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1/ A thread about what we know, for certain, today.
Forget the polls for a minute. Forget the punditry. Forget the campaign hype men (and women) telling us what we (or their team) want to hear. Fact is, we don't know for sure how this is going to turn out...
Forget the polls for a minute. Forget the punditry. Forget the campaign hype men (and women) telling us what we (or their team) want to hear. Fact is, we don't know for sure how this is going to turn out...
2/ I can lay out very plausible scenarios by which Biden wins in a rout, but also a couple of scenarios, only slightly less plausible, where Trump squeezes out another EC victory while, of course, losing the popular vote handily. But for today I won't do that...
3/ Instead, let's focus on what we know for sure. First, If all who wanted to vote were able to vote and if every vote cast were counted (enuf machines, so no crazy lines, folks could get off work, no suppression, no court tossing ballots, no USPS slowdown) Trump is crushed...
4/ Most Americans reject him and the message of his movement and party. Second, the only way they can believe they have the country behind them is to basically say "well, if you exclude CA and NY we win in a landslide..." In short, by saying certain people aren't Americans...
5/ The whole of Trumpism is a politic of division & exclusion. So if a disproportionate number of Dems are in a handful of states, they say it's the acreage that matters. Look at all that red in the middle: Those are 'real' Americans. Actually those are cornfields but I digress..
6/ Likewise, third: Only by presuming black & brown folk are lesser Americans can they believe they have the majority behind them. Essentially they govern as if they think majority white support is all they need. It's what David Duke said in 90/91: "Well, I carried my people."...
7/ But make no mistake: In a nation where the share of white folk is dwindling (and it's not because of immigration btw, so walls and such won't stop it; it's because white folks' median age translates to lower fertility), the future does not belong to the Trumpsters...
8/ What we're seeing is the death rattle of a certain America, long past its expiration date. The death of white hegemony. What is waiting to be born is multicultural, pluralistic democracy. It cannot be stopped, ultimately, through electoral means, without cheating...
9/ All they really have left is violence. Terrorism. Intimidation. There will be some very troubling days and weeks and years ahead, no matter the outcome today. If Trump wins, they will feel emboldened to do maximum harm to the enemies of their dear leader. Be prepared...
10/ If Trump loses, they will begin to realize that what they stand for has been rejected. And a cult built on grievance and victimhood does not react well to rejection. More, they will do what Carol Anderson reminds us they have done throughout history. Deploy white rage...
11/ It is not speculation. It is documented over and over again. Every time whites have seen POC (and especially black folk) moving forward in some way, or "winning" over them (however limited the victory frankly), they have lashed out...this will be no exception...
12/ Even though it might seem absurd to think Joe Biden is symbolic of a victory for black people, given his decidedly mixed record on a number of key issues, it will be seen as such by the MAGA crowd. Kamala Harris ensures it. Restoration of the Obama legacy ensures it...
13/ The mere fact that the Trumpsters associate the whole of the Dem party with black and brown "others" now--that ensures it most of all. The GOP is a white identity gang and if they lose they will see it as a loss for team Mayo, not just a loss for their favorite candidate...
14/ So once again, be prepared. And arm yourself...
...with knowledge.
Knowledge that every time white rage reared its awful head, black and brown folk survived. And they are still here, reminding us of who we are, but also who we could be as a nation...
...with knowledge.
Knowledge that every time white rage reared its awful head, black and brown folk survived. And they are still here, reminding us of who we are, but also who we could be as a nation...
15/ What Justice Taney and the Confederate army and the Klan and the Black Codes and the Lynch mob and the white citizen's council and Bull Connor and Jim Clark and George Wallace could not defeat...will not be laid low by the likes of the fucking Proud Boys...
16/ Those who's survived the march to the sea, the middle passage, the whip, their families being torn apart and sold, the rope, the blowtorch, and much more, will not be laid low by the denizens of Breitbart, by QAnon cultists, by cos-playing toy soldier militia goons...
17/ Those who survived having 1/2 their country stolen & expulsion from the U.S. in the 30s, even as citizens, to open jobs for whites, or who survived the death squads we backed in their countries in the 80s will not be defeated by some pissant advisor from Santa Monica HS...
18/ Folks who survived campaigns of extermination and forced removal from their land by men like Andrew Jackson -- whose own Crow's Nest sits a 20 minute drive from where I am typing these words -- won't be erased from the narrative by a failed game show host...
19/ Jared Kushner ain't that big and bad y'all...My point: those whom the MAGA faithful seek to put in their place, have faced tougher and worse than this. And look who's still standing. Look who is still here. Look who is standing on line for 10 hours in Georgia to vote...
20/ Every time you are afraid...every time you find your faith in humanity flagging...think of Ella Baker. Think of Fannie Lou Hamer. Amzie Moore. Unita Blackwell. John Lewis. Bernard Lafayette. CT Vivian. And regardless of what happens today, always...
Bet on Black.
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Bet on Black.
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