Here’s a new entry:
McAndrew, who voted for Obama in the two previous races, was intrigued by Trump, but decided eventually that “all he does is insult everybody … women, black people, white people, rich, poor. He’s an idiot.” He considered Clinton, but was concerned by the scandal over her handling of classified material on a private email server as secretary of state.
“I hated both of them, so I just said, ‘the hell with it,’” McAndrew said. His wife, also a life-long Democrat, went to the polls without him – and voted Republican.
“First time ever,” he said.
Meanwhile, over on Twitter, Shaun King, a reporter with the New York Daily News, has been collecting first-hand reports from people of color and other vulnerable members of society of life under the new regime. Things like this:
@ShaunKing #Charlotte "@dakotainthecity
I found this under my windshield wiper at my own house. I'm in disbelief" pic.twitter.com/glbKT8oeL4— Wilson (@WilsonsWorld) November 10, 2016
King’s timeline, only one day into the new reality of an America where people feel liberated from “political correctness” and empowered to harass, threaten, and abuse is sobering and heartbreaking.
Back in August of 2015 I tried to illustrate what white privilege means. My original list appears below.
But now add to that list the privilege of being able to stay home from the polls when you won’t be the one to suffer the worst consequences of that choice.
White privilege is …
- Not worrying you’ll wind up dead if the police pull you over for failing to signal a lane change or for not having a front license plate.
- Not worrying you’ll wind up dead if the police stop you on suspicion of shoplifting.
- Not worrying police will kill you for selling cigarettes on the street corner.
- Not worrying police will kill you for carrying a BB gun in the toy aisle of a Walmart that also sells firearms.
- Not worrying police will kill your son for playing with a toy gunat a neighborhood park.
- Not worrying the volunteer neighborhood watch captain will kill your son for walking home at night after buying candy at a nearby convenience store.
- Knowing you and your friends can safely show up in body armor and carrying semiautomatic rifles in a predominantly black community where angry protesters are confronting the police.
- Knowing you can safely show up with your semiautomatic rifle slung across your back at a public event where the country’s first black president is speaking.
- Knowing you can kill nine black worshippers at a historically black church and the first question people will ask is whether you are mentally ill, not whether you are racist.
- Knowing that when pundits, politicians, and the media panic over extremism, the dangers of radicalization, and the threat of homegrown terrorists, they’re not talking about you or your group.
- Knowing that if you are a celebrity charged with the horrific murder of your ex-wife and her friend, the last thing you have to worry about is whether Time Magazine will doctor your mug shot to make your skin look darker.
That’s white privilege.