Pexels provided the image of seated protestors wearing masks and one woman in the center with long curly brown hair holding a sign that says, “Racism is so American that when you protest it, people think you are protesting America.”
It’s the racism, y’all.
Election Day 2026
Sorry to bring up the elephant in the room, but if you are struggling with what has happened in this country as the pendulum has swung wildly, how it occurred, or the idea that certain white folx vote “against their own self-interest” I can tell you the answer with a lot of certainty.
It is racism.
Seriously.
We need to address it, but it’s difficult because nobody wants to do this hard thing.
The issue I actually struggle with is the one where most white folks will stop reading as soon as I say it (if not before, did you get this far, family?).
Racism is a concept that white people have started to treat like “sin”. If they stay away, they’ll go to heaven.
So many want to simply abstain; citing color blindness, or disclaiming ancestors and thinking it precludes us from participating in the repair. White folks think racism can be sidestepped and managed by pretending it is not our problem - telling ourselves “we” did not create it, and not even getting to the part where “we” white people are also trapped by the systemic aspects designed to curb all of us.
Pexels provided image of a black felt board with a blonde wood frame around the white words “Not today racism” over a black background.
Fighting Racism Requires Action
Ignoring it and hoping it will go away is not how anti-racism works, my loves.
We need to engage it actively, not just hope for the best and assume our lack of participation in actual horror is enough to make us a “good white person.” This is the part the majority of white folx appear to be floundering with, from what I have seen, and I think it’s important we talk about it.
It starts with accountability. But let me explain, I am not exempt, I am a case study.
Hi. I’m Jackie, and I was raised to be racist and bigoted in America.
I actively work to deconstruct the ways that I am aware of issues, I read to find out what I’m not aware of, and I try to learn as I go on my path, which has been tedious at best, my friends.
Do you know any religious converts? There’s a joke in the religious communities that converts are the biggest zealots because they come late to the game and they get so enthusiastic that become… well… intense to be around.
That’s what I think a lot of white women go through, too, on our journey to de-construct, and we can get stuck in this becuase it’s also very close to what we’re used to having at our fingertips: a club to beat others who aren’t perfect with (who’s perfect? NOBODY. So perfection is a club we can beat EVERYONE with! Oh good. Righteous, zealoty, and still working on how dangerous we can be - the path of deconstructing from racism and racist behaviors is tricky, slippery, and filled with opportunities to backslide so you can learn what you missed just there.
There is more to learn, always, and humility is so much later for me in this path than was really productive - I burned through a lot of important connections because I wasn’t ready to engage with anything less than a club with certain people. That didn’t help our relationship and it didn’t help my cause or my point.
Not helpful, and something I see lots of us doing online.
I have mostly outgrown it, and can spot my righteousness early enough to stop it from being a problem. But that takes introspection and accountability.
And I do that - I have for a long time. And I do it mostly alone.
I have been talking about anti-racism work in my world for the better part of 3 decades and I can tell you with complete certainty that not one of the people in my family, in my inner circle, in my community, in my neighborhood, or in my real life have engaged this work WITH me.
I do it alone, and when I ask for others to join, they run and hide and disconnect.
But how can we improve if we’re not helping each other do it, white womyn?
I believe our lack of ability to engage in this topic limits our ability to heal it going forward. Without the ability to heal, we can not atone and make right energetically with our past, and until we do - the past will show up as a monster we need to slay externally.
In an election, ffs. As we dance with fascism and say things are fine because the market is good? Y’all. Yikes.
This is terrifyingly close, and we’re not TALKING ABOUT IT.
WHO LET THEM IN? WE DID.
Even now, the real monster we need to confront is not (just) the one in the White House. It is the one inside of us that allowed all of this to happen - the parts of us that allowed the country’s rule of law to be highjacked by a man who wields white supremacy like an expert swordsman. Instinctually.
The part of us that let him step into office when he could not meet the most basic of requirements to run for office - and rather than disqualifying him on those administrative merits (as we do in EVERY OTHER PART OF OUR GOVERNMENT), we are witnessing a dangerous dance with oligarchy, resources, and technology - while the rich get richer, and the rest are struggling to find rent money and food money?
Holy hell, this is epically bad, and if you’re not feeling it, congratulations, but don’t think that you’ll stay excluded from consequences as we go forward.
Prices aren’t going down anytime soon, the Dems have lots of work to do and not enough power to implement things without the white house. We are at the start of a long battle, and we’re playing against known cheaters.
