The Protests Are Different, But Whites Are Not So Much
More are coming out, but not enough are coming around
The current rebellions are different, and they've already made a difference. But people are too eager to say whites have changed. Those who insist whites are changing aren't looking at the right data, and they aren't looking at the data right.
There are many examples of this good cheer that's wrong. Here's one example in a piece from the Atlantic:
“Martin Luther King III and other activists I’ve spoken with in recent days share a unanimous belief that this time is different. Years into the movement, the potential for true progress may finally be at hand, in no small part because the same cycle of unabated violence that has infuriated black activists is finally, due to the unrelenting stream of video evidence, forcing many white Americans to wake up... Now white eyes have been opened too.”
You can forgive Black people for hoping that whites finally figured it out, but the sinner should know the depths of their sins.
People are too quick to give whites credit for protesting; in the same way, they said America was post-racial after electing Obama.
It doesn't help that journalists and op-ed writers publish articles with titles like: “White America is reckoning with racism. It could reshape 2020,”
“White Americans Say They Are Waking Up to Racism. What Will It Add Up To?”
“Why white people seem to be changing their minds, suddenly, on the justice system and race,” and, “White voters are turning on Trump, new data shows. Why now?”
And in those articles, we get headings like “A cultural shift in white America?” plus, hopeful sentences like, “The scales have fallen from the eyes of college-educated whites...,” and, “The presence of so many whites on the streets over the past couple of weeks provides hope that a majority of whites finally grasp the pervasive nature of systemic racism.”
No, that's not what I'm thinking or feeling.
While the evidence is abundant for optimism at this moment, I'm not convinced there's much optimism in whites. The gleeful headlines that say in a Paul Revere way that “Whites are changing, whites are changing!” fail to convey that whites have always been in the way and that whites are still in the way. This shouldn’t deceive anyone.
Trump is in the White House because of white racism and whiteness. Trump is the measuring stick. Trump is the sticking point. And while his latest rally had a smaller crowd, too many whites still want to reelect Trump.
An analysis of several polls in the New York Times shows 50% of whites want Trump and 45% want Biden.
Keep in mind the margin of error and keep in mind that whites lie to pollsters. But even if the polls are accurate, is that the best whites can do on Trump? The president of the United States used racist slurs at a rally in Oklahoma—is that the best whites can do on Trump?
After all we've seen in Trump—after a bungled response to a pandemic that is disproportionately killing Black people, after more killings of Black people at the hands of white vigilantes and the police—is that the best whites can do on Trump?
Looking at the polls, it’s clear that hindsight on Trump isn’t 20/20 for whites. In 2016, Trump won 54% of whites. Today, polls say 50% of whites want Trump.
While journalists and analysts herald the change, I see nothing to celebrate in the 50/50 deal with the devil offered by whites. The slippage in Trump's support is shallow. I can't get excited about whites slightly moving away from Trump. Whatever whites are feeling at this moment isn't good enough. And think of how much pain it has taken to get whites to this pitiful point.
Black people and people of color don't straddle both sides of Trump. The same analysis in the New York Times says 70% of “nonwhites” are in Biden’s camp. Other polls show that 88% of Black voters support Biden. But white support for Biden still lags far behind, which means white support for Trump can rebound.
With half of whites for Trump and half of whites against Trump, we see the data behind what Tressie McMillan Cottom calls, “the ultimate expression of whiteness: elasticity.” This is the data behind the ability of whiteness to reconstitute itself. This is the data behind the pull the white citizen feels between equality and racial standing that Joel Olson described.
Whites can snapback because they haven't withdrawn their support for Trump.
We have names for this: a draw, a dead heat, a standoff, a stalemate, and a tie. But the best word may be pathetic. This tug of war shouldn't be a nail-biter or a close call. I'm not sure who needs a reminder, but Donald Trump is a racist demagogue. I'm not sure who needs to hear it again, but Donald Trump is a racist terrorist.
When whites are 50/50 on Trump, they cancel each other out. When whites say, “Maybe,” on Trump—a racist demagogue who can appoint a gang of like-minded judges for life with similar un-qualifications and disqualifications—I see a collective shrug of white shoulders.
