What Now? Part Two: It's Not Either/Or, So Let's Face Race and Everything
The fact that our president-elect appealed to both class and white racism in this election is beyond any doubt – it’s all on video . Yet, there are those who want to defend him as if the way he used race is somehow separate from the question of whether or not he really is a racist. They’re really actually defending themselves – they don’t want to admit that they’d vote for an open racist. They don’t want to accept their personal responsibility for the resulting rise in crimes against Muslims, people of color, and LGBT people that has followed the permission their chosen candidate has thereby given for people to act as open bigots. They'd prefer to deny that they themselves hold enough racism to give someone who appeals to white racism a pass, as if playing on racism, xenophobia, and homophobia isn’t important to them. They don’t want to think of how their votes evidence their lack of empathy for anyone but themselves. Both class and race figured at a basic level in the r