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\u2019ve 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\u2019t seem to understand why the Insurrection of January 6th<\/sup> is being called a \u201cwhite supremacist\u201d event. So I\u2019m going to try to examine why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Fox News<\/em> App (yep, I really do check it to see what they\u2019re saying) they had a long article about the Insurrection. In that article the term \u201cwhite ___\u201d (fill in the blank, supremacist, racist, extremist) was constantly followed with the parenthetical \u201csic<\/em>\u201d, to designate an improper use of language. It took me a while to catch on. Fox News doesn\u2019t believe in \u201cwhite supremacy\u201d (sic<\/em>) so every use of the term by them is improper, hence the \u201csic<\/em>\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019ve gotten this far, I hope you\u2019ll be willing to read the rest. The case isn\u2019t that complicated. This isn\u2019t social calculus, it\u2019s simple arithmetic. In fact, it\u2019s as simple as two plus two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Trump\/Republican Party made a case to America that the Presidential Election of 2020 was \u201cstolen\u201d 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<\/sup>. One hundred and forty some Republican Congressmen voted to refuse the votes of several states, and two Senators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But let\u2019s look specifically at whose votes President Trump, and his fellows in the Congress didn\u2019t want to count. It wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s the list.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s the county (or counties) in those states that contained the following cities:\u00a0\u00a0Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee, Phoenix and Las Vegas.\u00a0\u00a0Why those counties?\u00a0\u00a0Because if you discounted those, Trump would win, and win the Presidential Electoral College.\u00a0\u00a0But let\u2019s go to the next step:\u00a0\u00a0what do each of those cities have in common?<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a Bruce Willis movie called \u201cThe Sixth Sense\u201d, where a child is able to see the dead. The famous line from that movie is a haunting (literally), \u201cI see dead people\u201d. If you look at each of those cities you don\u2019t see \u201cdead people\u201d, you see \u201cbrown people\u201d. 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.\u00a0\u00a0If that ain\u2019t (sic<\/em>) racist, I don\u2019t know what is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So why not New York, or Cleveland, or Chicago? Because those states weren\u2019t close enough to be in question. But don\u2019t 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 \u201cBlack people\u201d there too. Black people who voted Democratic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m 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 \u2013 if the President of the United States was taking your vote away, and all-around you people who \u201clooked like you\u201d were having their vote threatened too, what would you think? It\u2019s as easy as two plus two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s similar to the argument to maintain the Electoral College. Let\u2019s 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 \u201ccounts\u201d, the bigger the state, the less. In a nation where the Supreme Court ruled a half century ago that \u201cone man, one vote\u201d should be the law of the land (Reynolds v Sims), <\/em>the Electoral College stands out as the \u201cgrand exception\u201d, endowed by the Constitution with an exemption from fairness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s one Electoral vote to 650,000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Any nine-year-old can look at that analysis and determine \u2013 it ain\u2019t (sic<\/em>) 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\u2019s, (enslaved persons). Those who were enslaved didn\u2019t get to \u201ccast\u201d a 3\/5\u2019s vote, they didn\u2019t get to vote at all. But their bodies added to the Electoral strength of the state where they were held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It shouldn\u2019t surprise then, that the states with the greater \u201cweight\u201d of Electoral votes are states where the vast majority of the population is white (Washington DC is the exception). The Electoral College is a \u201cpeculiar\u201d institution, founded in racism. And it continues to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It wasn\u2019t until 1994 that the system of apartheid was abandoned, and majority rule came to control. Amazingly, this revolution didn\u2019t require a war (though there was a lot of civil violence).<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019t considering apartheid laws, there are more subtle means used to keep one political party in power over the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And let\u2019s call them out:\u00a0\u00a0laws that keep people from voting, that are designed to make it \u201ceasy\u201d for suburban voters and \u201chard\u201d for urban voters, and that draw the legislative district lines to enhance one political party\u2019s power and dilute the other, are racist when one party predominantly represents one race.\u00a0\u00a0Voter suppression, \u201cRed Mapping\u201d, making polling places inconvenient for the voters: all are designed to keep people of color from voting.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s inherently racist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 \u201cchallenge\u201d to be met by altering rules and laws to enhance the power of white people, is another \u201cproof\u201d of racism. And here\u2019s another statistically \u201caltered\u201d figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We all know that the pandemic has damaged our economy.\u00a0\u00a0The Bureau of Labor Statistics says our nation has, in large part, recovered from the high unemployment of last June.\u00a0\u00a0They statistically claim that unemployment was as high at 14%, but now is back down to 6.7%, still high, but more \u201cpolitically\u201d palatable.\u00a0\u00a0But our \u201cgut\u201d tells us that the current figure doesn\u2019t \u201cfeel\u201d right, that far more folks are impacted by the pandemic than \u201cjust\u201d 6.7%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And our \u201cgut\u201d is right. The Statistics stop counting folks who stop looking for work. So the \u201creal\u201d unemployment rate \u2013 of people who want to work but can\u2019t find work \u2013 is closer to 12% (CNBC<\/a>). And from that the overall rate, we know there\u2019s an even greater impact on people of color. The \u201cannounced\u201d unemployment rate for Black people is 9.9%, and for Hispanic people 9.1%. But the \u201creal\u201d unemployment rate for people of color: somewhere around 15%. The numbers are all massaged to look better. But the \u201cmassaging\u201d denies the national emergency that a 15% unemployment rate represents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s \u201conly\u201d 6.7%, that\u2019s \u201cnot that bad\u201d. When that number was 15%, Congress passed the first COVID relief package almost immediately. The President made sure to put his signature on the \u201cstimulus checks\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For a large segment of the United States population, that number is still 15%. But since our Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn\u2019t acknowledge that pain \u2013 it\u2019s not such a concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s all easy to see. Not some societal advanced calculus, just \u201c two plus two\u201d arithmetic easy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Call it what it is. Intentional or not, it\u2019s racism. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stop the Steal<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Sixth Sense<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Electoral College<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Apartheid<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Numbers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Emergency<\/h3>\n\n\n\n