This shoulder shrug by whites is the limpness of “not racist.” It's ambivalent. It's half-caf. It's half-ass. It's moderate. This down the middle view on Trump and Biden among whites makes white identity, in the aggregate, the white moderate that Dr. King lamented. Altogether, whites add up to the white moderate; whites are the white moderate.
The entire identity is lukewarm, which makes it the worst. The polls with whites on both sides of Trump and Biden show us that white identity is North and South at the same time. Whiteness is always sometimey. White identity has always promoted equality while oppressing people.
The polls also say whites could reelect Trump. Even if Trump doesn't win in November, half of whites want him to win, which means many red states will stay red. And it’s unsettling to think what Trump, or another president like him, would have to do for whites to turn.
Despite all we’ve seen, the polls clarify that whites haven't had enough or changed enough. On some questions about racism and police brutality, whites say the right words to pollsters, but take note because they still want Trump. Compromise and compartmentalization are core to white America. Today, acknowledging racism and police brutality by whites is a white way to say all men are created equal. And voting for Trump is the continuation of oppression.
Whites are trying to have it both ways.
Whites are pulling a Charlottesville. In polls, whites as a group are saying, “there are some very fine people on both sides.” That means collectively white America is Trump after Charlottesville. This must be another reason Trump is the first white president, as Ta-Nehisi Coates named him. With his “some very fine people on both sides” remark, Trump said what white America says and does in politics. Whites being 50/50 on Trump looks like Charlottesville.
Anyone who supports Trump, or the GOP, isn't serious about ending white racism. In this coming election, I want a Black woman to make history as the first vice president of the United States, and I want whites to break history by not voting as a majority for the Republican nominee for president.
Whites, as a majority, haven't voted for a Democrat for president since LBJ signed civil rights legislation. White racism drives white voters. Political scientists say people sort into the two major political parties based on how they feel about race. And it shouldn't be breaking news that the most racist voters support the GOP, which is the white party.
According to theorists, whiteness is a cross-class alliance with elites. On whites, November is the test and November will have the answer. If most whites reject Trump in big numbers, like the evil he is, then whites have changed, and structural change is coming. If most whites reject the GOP, like the hate group it is, then whites have changed, and structural change is coming. If the ratings on Fox News fall, if most whites support reparations, then sound an alarm because whites have changed, and structural change is coming.
To those asking, based on whites, “Are we there yet?” the answer is no.
Democrats and Mitt Romney Republicans fill the streets. But the whites in our eyes don't change what's in black and white in the polls. Trump is right that the protestors aren't his voters. Based on the polls, many white protestors are the 50% of whites who won't vote for Trump. The rest haven't moved enough on Trump.
My view here is not a case of perfect being the enemy of good. In her book, “How to Be Less Stupid About Race” Crystal M. Fleming says white supremacy needs us to cling to, “A hope that sells you neoliberal inclusion and ‘feel-good’ tokenism—the kind of hope that cannot threaten the racial status quo.”
I refuse that hope as humbug.
Tressie McMillan Cottom in her essay, “Know Your Whites,” says to know your whites is to “critically withhold faith in white people categorically.” That's a statement Ibram X. Kendi would call racist, but Cottom isn't alone. James Baldwin said, “As long as you think you're white, there's no hope for you.”
White racism is an identity problem.
If there's no hope for people who think they're white, there's no hope in people who think they're white. When whites are tired of being white, then there may be some hope for them and in them. Enduring solutions will get at the root of what makes people think they're white and figure out how to stop white identity because white viewpoints alone on race are out of whack and hold the world back.
On June 10, the site FiveThirtyEight published a sober article with the title, “Do You Know How Divided White and Black Americans Are on Racism?”
The article looks at the gap between Black and white responses in several recent polls. Keep in mind that some pollsters interviewed people even as books about race, racism, and antiracism were selling out at record speeds.
The article in FiveThirtyEight repeatedly calls attention to the gap between Black and white views on race, racism, and police brutality with these words— “the gap here is still pretty stark,” “That's another pretty big gap,” “Again, a large gap,” and, “the persistent gap.”
I mind the gaps because it’s dangerous to ignore the gaps. The overall position of whites says it all. More are coming out, but not enough are coming around.
This post includes affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission for purchases using the links. Here are my book recommendations from this post:
Thick and Other Essays, Tressie McMillan Cottom