Since the election, masks are off for overt racists and fascists. I was standing on Malcolm X Blvd in Brooklyn the other day, in a historically Black neighborhood that is now also one of the top gentrified neighborhoods in the country. A car with an enormous Trump flag was driving slowly down the street like a one-car parade for everyone to witness.
But I have also noticed an uptick in emboldened behavior from even people who consider themselves white allies, “good white people,” blue bracelet-ers, not all white people-ers, or progressive whites.
And it is so insidious. It is a slightly ruder tone. Slightly more hostile glances. Taking up slightly more space. Making slightly more slip-ups using certain words. Slightly more sloppiness with assumptions. Exercising slightly more privilege. All of it ever so incremental and yet so obsequiously part of the very same white supremacist system that got Trump elected.
It is almost as if “ally whites” while still worrying about fascism in the U.S. Empire, are able to breathe a side sigh of relief that the system that keeps whiteness possible is at least still going to keep part of their identity intact. Fascism in the U.S. after all, means that white privilege is still protected.
It is almost as if a heavily protected guardrail has come down to once again give rise to “at least I’m not one of those white people” privilege.
Yes, the masks off for fascists are not good. But it is honestly the white loosening of the belt buckle of those who say they’re “not racists” that will cause some of the most harm to BIPOC folks and are already.
I have witnessed and felt it everywhere increasingly since the election. I don’t have to tell BIPOC folks to be on alert because we always are, but white people who consider themselves progressive need to be aware that some of you are letting your inside thoughts seep out and we all can see them. Yes, it is a life-long process, but now is not the time to let go of it.
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