How Privilege, Ignorance, and Disparities Got Us Here
Election 2016
The presidential election of 2016 will go down in history as one of the most hotly-contested elections in this nation's history. Two-hundred forty years after the United States declared independence from Great Britain and this election was covered by sensationalism. It was also historic because it was the first time that a major political party had a woman participate in the main presidential elections and ballot. This election was also historic for another reason: it was the first modern election where a main candidate was endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan.
There are many factors that have drove this election, but I will address three because they are cyclical and continue around in a spiral which has yet to be resolved. The spiral is as follows in a logical analogy.
Certain classes and groups of people are privileged
Most people with privilege are ignorant to the lives of those without privilege
Those without privilege live subject to disparities
Disparities create the notion of privilege...
You get the point.
Essentially, as people voted it became clear that were were deep divides amongst race, gender, age, sexual orientation, and education status. The polls and election maps told all of the stories. That this election was fueled by privilege, ignorance, and disparities that have been the cornerstone of the United States even during it's colonial inception.
Privilege
Privilege can take many forms. Some times it is wealth related, other times it is educationally related, for the content of this discussion I will focus on race. Now, at this point I may lose readers (do not despair, more on the ignorance or disparities portion and you may find something interesting I might concede) but what I am saying has merit.
Privilege and race in the United States like many other Western countries go hand and hand. The more European the look, the more preferential the treatment. The straighter the hair - the better you get viewed in an interview. The more you fit in with the European status-quo - the more easily you are received by your counterparts that may not look like you (I can go on for days citing studies and anecdotes about this, but rather than bore you - you can Google, JSTOR, or Wikipedia it all you want at your own leisure). However, there are now other ways that race play a factor which contribute to real life consequences who are subject to such a system.
For instance, police officers view Black and Hispanic men as more violent and less innocent than White men. Black people are more likely to get killed by police based on statistical exposure than other groups. Black and Hispanics usually have high interest rates for home and auto loans even when factoring in credit and earnings being the same as someone who is white. White men with a criminal record can find a job more easily than a Black or Hispanic man with a college education. And the list goes on and on.
White women also are privileged in the sense that they too carry their race before their gender. While gender on it's own does pose it's own limiting factors on employment, treatment in the workplace, and pay - White women usually fare a lot better than their Black and Hispanic female counterparts. Even historically, when it came to suffrage rights all women were not created equal. In the words of Elisabeth Cady Staton, celebrated as an icon for women's suffrage, she stated that "What will we and our daughters suffer if these degraded black men are allowed to have the rights that would make them even worse than our Saxon fathers." In that statement she implied that her race as a White woman made her more fit to vote than a Black person.
In essence, what we saw during this election was a direct reflection of this. Poll numbers for White women where particularly high for Donald Trump. Even in light of his misogyny, rape culture driven, and oft comments and views about women. Why would women vote against their own interest you may ask? Privilege. Based on race alone, many White women feel that still ride above almost every other class of American. They know that if they walk into the store, no one would presume they would steal and won't get followed around. They know that they say to a police officer to "get their hands off of me!," they'll be alive to tell the tale and not have a resisting arrest charge.
For Black people who have voted for Trump, the same can be said to certain degrees. Many people I know voted for Trump who are Black voted against their interest. It was based on the belief that "they do not abide the status quo" and that because of their education and affluence, it removes them from being a target. The issue is that even if you have money, assets, residual income, and high academic acquisition, American society still sees you as lesser. In other words, voting from a false sense of privilege ignores the historical foundations that not only this country was founded on, but the legacy Black-Trump Supporter hails from by function of Slavery. They vote against history, they vote against their ancestors, and they fly in the face of the collective good of a community that birthed them by dissociating themselves from it.
Even age comes with privilege. Most Millennials and Gen Y's who reached the age to vote are saddled with poor job prospects, low earnings in comparison to degree attainment, and extreme student loan debt. In terms of generating wealth, most people who are between 18-30 are struggling to make ends meet despite working harder, longer, and multiple jobs. So when dealing with Baby Boomers and older people, they fail to understand the issues that face our generation. During the days when Baby Boomers were our age, they could afford a new car, a house, know they have a good salary, with a pension once they retire. Now, most people 18-30 will work into perpetuity because Social Security will disappear and pensions will no longer exist (in fact you'll be lucky if you make a match on a 401k... or even have enough money to start at 401k).
Most people who voted for Trump that are older are out of touch with the realities facing young people. They have their homes or homesteads, they have property, they have cars, they have relatively low educational loan obligations, even if they got a educational loan, the amount is much less because of the time needed to go to school due to academic inflation. Hence, it is much easier for an older person to vote for their own interest because of the "I got mines, you need to get yours - and I'm not handing it to you" mentality.
Ignorance
People with privilege do no understand or live the life of someone who lacks that privilege. So by function of a lack of knowledge, they are ignorant (which is essentially what the definition of the word is). For many White People they do not understand the pain of racism. Most never have, most never will. If they do experience it, it is because they either are aware when they see it to recognize that it does exist or they have family members such as children or grandchildren or cousins who are subject to such treatment.