The poorest white Americans who cannot afford rent, groceries, and gas for their car that are also convinced that they are better off voting for those who created the dilemma. Are we really going to disregard the obvious thumb on the scale that weights their choice? They’re hungry, but at least they’re not Black.
Think I’m crazy to say it?
I have sources - beyond my personal experiences in deeply racist places.
Pexels provided the image of a group of protestors and a salmon colored sign with the words in white that read “Racism is a pandemic, too.”
Why would you vote for those who are oppressing you?
We have heard for decades the statement that poor white people vote “against their own self interest.” It is a perspective based primarily on the financial bottom line. But that’s not doing all the math - the real math includes hierarchical questions that are asked internally, deep inside, and are based in fear and unworthiness:
“How do I stay above others who are also trapped in this system with me?”
The answer is pretty straightforward: racism weighs the scales.
This was something I learned from a fantastic book written by a Black author, Isabel Wilkerson.
Image of book cover for CASTE by Isabel Wilkerson.
Caste, is a beautifully poignant and thorough evaluation of race and class in America. This book removes doubt about what we are struggling with in this country. We (white people) have not yet contended with the history of our ancestors and predecessors.
Until we start to recognize how that is shackling all of us to this place, it will be hard for all of us to get free if we can not let go and begin to write a different and more aligned story for our future.
We cannot possibly do that without the ability to discuss hard things with one another. This country is on a racial pendulum right now, and to ignore that as the catalyst is something that seems hard for me to fathom.
Pexels provided an image of protestors seeking Justice for George Floyd holding signs that say “Black Lives Matter,” “White Silence is Violence,” “Defund the Police” and “My Skin is Not a Crime.”
Every time I hear a white person say, “I don’t know how we got here” or “how did it get this bad?” or everyone’s favorite “that’s not the country I know” I feel things.
Because it’s such a blatant disregard of the very easy to identify truth: our country is racist as hell, we allow it, if not encourage it, and then we act like we’re confused by Nazis running our government, when we never made the Stars and Bars illegal, and Americans give white supremacists cover by not forbidding engagement with such hatred.
We give cover to racism with our “turning the other cheek” or “looking away” or whatever we call it. We do it all the time, and that’s how we got here. We allow racism to continue as a foundational way that white people in America connect.
Indeed, we made it look so appealing that all those from all around the world think that they can come here and join our hateful white supremacist base, even when they don’t understand that their accent excludes them.
“White” in America doesn’t have an accent, but so many don’t understand that truth, it’s wild.
We don’t care that our grandparents sounded like you. You are a foreigner, and immigrant, you must have your paperwork in order.
This is a crazy slippery slope, too, because once we start asking for everyone’s “papers, please?”
Then it becomes total chaos because my loves, there is no way we all have our historical documents in order. I’m a paralegal by trade. I’m just playing the odds, not making a judgement.
I know how government paperwork goes and how good people are about managing it. (They’re not good at it, y’all) It was my bread and butter for a quarter century. lol. I was paid to send reminders for two decades.
SPEAKING OF PAPERS, PLEASE
It also makes me wonder - how crazy is it that he’s our president and he’s questioning everyone else’s credentials when his literally are not up to snuff and we still never eliminated him on that when he ran for office?
Can I tell you how offended I am as a paralegal? The Patent Office would have bounced his paperwork, so why the hell didn’t the Courts handle it that way?
Well, because if it was Obama, they would have found the errors in that paperwork, friends.
SHOW ME THE LIE.
That’s white supremacy in action to me. The unquestioned success of a terrible person who broke rules, thumbed his nose at the process, told have the country he would grab them by their genitals, and then somehow managed to WIN an election.
TWICE.
If this is confusing to you, then I really recommend you check out Caste - it is a substantial work that is exceptionally well communicated with depth and astounding detail, and explains how this country can be more closely aligned with this hateful man in office than any woman, especially a Black woman.
This is going to continue to be relevant, my friends, and it’s important that we find a way to engage each other in this work so we can become part of the solution.
A Black woman on the internet over a decade commented something that I have never forgotten, and I am sorry I didn’t write down her name from this comment because it has become a profound part of my process:
“If white women can’t trust each other, how will Black women ever be able to trust you?”
If you are looking to build trust on this topic, and explore, please reach out.
I am here for community building, support, and educating ourselves to be part of the solution we seek going forward.
I love you. I believe in us.
I know we can find our way through this, even with our history of betrayal by others.
We can do this, and we will do it faster and more efficiently if we do it together.
xo,
Jax
