preference to women and people of color over white males if they met the qualifications for entry. The purpose was to right a historic and legal policy of discrimination based on race and gender. What Affirmative Action did was provide competition to white men who had enjoyed a monopoly on the best schools and the best jobs based on their race and social connections.

I do agree with Coleman that the days of legal discrimination have since passed and that Affirmative Action came to give unwarranted and certainly unnecessary preference to the sons and daughters of highly educated minority professionals. For example, I was able to provide my children with every educational and economic advantage when they were young. Since times have indeed changed, absent the covert bigotry of an individual college or job recruiter, they did not need to rely on Affirmative Action for their college admission or job. In essence, the extra points given to them by admission policies seem unfair when compared to a black child born to more dire circumstances. As a DEI professional, I made this argument on multiple occasions. In fact, later arguments to keep Affirmative Action in place centered on the educational benefits of diversity as opposed to access to opportunity for low-income students. The problem was that the stigma of admitting or hiring “less qualified” candidates remained.

The problem is that opponents to diversity hiring conveniently ignore years of public policy and poverty that limit the educational opportunities of women and people of color while also limiting their opportunity to enter spaces that would provide them connections and resume building experiences. Coleman sites the over-representation of black men in the NBA as an example of merit-based entry without regard to race. But is it really? I would argue that the NBA and the NFL are over-represented by black males, not because they are inherently better at the game, but because the opportunity structure in the country funneled their energies into these easily accessible sports as opposed to academic endeavors.

I think a lot of people struggle with Coleman’s insistence to use colorblindness as a guide for all public policy decision-making right now. His stance seems to ignore the evidence of the lingering harms caused by historically race-based discrimination. While he does acknowledge slavery and Jim Crowe as immoral and harmful, he fails to fully acknowledge their lingering effects. And worse, he fails to acknowledge how the pseudo-science of eugenics infected the national mindset with a belief in white superiority and black inferiority. It is naive to expect average people to change their way of thinking and behaving just because it is the right thing to do. When confronted by prominent conservative comments blaming the Maryland bridge collapse on DEI and pointing their fingers at the black governor and black major as examples of DEI, he simply characterized them as “stupid” and possibly racist. He fails to connect the dots that people in positions of power and policy making continue to view blackness as inherently inferior.

Because of the continuing negative mindset regarding the character and intellect of black people among those who make policy and those who put policy into practice, I think we must also make laws that ensure that those who violate colorblindness in their implementation of non-discriminatory public policies should be held civilly accountable. There are many examples of non-compliance with colorblind policies. There are police who over-monitor blacks, ticket them, or brutalize them. There are judges who issue harsher sentences to black perpetrators compared to white perpetrators for the same crime. They, like police should be sanctioned or removed. Banks who make it more difficult for blacks to access capital or who target blacks for sub-prime loans should be sued. The list of individuals violating the principles of colorblindness with impunity is long. Coleman never addresses the penalty for such harmful actions that will have lasting negative affects on victims and their families.

I’m glad we are having this conversation about the merits of colorblindness in 2024. I still see it as an aspiration. I just think it is important to address the topic with an eye to history, practical applications, and human nature.

Our political leaders, particularly Republicans, are playing a dangerous game with the emotions of citizens. They are following Trump’s lead. He knows that strong emotions, particularly fear and resentment among the uneducated and uninformed will literally smother rationality. Over the past several months, I’ve watched people descend into levels of fear and resentment that turns them into mean-spirited people. The rhetoric employing buzz words like “invasion” and “unfair prosecution” and “pedophiles” and “CRT” or “DEI” have enraged average people who lack education, accurate news, and economic opportunities. In fact, a recent NPR poll found that 28% of Republicans either strongly agreed or agreed that they may have to resort to violence to get the country back on track. Only 12% of democrats responded this way. Those who lack reason and the ability to persuade others often resort to “might makes right” or violence to force their will. We’ve seen this happen repeatedly in our history, and as recently as January 6, 2021.

Through a lifetime of observation, I’ve concluded that human beings, particularly men, resort to violence when rational thinking and reasonable words fail them. Two of the most potent emotions that override rational thinking are fear and resentment. Fear is a defense mechanism designed to protect us from imminent danger while resentment is a feeling of indignation from being wronged. The fact that Trump and Republicans have weaponized these emotions is not just disturbing, but a threat to our Constitution, our unity as a nation, and to the civil liberties of women and all minorities.

