Claiming that her fellow Americans “voted to disown” her on Election Day, Yale’s Alejandra Padin-Dujon is not happy with fellow progressives who say one of the reasons for Hillary Clinton’s defeat was that “[w]e failed the white rural and working classes.”
Well, partly.
She notes she agrees with the sentiment, but with two caveats.
“Whiteness is not carte blanche to support racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, homophobia and fascism,” Padin-Dujon begins her warnings. “Whiteness is not a free pass to threaten the existence of our shared republic.
“[…] to ignore why disenfranchised white voters chose to vote against the interests of disenfranchised Black, Latinx, Muslim and other marginalized voters — instead of joining us in a coalition — is to excuse and deny the politics of white supremacy.”
Disenfranchised communities of color do not bargain away the humanity of others for political advantage. Black Lives Matter seeks equal protection of the law for Black Americans. The water protectors at Standing Rock seek basic respect for their sovereignty and personhood. In short, we all seek the rights white Americans, even the economically marginalized, take for granted. We seek our due. As minorities we are vulnerable, so we work together. Lacking a political party to champion our cause, we tolerate the ambivalent embrace of the Democratic Party and organize on our own terms, rising and falling on the inclusivity of our political ideals.
Our defensive appeals for inclusion are met with brutality and political marginalization, while the victorious, aggressive visions of disenfranchised right-wing white voters are met with calls for self-reflection and empathy from the left.
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White Democrats who call for reconciliation with disillusioned white voters while taking the continued exploitation of Black, Latinx, Native and Muslim voters for granted may be politically savvy, but they are either misguided or morally bankrupt. Their angry denunciations of POC frustration with Trump supporters perpetuate a double standard in which destructive white anger is more valid than the inclusive aspirations and loyal votes of POC. Well-meaning, racially oblivious, unity-seeking white Democrats refuse to recognize why disenfranchised POC voters embraced unity, while their white counterparts voted for an unabashed bigot.
There may be no greater example of why Trump gained appeal in the first place, let alone won the election, than this opinion piece — especially the statement that white people could care less about people’s humanity if there’s a political advantage to be gained.
Keep up this attitude, Ms. Padin-Dujon. Keep up telling white people they lack humanity, are misguided, and are morally bankrupt when things don’t turn out the way you wished. You’ll be writing a lot more befuddlement-themed op-eds.
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