The most common theme in the last few years is that many White men and women don't understand seek not to understand the plights of others. When Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians seek to discuss it - there is a shutdown. The response is: "Why is it always about race?" To the person asking the question, they don't see it as a problem because they haven't experienced it. So, they are tired of hearing about it. Why? Because it does not effect them in a meaningful way to care. The argument for people of color to not listen to the viewpoint of a white person is a bit different... it's based on the fact that we are made to assimilate by function of sociological processes. Hence, we have to learn to be assimilative in behavior, diglossic in speech, and versatile in our appearance.
In this election, ignorance was so prevalent that it embarrassed the United States. It showed that our culture is one that prides itself on not listening. It showed that our culture is only going to hear the vestiges of bigotry. Worst of all, it showed that our culture rather slide backwards because those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.
Donald Trump used the rhetoric of Black people living in decaying ghettos and painting Chicago as a war zone. However, lest we forget that the reason why many Black people live in these communities are due to the Great Migration. The response of many homeowners in these Northern cities was to redline neighborhoods and create restrictive covenants on home-buying that were not totally abolished until Shelly v. Kramer and Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. To this day, many of these policies leave Northern cities more segregated than their Southern counterparts. With failing school systems that were defunded and infrastructure that was left neglected, cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, and Detroit don't leave much for poor youth of color leaving them to get into all sorts of trouble. If it were not for policies that were based on racial privilege, this problem would have not gotten so bad.
Many supporters follow the patterns of ignorance that Trump has made evident. Racial slurs, violent acts, and acts of provocation have been some of the things that has spawned such ire over his upcoming presidency. In essence, the most clear minded of American citizens know that racism was existent. The issue is that it became accepted during his campaign. However, it is worse because Trump's win of the presidency legitimizes racism in a way unseen since the legitimization of Anti-semitism in Germany in 1929.
For Black voters who I have encountered voting for Trump, the lack of understanding about history drives this. A lack of understanding about self-identity and self-derivation points to dissociation with being marked as person of color. By losing the ability to look in the mirror and take notice of what the rest of the social status quo looks at you as and implications carried by it, you discount all history and knowledge. Essentially by being Black (or even LGBT or Disabled) and voting Trump, you seek to destroy 60 years of progress your predecessors worked, marched, slaved over, and was murdered or assassinated for. Once again, privilege shields you from being unable to comprehend what society feels about you even though history makes it readily apparent and inherently obvious.
Disparities
I will concede one thing. Most people that voted for Trump in this past election were White people who live in rural communities that are not wealthy by any means. They voted against their interest. Historically Republicans are anti-public assistance and believe that WIC, Food Stamps, and Obamacare need to be eradicated. But they did not care... why? It's because once again, ignorance over actual usage of those benefits and privilege carries the day. While White people who are rural and poor may not have socio-economic clout and use public assistance programs more than people of color, Whiteness allows them to get loans at lower interest rates, purchase homes, find employment, and avoid incarceration at higher rates than other groups.
Even if they lost their benefits and public assistance, they know that their race will safeguard them from many maladies that do not face other groups.
Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, the LGBT community , and immigrants (both legal and illegal), have been shaken up by the election of Trump because he has managed to attack every minority group in the country. He and Pence have even threatened to start stripping rights away from the LGBT, Muslim, and immigrant communities. By doing this, Trump has legitimized 400 years of racial oppression against Blacks (and arguably Hispanics as well), reversal of key LGBT rights cases like Obergefell v. Hodges and Lawrence v. Texas, and tracking Muslim Americans similar to how Jewish people were marked with the Star-of-David during the Holocaust. It is obvious that disparate impact by the law is not something that is going to occur, disparate treatment is going to occur.
The Tie In
I know I said a lot but if you'd followed me this far, I will keep this section painfully (or not) short.
The totality of the circumstances suggest that there is a problem. I propose some solutions during this period since we are living in an age that racial injustice and prejudice are legitimized are in vogue again.
1. Privilege Check Your Friends
If they're your friends, they'll hear you out
2. Privilege Check Yourself
Sometimes your lack of viewpoint is because you've never had to be there. Listen to others
3. Stand up Against Things That are Inherently Incorrect.
For all of my friends who are people of people, make sure that your friends that are people of color are not speaking wildly. That being said if you have White friends that tend to get quiet when there is racial injustice encourage them to speak up. They have the privilege, they know they do. So if they leverage it, both you and them can shut a bigoted person up or educate them.
4. Get educated
If anything try to get more read with the ways of the world.
5. Pray
No matter what spiritual belief you follow, pray to create a clean heart in yourself or creation of a clean heart in others who will then be willing to learn about the world and themselves
6. Know you can't change people...
You can lead a horse to water, but these attitudes took 400 years to propagate and spread in the fashion that they have. They are also deeply ingrained in our history and how we function in society.
7. ...But push the system
Things cannot change until we change out selves.
