Americans love to live in denial. We are raised to ignore by a school system that doesn’t teach about other cultures as if they are not important. We sweep our nation’s dark history under the rug and create comforting myths about the purity of American ideals. But the last few years have made one thing clear: Pretending that racism doesn’t exist won’t make it disappear.

The ongoing challenge is to get white folks to see the benefit of correcting the harm, letting go of our fears.  One of the main reasons is that, in this day and age, we are all in pain and there is suffering going on in communities across the world.  We as white folks are taught to look outward and feel victimized.  We need to blame someone for our pain and the only ones we do not look to blame is our own cultural practices.  That goes against how we were taught to think of ourselves. 

We think we are the greatest.  Why because we win wars?  Or because we consume the most?  We are taught to pledge our allegiance to our definition of our greatness and that comes with not having to learn or consider other cultures’ practices.

What made Donald Trump different from previous politicians is that he has no qualms about using racist language or policy suggestions to exploit his audience’s fears about people of color, immigrants and Muslims—and then claiming innocence and victimhood when called out by critics for doing so.

We use our power to define to maintain our privilege to have such power.  That is why it’s disturbing when people who claim to care about this country tear apart its fabric with racist remarks under the guise of patriotism. It takes little more than a cursory glance at American history to understand that racism has been one of America’s original traits.

The reason low melanated folks keep trying so hard to convince us otherwise by distorting what real patriotism should look like comes down to fear: We are afraid we will be pushed aside as other cultures gain prominence in America, and we will do anything to hold onto our power.  That is, anything but focus on how we can be the best version of ourselves.  When we become ready for that level of responsibility, we will no longer seek to find fault and blame to comfort our feelings of victimhood.  It is then that we can become “great.”

The idea that anyone who wants the U.S. to be “great again” by using racist motivations is not new; we know President Barack Obama has been a target of racism since he first campaigned for president. Trump’s success proves there is no shortage of Americans who buy into this sentiment. And Trump, like Reagan and Clinton before him, play into the desire to be great and the feeling that we are victims until we get our greatness back. That’s right: When you take away his mental illness and accusations of treason, Trump has built his political platform on the same racist ideas espoused by Reagan.  Whereas Clinton used his charm to convince us he cared for all groups of people, only to continue to push the same corporate and tough on crime agenda.

Denial and Victimhood

The Trump campaign is not the first time such sentiments have been used as a rallying cry, nor is it the first time they’ve been wrapped in patriotic imagery and language —but that doesn’t change the fact that what we’re seeing now is a grasping for our patriotism while ignoring our nation’s history:

We want to “Make America Great Again,” disassociating ourselves from groups of people based on their religion or ethnicity. Yet we are afraid to teach the truth about our history? I do not see how we can become great by pushing this level of denial and fear. Our other victim cry is “All Lives Matter”. This is one of our latest twists to combat addressing how we treat black folks. We are now convinced we are victims of those who push the Black Lives Matter agenda for equity and justice.  We act as if pushing for black empowerment and intentional focus on repair causes a divide.  We even quote segments of Dr. Martin Luther King to redefine what he sought in his dream of equity.

Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson took the path of denying white folks participation in designing the race construct.  In response to comments made by Michael Eric Dyson, Peterson said it was “a lie” to call him white, insisting that he’s “kind of tan” — a description he would extend to Rogan as well. 

“And [Dyson] was actually not black — he was sort of brown,” Peterson added. Rogan then took that idea and ran with it:

“Well, isn’t that weird? The Black and white thing is so strange because the shades are… There’s such a spectrum of shades of people. Unless you’re talking to someone who is, like, 100% African from the darkest place where they’re not wearing any clothes all day and they’ve developed all that melanin to protect themselves from the sun. Even the term Black is weird and when you use it for people that are literally my color, it becomes very strange.

I waited for them to state that IT IS LOW MELANATED PEOPLE WHO CREATED THE TERM WHITE AS A LEGAL TERM TO DIFFERENTIATE WHO GETS PRIVILEGES AND WHO DOESN’T.  But of course, they never did.  They made it seem as if they were the victim and people of color are wrong for describing things in terms of black and white.

Racist rhetoric and denial thereto may help some people feel safe again when they are fearful and grieving the realization that white culture is our biggest issue not our greatness.  Even if we don’t feel threatened by the prospect of change or being “pushed aside”, racism and denial thereof cannot solve our problems. Rejecting our need for repair and ignoring our history have never improved this country, no matter how many times they are rebranded as patriotism. I can only hope this situation is an opportunity for us to learn again what real values are—and why it’s time to stop defining racism as patriotic.