Two Things We Need Now…(Political Education and Each Other)
To start, I hope this message finds you more rested than not! And I hope you have found time and space to grieve and process the election in ways that honor your humanity.
Now that we've had a few days to come to terms with what we've feared and dreaded, a second DJT presidency, I wanted to share ways I've been processing and leaning into our Toward Liberation readings and discussions.
ps. If you’re new to this space, welcome!
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White Supremacy isn't a white thing, it's part of this culture it's part of how all of us have been taught to think about differences: who's better, who's inferior, who's superior. I prefer White Supremacy to racism precisely b/c it says that we're all being socialized to think along certain dualistic lines. And that the notion of that which is light or white being better, that which is dark or Black being worse, bad or inferior is something everyone in the culture is socialized to think. -bell hooks
Political Education (rooted in abolition)
Wednesday morning was the culmination of two and a half months of unsettled dread that began with the announcement Kamala Harris would be running for President.
I wrote about that here driven by a feeling deep in my bones that helming the Oval Office did not equate to Black Girl Magic. Becoming a U.S. president was the very antithesis of our ancestors' wildest dreams and the real magic of community, care, and a deep, abiding love for each other that runs through our veins. Harriet Tubman would not approve.
But as a collective excitement grew, I felt left out, left behind, and misunderstood by friends and family. Still, I could not bring myself to muster an ounce of excitement. I couldn't bring myself to join the calls, which I knew were filled with love, Black sisterhood, and community. I couldn't bring myself to gleefully support Harris for many reasons. But the most important reason, which explains every other reason, is that as an abolitionist, I could not support or align myself in any way with White Supremacy. White Supremacy, the place from which all other "isms," racism, sexism, imperialism, settler colonialism, fascism, and racial capitalism, flow.
In the end, after much agonizing, I did decide to choose Harris on my ballot. But I didn't vote for her. I chose Harris as the opponent I most wanted to fight. And I am grateful to the NDN Collective for the Vote Like a Radical framing that helped me reconcile a monstrous choice brought to us by an incompetent Democratic party and an administration helming a genocide that Harris refused to denounce. On election day, as friends and family posted their "I Voted" stickers and talked about the historic moment we were in, I felt left out once again. I shared this in the group chat:
I cast my vote at 7:30 am here in PA. It has been a trip living and voting for the first time in a true battleground state!
This was a hard one for me. The first time I cried casting a ballot. It was painful knowing what is and has been happening in Gaza under the Biden administration. But I voted like a radical because Harris is the opponent I would rather have. Praying she is the one I'll be working to push hard to stop the genocide(s) and bring real change to us at home. 🙏🏾Praying for us all. Now come THROUGH PA!
Well, now we know that my prayers and many others weren't answered. On Wednesday, I woke up to texts that broke the news I'd suspected on election night. DJT had won a second term.
One of the first texts I got was from a dear friend who said:
I know people hate black women but damn.
And while that felt true, it also didn't feel exactly right. I sat for a minute and then offered this:
More than that, they remain seduced by the (false) power of White Supremacy. Everything else flows from that.
As the day moved on and I read, pondered, shared, and grieved, it occurred to me that while I was horrified at the result, I was not surprised.
I credit co-leading Toward Liberation for the past 16 months with the ability to zone in and analyze what was really happening. Every book we’ve read and every discussion has been deeply important and equipped me with the political education necessary to understand this moment. And as I read and listened to other takes on DJT's win, I noticed that some key pieces were missing.
More than that, I realized how an incomplete analysis could be harmful, specifically as it relates to the solidarity essential to our movements.
An example (one of many): Outrage erupted online when it was reported that 47% of Latino men* had voted for Trump.
The same Trump who has infamously disparaged Latinos and used xenophobic dog whistles throughout his campaign(s)? How? The answer: White Supremacy
*It should be noted that the Latino vote is not a monolith. This chart shows an interesting breakdown by national origin/heritage.
There was also a close look at how Black men voted. Now, weeks before the election, a narrative took shape in the media suggesting Black men weren't planning to vote for Harris. That narrative even earned Black men a scolding from Obama, who decided he needed to call out Black men specifically for their alleged lack of support. It all felt like a thinly veiled tactic to plant the seeds for Black men to be blamed in the event of Harris's loss.
But the 24% of Black men who voted for Trump didn't compare to the nearly 50% of Latino men who did.
However, considering that Black and Latino men comprised just 4% respectively of total voters, why the hyperfocus on them anyway when 59% of White men voted for Trump? White men who comprised 35% of voters.
The answer to why Latino men voted in such high percentages and why Black and Latino men's voting was heavily scrutinized can both best be explained by White Supremacy.
White Supremacy isn't a white thing; it's part of this culture. It's part of how all of us have been taught to think about differences: who's better, who's inferior, who's superior. – bell hooks
As for Latino men, a desire for proximity to Whiteness (which breeds both intra and inter-community anti-Blackness) is a known survival strategy often used by people of color to gain the perceived power of Whiteness. White Supremacy is the root of that (false) sense of safety and superiority to other groups.
And why wasn't the discussion centered on White men who, in more significant percentages and actual numbers, voted for Trump? Logically, shouldn't that have been the bigger story?
"White supremacy evokes a political world that we all frame ourselves in relationship to." – bell hooks
The subtle, often subconscious trick of White Supremacy is that it becomes the baseline of what is expected. White men's votes weren't analyzed in the same way because White Supremacy situates White behavior as the norm that doesn't require interrogation. The same analysis can be applied to Trump’s viability as a candidate in the first place. (We all know no person of color could ever hope to run for office with his well documented incompetence and law breaking).
We Need Each Other
But these narratives, rooted in White Supremacy, damage our liberation movements. A danger of the hyperfocus on how Latinos and Black men voted is that it employs the age-old tactic of pitting marginalized groups against each other. In the heightened emotion stemming from DJT's win, these narratives fueled declarations from Black people that they were divesting from the language of BIPOC and focusing their organizing and liberation efforts on Black people only. Because Latinos aligning themselves with DJT felt like a betrayal. That reaction and pain is valid. And also, somewhere in heaven, Fred Hampton is weeping.
Fred Hampton taught us that a multiracial movement is not just necessary but possible.
Reading Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea this summer with Toward Liberation gave me the historical perspective to understand more deeply why the kind of solidarity Fred Hampton both championed and achieved is critical to our movements. The importance of solidarity is it allows us to unite despite our differences and abandon the doomed attempt to scale the scaffolds of White Supremacy.
"The goal of truly transformative solidarity must be to transcend oligarchy, not diversify it."
This applies in the case of Harris's attempt to diversify oligarchy and in the case of the Latino men who voted for Trump in pursuit of proximity to Whiteness. Without solidarity, we are doomed to the consequences of a worldview dominated by White Supremacy and a pursuit of Whiteness that is not only destined to fail but also one that promises to destroy humanity itself.
As always, poets say it best.
“Solidarity is the tenderness of the peoples.” – Giocanda Belli
In the days, weeks, months, and years to come, may we try to find tenderness with each other as we work diligently and honestly through the damage and havoc White Supremacy has wrought during this election and for centuries before that.
We need each other. Now more than ever before. And we need the political education necessary to understand why we must strive for solidarity and reject everything that seeks to undermine it.
In the meantime I hope you find rest, strength, and even some joy.
Hope to see you on Tuesday, November 19, at 6:00 PM ET for our discussion of A Map to the Door of No Return. And if you’re new to this space and don’t have time to read the book, please join us anyway. We’ll talk about the book, what’s going on in the world, and abolitionist tings!