Call It What It Is
You would think that after almost a thousand essays, I would have covered all of the political topics of our time. But there are a couple I’ve shied away from for varying reasons. One of those is American racism, though I have written about Black Lives Matter and societal violence towards minorities. But with the end of the Trump Administration, so many Americans don’t seem to understand why the Insurrection of January 6th is being called a “white supremacist” event. So I’m going to try to examine why.
In the Fox News App (yep, I really do check it to see what they’re saying) they had a long article about the Insurrection. In that article the term “white ___” (fill in the blank, supremacist, racist, extremist) was constantly followed with the parenthetical “sic”, to designate an improper use of language. It took me a while to catch on. Fox News doesn’t believe in “white supremacy” (sic) so every use of the term by them is improper, hence the “sic”.
So let me lay out a case to demonstrate why the Insurrection, and much of what is done to restrict voting is, in fact, racist. And let me go on to show why a lot of what our government does, intentionally or unknowingly, is racist as well. If you’ve gotten this far, I hope you’ll be willing to read the rest. The case isn’t that complicated. This isn’t social calculus, it’s simple arithmetic. In fact, it’s as simple as two plus two.
Stop the Steal
The Trump/Republican Party made a case to America that the Presidential Election of 2020 was “stolen” from them. They argued that the Democrats somehow stole votes, or created them from thin air. They tried to make their argument in Courts throughout the nation, even in front of Trump appointed Judges, but failed each and every time. But they held onto that argument, long past time to give in, all the way through to the Electoral College certification in the United States Congress on January 6th. One hundred and forty some Republican Congressmen voted to refuse the votes of several states, and two Senators.
But let’s look specifically at whose votes President Trump, and his fellows in the Congress didn’t want to count. It wasn’t that they really wanted to throw out the whole votes from Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada. They only wanted to disregard the votes from certain segments of each of those states.
Here’s the list. It’s the county (or counties) in those states that contained the following cities: Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee, Phoenix and Las Vegas. Why those counties? Because if you discounted those, Trump would win, and win the Presidential Electoral College. But let’s go to the next step: what do each of those cities have in common?
Sixth Sense
There is a Bruce Willis movie called “The Sixth Sense”, where a child is able to see the dead. The famous line from that movie is a haunting (literally), “I see dead people”. If you look at each of those cities you don’t see “dead people”, you see “brown people”. Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee have a high percentage of Black people, most of whom vote Democratic. Phoenix and Las Vegas, have large Hispanic populations, and again, most of them vote Democratic as well.
So when the Republicans cried out to deny the votes of those states, because of those cities, what they were really doing is disenfranchising people of color so that they could win an election. If that ain’t (sic) racist, I don’t know what is.
So why not New York, or Cleveland, or Chicago? Because those states weren’t close enough to be in question. But don’t doubt for a second that if Ohio had been a closer count, there would have been Republican cries to discount Cuyahoga (Cleveland), Summit (Akron), and Montgomery (Dayton) counties. Republicans saw “Black people” there too. Black people who voted Democratic.
I’m sure my Republican friends will say it had nothing to do with race, it was simply about trying to win the Presidency. But if it was you – if the President of the United States was taking your vote away, and all-around you people who “looked like you” were having their vote threatened too, what would you think? It’s as easy as two plus two.
Electoral College
It’s similar to the argument to maintain the Electoral College. Let’s be clear: The Electoral College simply says that in some states, the vote for President of the United States is worth more than in others. The smaller the state, the more each vote for President “counts”, the bigger the state, the less. In a nation where the Supreme Court ruled a half century ago that “one man, one vote” should be the law of the land (Reynolds v Sims), the Electoral College stands out as the “grand exception”, endowed by the Constitution with an exemption from fairness.
Want a statistical analysis? Every state (and the District of Columbia) is guaranteed three Electoral votes. Then those votes are added by population. So, in California, each Electoral vote represents about 720,000 people. In Wyoming, each Electoral vote represents 193,000. Here in Ohio, it’s one Electoral vote to 650,000.
Any nine-year-old can look at that analysis and determine – it ain’t (sic) fair. And of course the Electoral college was based in an ultimate unfairness. It was written on the principle that some people counted as one (free persons) and some people counted as 3/5’s, (enslaved persons). Those who were enslaved didn’t get to “cast” a 3/5’s vote, they didn’t get to vote at all. But their bodies added to the Electoral strength of the state where they were held.
It shouldn’t surprise then, that the states with the greater “weight” of Electoral votes are states where the vast majority of the population is white (Washington DC is the exception). The Electoral College is a “peculiar” institution, founded in racism. And it continues to be.
Apartheid
The nation of South Africa made a huge transition in 1994. For forty-five years before, South Africa lived under the principle of Apartheid, a strict legal separation of the races. Where you lived, where you could go, what you could study, who you could love, was legally set by a government determined racial designation. The ultimate goal of apartheid was to keep a minority white population in control, and the majority population of color denied political power.
It wasn’t until 1994 that the system of apartheid was abandoned, and majority rule came to control. Amazingly, this revolution didn’t require a war (though there was a lot of civil violence).
So there are models of government where a minority manipulates the law and government to maintain control. And while here in the United States we aren’t considering apartheid laws, there are more subtle means used to keep one political party in power over the other.
And let’s call them out: laws that keep people from voting, that are designed to make it “easy” for suburban voters and “hard” for urban voters, and that draw the legislative district lines to enhance one political party’s power and dilute the other, are racist when one party predominantly represents one race. Voter suppression, “Red Mapping”, making polling places inconvenient for the voters: all are designed to keep people of color from voting. That’s inherently racist.
Numbers
The United States Census Bureau estimates that within twenty-five years, the United States will become a majority/minority nation. In plain language, white people will no longer by the majority of the country. The fact that this represents a “challenge” to be met by altering rules and laws to enhance the power of white people, is another “proof” of racism. And here’s another statistically “altered” figure.
We all know that the pandemic has damaged our economy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says our nation has, in large part, recovered from the high unemployment of last June. They statistically claim that unemployment was as high at 14%, but now is back down to 6.7%, still high, but more “politically” palatable. But our “gut” tells us that the current figure doesn’t “feel” right, that far more folks are impacted by the pandemic than “just” 6.7%.
Emergency
And our “gut” is right. The Statistics stop counting folks who stop looking for work. So the “real” unemployment rate – of people who want to work but can’t find work – is closer to 12% (CNBC). And from that the overall rate, we know there’s an even greater impact on people of color. The “announced” unemployment rate for Black people is 9.9%, and for Hispanic people 9.1%. But the “real” unemployment rate for people of color: somewhere around 15%. The numbers are all massaged to look better. But the “massaging” denies the national emergency that a 15% unemployment rate represents.
The Congress should do something about a 6.7% unemployment rate. COVID relief, extended unemployment, improved health coverage are all reasonable actions. But if it’s “only” 6.7%, that’s “not that bad”. When that number was 15%, Congress passed the first COVID relief package almost immediately. The President made sure to put his signature on the “stimulus checks”.
For a large segment of the United States population, that number is still 15%. But since our Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t acknowledge that pain – it’s not such a concern.
It’s all easy to see. Not some societal advanced calculus, just “ two plus two” arithmetic easy.
Call it what it is. Intentional or not, it’s racism.
