gracchusdixit

In the wake of Donald Trump’s electoral college victory and Hillary Clinton’s defeat, Democrats and liberals generally are not only brooding over the tactical and political reasons for this outcome but also the psychological ones.  Indeed, they are obsessively psychoanalyzing themselves—which is what people of a liberal disposition tend to do.

This is partly because liberals are by nature reflective and thoughtful people, but also because they have a compelling need to see themselves as virtuous.  When liberals lose, rather than getting angry at their opponents, they frequently turn inward, blame themselves and go looking for some flaw or crack in the moral carapace of their own virtue.

In this case, because the outcome of the election turned on white working class voters in the “rust belt” states of Pennsylvania and the upper Midwest, liberals are flagellating themselves for the sin of having perhaps stereotyped such voters as bigots and racists rather than “decent, hard-working Americans,” who feel left behind by the global economy, ignored by their government, and condescended to by the intellectual, political, and financial elites who inhabit the cosmopolitan capitals of the two coasts.  This notion, if not complete rubbish, comes very close—and the self-flagellation it has caused is a feckless waste of time.

From the very day “the Donald” glided down the escalator at Trump Tower in Manhattan, it was abundantly clear that racism—verbal, vituperative, and sometimes violent—was the fuel propelling his campaign and that he was both encouraging and inciting it.  I have no doubt that there are some Trump supporters who did not join in, but there are plenty enough who did.  To suggest in some tortured way that those who voted for Trump are innocent, misunderstood victims, while those who opposed him are culpable for ignoring their plight, is, quite simply, ludicrous.

More importantly, this self-directed psychoanalytic exercise obscures the true nature, depth, and pervasiveness of racism in our society.  Racism isn’t simply a question of hateful speech or hate-filled hearts.  It is a question of behavior, of action or inaction, of passivity in the face of racist historical, institutional, and social norms so entrenched that they are all but invisible—invisible, that is, to those who benefit from these norms but starkly palpable to those who are the victims.  To one degree or another, in one way or another, every white American who benefits from these norms, either knowingly or unwittingly, is complicit in racism.

Every white American who “owns” a home, a farm, or a business west of Appalachians is the beneficiary of racist theft and murder.  The land on which white Americans live and work was stolen from Native Americans at gunpoint or simply appropriated after Native Americans had been expelled or exterminated.  I say “west of the Appalachians,” only because at least some of the appropriations that occurred “east of the Appalachians” were transactions between buyers and sellers.  Even then, however, it is doubtful that the sellers got anything remotely approaching fair terms.  It does not matter that today’s beneficiaries are not personally responsible for the original crimes. They are beneficiaries, nonetheless, because Native Americans and their descendants have never been compensated, have never received justice.  The fact that we all now blithely take their fate to be a fait accompli is racism.

Every white American who lives south of the old Mason-Dixon line is the beneficiary of one of the most horrific acts of racism in history: the enslavement and exploitation of millions of Africans.  The theft of their labor—and in countless cases their lives—produced untold wealth for white Americans.  It does not matter that today’s beneficiaries of this historic theft are not personally responsible for the original crime.  It does not matter if none of their ancestors owned slaves.  They are beneficiaries, nonetheless, because the African-American victims of slavery and their descendants have never been compensated, have never received justice.  The fact that we now treat this historic injustice as a fact of life beyond remedy is racism.

Every white American whose children benefit from the de facto segregation of our public schools—a system that, in the name of local autonomy and states’ rights, enables white school districts to educate their children lavishly while non-white districts are left to crumble—is also a beneficiary of racism.  It does not matter that the white parents in these districts are not intentionally racist.  It does not matter that they do not feel racism “in their hearts.”  They are beneficiaries of racism, nonetheless.

Every white American who gets preferential treatment from a legal and law enforcement system that reflexively criminalizes and incarcerates African-Americans and Hispanics is the beneficiary of racism.  It does not matter if the white beneficiaries of this system didn’t design or desire it.  They are its beneficiaries, nonetheless.

When liberals, in their anguished self-doubt, attempt to “understand” the racist words or feelings of Trump voters, they are not only wasting their time, they are distracting us from the awful reality that racism in our society isn’t limited to Trump and his adoring fans.  It’s pervasive.

It does no good to rationalize hateful language, to analyze hateful feelings, or to empathize with those responsible. We will never rid ourselves of racism until we realize that it is ultimately defined, not by words and feelings, but by actions.  Until we once and for all act to rid ourselves of the racist social, political, legal, and economic institutions that saturate our culture, all white Americans must face the stark reality that it isn’t just Trump voters who are to blame.  Until that day comes, we remain racists, one and all.