Facebook Publication Date: 11/4/2018 1:11

From the Desk of Lace on Race

The Referendum

In these final days before the election of all of our lives, I feel the need to be quite, quite clear.

This election is about white supremacy.

It can be cloaked in euphemism, minimized, outright denied.

But make no mistake.

As millions of Americans go to the polls, or fill out ballots at their kitchen tables, even though they may say that they are voting on taxes, or the environment, or on other social issues, –and they well may think that they are–at bottom, this election is about nothing less than the very soul, the fleshly heart, of this nation.

Jim Wallis of Sojo.net says that it is a referendum on white nationalism, and he is not wrong. But he does not go far enough in my view.

No. As bald as his words are, and despite the pearl clutching that his words are met with, he stops short of the heart, the center of the issues.

To talk only about white nationalism, and the toxic images the term invokes, lets far too many Americans off of the hook, and allows all too many to self soothe. Few of us have cheap cotton blend sheets with crudely cut out holes. For those who read my words, I would be surprised to find anyone except trolls who peruse Stormfront or other racist sites. None of you, I don’t think, have placed yourselves in the midst of angry mobs shouting words more suited for a bad TV movie about 1950’s Mississippi than for 2018.

The task is harder now, now that we know to eschew the obvious symbols and slogans that we like to think define and portray white supremacy.

It is more subtle, and after these two years, more baked into the very fabric of our collective lives.

For two years, we have seen what has felt like weekly executions of black and brown bodies. We have witnessed so many shootings that, at this point, the media often leaves them off of the front page–they have become commonplace, banal.

Banal.

“The Banality Of Evil”–this is what we are left with, as teachers in Idaho make the struggle of humans making a statement of decades of US policy with their very lives nothing more than a Halloween costume joke.

This is what we are left with as we witness an actual lynching–that took concerted activism and effort for the media to take seriously.

This is what we are left with in Pittsburgh, where words–‘Death to Jews’ became manifested into carnage.

This is what we are left with as candidates invoke images of monkeys instead of lucid points of policy.

This is what we are left with as officials charged with stewardship of the franchise, cynically and brutally defy both the spirit and the letter of the Voting Rights Act, with blunt force trauma suppression and denial of the fundamental right of suffrage.

We cannot become numb, cannot allow our knowledge of what is right and good, and the society so many before us literally died for, and for which we fight for still, to succumb to the pathogen that has infected our civic and personal lives.

Let me again state the obvious. The last two years have been worse than even the most pessimistic among us even dreamed of. Our putative leader, feeling the heat on his heels, has doubled down on both rhetoric and policy, doing the most damage he can in the time he has left.

It is easy to feel overwhelmed and despairing. There are pockets of this country that feel metastasized.

But even with the pathogen running amok, I have witnessed, and have been privileged to participate in, some of the most impassioned, innovative, steadfast, and focused actions and movements.

So then.

We keep walking.

Even though it must be stressed that voting alone will not, by itself, right this ship that is listing, still it is crucial.

For reasons that are known by all, and for reasons less easily discerned.

Because this is indeed a referendum on white supremacy, on resentment turned into hatred, of a willful and intentional effort to turn the clock back half a decade.

It is also a referendum on ourselves.

Many of you reading this have given time, resources to this fight. Many of you have lost friends and family in service to something greater. Many of you have taken professional and personal hits.

Some took offramps, but many of you have inspired and galvanized me, and other witnesses, as you doubled down, marching more, giving more, writing more, phoning more, with ever greater urgency and resolve.

Some of you, bluntly stated, did not. But there is always time and room for course correction.

No matter if we gain ground, hold the line, or (please no) find ourselves in defeat, we are not done.

For every gain, we must be vigilant. For every defeat we must bind our wounds and keep on going.

It is foolhardy to think that our work will be done after the polls close on Tuesday, however things swing.

We must think of this as another starting place, and begin anew with beginner’s mind to continue to claim back what we must never cede again–our heart, our resilient resolve, and our commitment to a world we know we can forge.

Vote. And then keep walking.

Please also vote with your tangible support of black women’s commentary and join with the community of Lace on Race. We will continue the work through the election and beyond, with analysis, praxis, and a carefully curated community of fellow walkers.

Please do share!–in its entirety only please, and with links intact. Please share from my personal page, or from Lace on Race, so revisions are included and attribution remains intact.

paypal.me/mennolacie

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