Caucacity: The audacity of white people’s belief that they’re right even against contrary evidence.
If I had a dollar for every time a White Liberal tried to convince me that Trump’s win was not rooted in this kind of “White Supremacy’s last stand” racist mentality, I’d have that Beyoncé money. Caucacity in Liberal America runs deep, over the last few months I’ve read article after article and heard every Democrat imaginable attributing the win of the devil incarnate to everything BUT what it actually was–racism. The excuses follow a predictable pattern: It was coal, it was the decrease of blue collar jobs, it was the media, it was Russia, it was sexism, it was all of those damn emails.
The first step would be to actually admit that the America’s racist history persists today and needs to be addressed.
But if you are a Person of Color in America you’ve heard this song and dance before. We all have, over and over. It’s everytime a Police officer discharges his weapon into an unarmed Black or Brown person. It’s every time we see “the good kind” of immigrants swooped up by ICE. It’s Trump’s hotline to report “bad illegals.” But don’t worry guys it’s not racist, why would you even think that? All that racist stuff is just happening because people are scared of the Economy, duh! It seems that no matter the political party –– as People of Color –– we simply cannot avoid being gaslighted. I’m tired of White people telling me that they know better. So yes, White Liberal media and politicians, please tell me why you know more about being a Person Of Color in America than POC in America do… I’ll wait.
One of the most popular Economic anxiety arguments Liberals love to throw in our faces is the poor sad uneducated Blue-Collar White man. The overall consensus being, “hey he doesn’t know any better! And he’s poor! And he’s sad that he can’t get a high paying job with only a high school education.” Welcome to 2017 America, White man.
I read an article in the Harvard Review about why the destitute Blue Collar American voted for Trump citing loss of masculinity, resentment of the poor, hating Hillary and “types” like her, but above all things, economic anxiety. That may all be true, but let’s be perfectly clear, Trump won the White majority vote across all incomes and backgrounds. So although it’s easy to blame the uneducated working class, income was not a predicting factor for Trump. In fact, the hostility and grievances of White Americans toward minority groups “have further displaced class as the central battleground of American politics.” Parties are now –more than ever before– distilled based on attitudes on race, ethnicity and religion, as well as fear rooted in an ever growing Non-White population. Mic drop. So please, save the caucacity for someone else.
As I understand it, Trump did gain popularity by promising to bring back jobs to the languishing coal and manufacturing States, but let’s not forget that promising to “bring back” jobs is a problematic statement. The word “back” in itself is dripping with disdain for the communities who have historically been accused of “stealing” them (racist) from their rightful owners (racist)–– their white counterparts (racist). His rhetoric is also plays off of the Republican Party’s accusations that the Obama Administration purposefully sent manufacturing jobs overseas and or “gave them away” (racist) to “less deserving” individuals (racist), aka Mexicans and immigrants (racist).
Post election, the Economy has become this sort of background character in the cluster f**k that has followed. We’re basically being told: the Economy is bad so that people are being turned into racists as a result. Because that makes perfect sense. In fact, despite the rise of racially motivated violence, people are still acting like these are one off events rather than a trend among the White Trump supporters. White Americans are disproportionately cashing in their superiority complexes to harass, intimidate, and kill innocent Black and Brown Americans. Bottom line: Liberal White’s blatant caucacity in ignoring the racial resentment and the Trump campaigns willingness to play into them is dangerous. Caucacity in this case, can kill.
More than anything my question is: Why?
Why are politicians protecting the sensibility of White voters who were obviously guided by their racial resentments? And why is this protection at the expense of POC? My guess, the White vote 2020, which is essentially a slap in the face to Black and Brown people who are being forced to deal with this scary new world with no support aside from lip service. We all know how much White people hate being called racist and how much more they hate calling other White people racists, but come on!
POC lives are on the line here, people are being deported and killed in what is now a government sanctioned hostile environment. We don’t need to be pacified and told everything is fine, we know it’s not fine! It’s clear people hate us so why aren’t we being rallied by our representatives? Why are we not being offered actual protection? If politicians want POC support they need to support POC. The first step would be to actually admit that the America’s racist history persists today and needs to be addressed.
Wishy washy politicians who can’t seem to take a stance and renounce racism will continue to find themselves on the wrong side of history. Similarly, voters of color will continue to defect from the established two party system causing further electoral disasters. It seems that the Democratic party’s shortcomings and embarrassing fumbles have come at the cost of their common sense. Turning their backs on the POC who supported them by trying to convince them that the sun don’t shine and that the sky ain’t blue is ludicrous. It’s the kind of caucacity that will lose them another election in 2020.
Yvette Montoya is first generation American, a LA native, and a proud Latina reppin’ her mixed Latin heritage (Mexican + Chilean). She received her Bachelors in Literature from UCLA and her Masters in Literature, Rhetoric, and Composition from Cal Poly Pomona. She is an artist focusing on feminist issues and was original co-host for the #BrownGirlsRising podcast that explores the lives, activism, and feminist contributions of women of color. Co-Founder of Galchemism. She’s passionate about politics, intersectional women’s issues, pandas, and contributing to the plurality of Latinx narratives in the US.
