The Moral Fabric of this Country is Broken

Our hearts are hurting. Van Jones summed up the reason why perfectly on CNN last night. It's about the moral fabric of this country. When over half of Americans re-elect a President who is so fundamentally immoral and inhumane, it says something about America. How can it be that 50% of people in this country are okay with and/or support:

Child stands behind bars.

• The caging of innocent Latinx children

• The killing of Black people on our streets

• The casual and disgusting talk about sexually assaulting womxn

• The voter suppression of Black and Brown voters nationwide

• The denial of a pandemic that has taken far too many lives of people we know and love

• etc.....

While I flipped back and forth between CNN and MSNBC as the election results rolled in, something else bothered me. The White male anchors kept telling the Democrats to remain calm because not all votes are in. Telling us to remain calm washes over the experiences and emotions of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). This isn't 2016. It's 2020.

It's not just about the trauma of what happened in 2016 when a White supremacist was elected to the White House. It's about what WILL happen to BIPOC communities if Trump wins another term. We already know. He's told us here, here, and here. Voting for Joe Biden in this election (despite a good number of BIPOC folx preferring any one of the other 20+ candidates in the primary) sends clear message that:

• We will not stand for the continued oppression of BIPOC communities

• Black lives matter

• We value democracy over dictatorship and oligarchy

• We recognize the suffering of low-income, blue-collar, and houseless individuals in red and swing states AND we have a plan to lift them out of poverty

• The avoidable and undeserved deaths of over 230k+ Americans is not okay - and taking them off of their health plans during a pandemic is inhumane

• Womxn's bodies should not be controlled by men

• Lying is unacceptable

• Human life and human dignity is more important than money

But here's the thing. Even if Biden wins, our work is not done... just as it wasn't done when President Barack Obama won. We have to continue fighting because there are far too many White supremacists in power. There are too many Trump appointed judges deciding the fates of BIPOC individuals. And we know that it takes movements to dismantle structures, policies, and cultures that hold up supremacy.

The Oppression Olympics are real. Think about where Trump supporters and voters live. How many of them are in lower-income communities? How many of them are still unemployed due to the pandemic? What is the public education and healthcare like in the states and cities where they're located? If we were in their shoes, would we be forced to prioritize class over race? Gender over color? Ourselves over others? Dismantling White supremacy isn't either/or thinking. We have to live and sit in the grey areas.

Regardless of how this election turns out, one thing is clear. We still have work to do. I'm going to fully immerse myself in the grey and cancel the Oppression Olympics. Because until we do, we won't be able to dismantle the White supremacist powers in this country.