What must be acknowledged is that there is a grain of truth in many of the assertions that are worrisome. For example, the border does have serious issues that our current laws and policies are not fully addressing. Too few know that Trump crushed a bi-partisan bill that would address the border crisis because he wants to run on the chaos at the border. Not surprisingly, undocumented immigrants are not committing the level of violent crimes Trump would like Americans to believe. He literally told a crowd this past week that migrants were hiding in their bushes and crawling through their windows waiting to harm them. He had a sign on his podium that read, “Stop Biden’s Border Bloodbath”. This is fear-mongering at its worse. It’s amazing how he is able to point to two incidents in a nation of over 300 million people and call it an epidemic of migrant violence against Americans.

There is also truth to the fact that food and energy prices have risen. But that is true across the entire world because we are recovering from a pandemic and Russia invaded Ukraine, disrupting grain shipments. The reality is that the U.S. is doing much better than every other country in the entire world when it comes to inflation and economic recovery from the pandemic. The unemployment rate is historically low, wages are rising, and the stock market is booming. But some people feel stretched, particularly those who aren’t willing or able to take advantage of economic opportunities available to them. There are people who refuse education or job skill training or a move that will lead them out of poverty. They are looking for easy money that requires no real effort on their part. Some folks resent a social system that demands education and effort and then turns around and discriminates against them at every turn. And it is even easier to build resentment among hardworking folks against thieves, drug dealers, “illegal immigrants” and freeloaders. Trump advocates shooting these people on the spot and asking questions later. What’s concerning is that resentment among his supporters is so high that his violent suggestion garners applause.

Republicans are alarmed that women are making strides in society. According to Pew Research, women are completing degrees at higher rates than men, allowing them to compete for higher paying jobs. For years, twice as many black women have been earning degrees as black men and it is not surprising that their marriage prospects have shifted as a result. More black women are either single or marrying outside their race. The level of resentment among black men toward black women is evident on social media. Many white men have joined them in their resentment of independent women. What amazes me is that some of these frustrated black men are turning to Trump and the Republicans because they offer control over women.

Trump and the Republicans are also fueling resentment against women and people of color because of their historic and meteoric rise to prominence in our country. They are telling the under-educated who lack opportunities that women and people of color are taking what is rightfully theirs through diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The irrational resentment that permeates the airways and social media against women and people of color is unpresented. Several Republicans have commented that they wouldn’t trust a black airline pilot or heart surgeon, citing DEI hires. That’s ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is the lawmaker who tried to blame the bridge collapse on probable DEI initiatives at the shipping company without any evidence. They are working hard to fuel fear and resentment.

The solutions Trump and the Republicans are offering make sense to those who want to return to the days when women and people of color were oppressed, and LGBTQ folks were in the closet. Instead of improving our public schools, they want to abolish them in favor of private religious schools and home schooling, thereby ensuring that women and the poor are under-educated and more easily controlled so they pose little to no competition, particularly to white heterosexual males. They want to return women to the limited role of wife and mother again and they expect women to be satisfied with that. Some are publicly admitting that they want to remove a woman’s right to vote while others are saying that birth control is poison to the female brain.

They have a role for black and brown males too: entertainment, manual labor, or prison. More difficult to deal with are Asians and Jewish men. The rise in anti-Asian sentiment and Jewish hatred is neither new nor unexpected. To white males, the cultural emphasis on education, hard work, and personal ambition among Jews and Asians is viewed as a threat that they are ill-prepared to deal with fairly. As always, they will resort to violence, intimidation, or deportation to control and limit the progress of both Asians and Jews.

Reasonable people will go along with almost any despicable behavior if their fears and sense of resentment is activated. This is precisely what the Trump-led Republican Party is trying to do. It is important that we counteract Trump’s narrative with reality at every opportunity. We must sound the alarm since about 38% of Americans have purposefully tuned out the news because it is so depressing. And it is even more important that we actively support rational candidates who support the rule of law and our constitution. We must provide them with our finances, our voices, and our votes before it is too late.