♃Humor Me: Let’s Play “Spot the White Supremacist.”
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When Our National Approach to Henhouse Safety Is “Trust the Fox.”
It is time for the President to stop using ‘White Supremacy’ as if it is something more than the racism we face on a daily basis.
During his first joint address to Congress Wednesday night, President Joe Biden got it wrong; again:
“We have to remain vigilant against the threats to the United States wherever they come from. . . . And we won’t ignore what our intelligence agencies have determined to be the most lethal terrorist threat to the homeland today: White Supremacy is terrorism.”
The President wasn’t intentionally saying White racism is terrorizing the nation, but he should have been. Instead, he wrongly drew a stark line between the good and just and the Derek Chauvins of America — between White Supremacists and our Better Angels. “And by fits and starts, our Better Angels had prevailed again, just enough, just enough against our worst impulses to make a new and better nation. And those Better Angels can prevail again, now.”
White Supremacist v. Better Angels is, of course, a false dichotomy — an error when setting the range of options.
Yes, there is a malevolent band of racism. The band is cowardly and usually quite easy to identify. They gather at the U.S. Capitol by the thousands to hang Pence effigies and smear feces on the walls. Of color America loses little sleep over those goofnuts.
It is the cruelty of the decent that delivers our night terrors. We know them well. Many voted for Obama. They lined up with us to trash Chauvin. They cloaked themselves in a race-breakthrough when the jury delivered his conviction. Then, they went home and grilled their daughter about her Black boyfriend.
White Supremacy is not the threat — everyday racism is.
In a nutshell, to rid society of racism’s true harm, we have to stage national pushback at the start point of racism’s true harm. The start point of true harm does not begin at “White Supremacy,” per Biden’s use (we disagree on the definition). The start point of true harm begins with the every day things White Americans do or don’t do. That is because it is the non-terrorist and non-extremist things that cause…
