Understanding the Other Side?

It is simplistic to say that Donald Trump is “the problem”. If he was “the problem” his actions and words would not bring nearly a majority of the popular votes in the recent election. Trump’s margin of victory over Biden was huge in quite a few states: (43% — WY 39%- WV, 36%- SD, 35% — AL and KY, 33% — ND and OK.) Clearly, many people either support him significantly, or at least see him as being “less bad” than Joe Biden and the Democrats.

Is racism the problem? Certainly it is a huge part of the problem. Saying that it is “The Problem” is, however, simplistic. During much of the 1950’s communism was a scapegoat and weapon used to squash millions of peoples’ desires for economic and racial justice. Poor white people were played against poor Black people for the benefit of wealthy white people.

Racism is a huge problem! Often we white people resist our perceived fault for how important racism is. “I am not racist!” and “Why are you saying that I am racist?” are common feelings we hold. Many people react to any incident of physical confrontation, such as window breaking/thievery or police/protester confrontations, with horror, speaking of anarchy or the alleged Antifa plot(s). Such reactions minimize the predominance of peaceful protests, and speak to fears of a massive (united) anarchistic opposition which does not exist.

Covid-19 speaks to a much larger problem in several important ways. The denial of the medical realities is very troubling! The denial of basic scientific facts, totally politicizes things…