They are, as blacks call other blacks who show “white” behavior, “Oreos.” In other words, it is white men who have made black and Hispanic men and women vote for Trump. Second, it infantilizes people of color, arguing that they mistakenly sought a nonexistent “power by proximity”, and are not going with the program that comports with their ethnicity. He’s made up an explanation that lacks any evidence at all. First of all, it’s not really an explanation at all: it literally begs the question. Seriously? A Stockholm Syndrome explanation? Some people who have historically been oppressed will stand with the oppressors, and will aspire to power by proximity. Trump’s brash, privileged chest trumping and alpha-male dismissiveness and in-your-face rudeness are aspirational to some men and appealing to some women. It reaches across gender and sexual orientation and even race. Here it is:Īll of this to me points to the power of the white patriarchy and the coattail it has of those who depend on it or aspire to it. That would be Blow’s analysis of why so many “oppressed” people voted for Trump in the first place. But I’m not willing to tar them all with the monicker of racism.īut that’s not the worst thing in this editorial. It is like saying that anybody who voted for Biden is a “woke enabler.” Now remember, I think that anybody who voted for Trump was making a serious mistake, voting for an unhinged demagogue who was destroying America.
Instead, they may have considered other issues more important in their vote: their economic well-being, their fear that they might lose their jobs to overseas companies or to immigrants, and so on.
But surely there are many people who voted for Trump who don’t see themselves as racists, or even see themselves as anti-racists. Well, Blow is a black man, so perhaps the idea that voting for Trump means a vote for racism-the weasel-out Blow proffers is “acquiesce to racists”-comes more naturally to him. It is so unsettling to consider that many of our fellow countrymen and women are either racists or accommodate racists or acquiesce to racists. To be exact, nearly three out of every five white voters in America are Trump voters. Let me be specific and explicit here: White people - both men and women - were the only group in which a majority voted for Trump, according to exit polls.