Do it for the Trolls!

This is the response that I received when a friend of mine shared my most recent Blog Post  

http://mojossocialjustice.blogspot.com/2016/11/sit-in-it.html 

Enjoy the following deflection, resistance and subsequent White Fragility ....

Howard Lewis Clinton received 5M less votes than Obama did in '12 and nearly 9M less than in '08. Trump received the same number of votes as Romney in '12 ~60M. Somehow Trump received a slightly higher percentage of the minority vote than Romney did in '12. Therefore, while I am horrified at the number of people who did cast a ballot FOR Trump, I am as horrified by the number of people who did not even bother to turn our to vote AGAINST him. Not voting matters too.

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Leah Lewis Howard so eloquently puts what I would like to say straight out which is that minority groups do not get to blame Trump entirely on whites because of the exact figures above. I wasn't voting for Hillary, I was voting against Trump and that is why I voted for her. For anyone to act like ONLY white people voted for Trump is categorically untrue. I not only know minorities who voted for Trump, the statistics also show that a large percentage of minorities chose not to vote against him, i.e. Not vote at all. A lot of people are to blame for Trump, and they are not all white. If people of a historically disenfranchised community chose not to vote, then they share in the blame game you apparently want to support.

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Monica Johnson To Be Clear... At no point in the attached post, did I use the word or racial classification WHITE. I purposefully included multiple marginalized identities in this statement as I believe it prudent for people to understand that a variety of marginalizations are now affected by knowing that their friends and families voted against their safety and livelihood. Neither did I intend this to be a discussion of individual who voted 3rd party, against their own interest, or who abstained from voting. (If you are so passionate about folks who fall into this category as I am about hide and seek bigots... feel free) In this PSA, I am clearly speaking to and about individuals who made the deliberate decision to vote for Trump (signifying their agreement with or lack of concern for his bigotry and hate) and are now going about the world begging others to not disavow or dislike them for their deliberate support of a bigot. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is represented in both responses to my above linked statement is 1) attempted deflection and 2) resistance yet again to engage in much needed conversations about power and privilege.... All of this is fine and you are certainly welcome to your opinion, but if at all possible, do not misrepresent my words or intent... Please and Thank You. Monica Johnson

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Howard Lewis I stated clearly that I was horrified by the votes for Trump. In May I left the Republican Party when it was clear he had a lock on the nomination, and voted against him in the most effective manner possible. I voted for Clinton. I tried to convince others to do the same with some success and some disheartening and family tension failure. My conscious is clear. However, the numbers are the numbers that the Obama coalition in '08 and '12 that had the most to lose in this election did not turn out. To not take that into account to is deflect from a terrible truth that if only a little over a million more voters had turned out from the past coalition then WI, PA, MI, and FL would have flipped to blue. Instead of a Trump administration with all that it will entail an opportunity for an historic achievement was lost. It was lost yes but folks voting for Trump, but it was lost by those who had the power to stop him.

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Write a reply...

Leah Lewis Monica, you may not have used the classification WHITE, but it was highly implied. Which is fine, you are entitled to your opinion. Yes, I am white. Yes, I am privileged. I am not denying that fact. But I went out and voted for Hillary because I was against Trump. You are deflecting the fact that minority communities do have to share responsibility for what happened in this election by not coming out to vote against a racist. The minority communities just did not show up for this election. And you seem to be not acknowledging that fact.

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Leah Lewis If that is not your intent, then please, let me know. But your community needs to look in the mirror just as much as my community does. I have to look at friends of mine and decide whether or not to keep them in my life knowing they voted for a person who welcomed and encouraged racism and misogyny.

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Monica Johnson Wow... just wow... there are many jewels from both of your responses that I do not have the time nor the personal responsibility to redirect, I will just share this Black Women turned out in record numbers to the polls, specifically for Hillary. I will attach an article that will assist you with this. I also suggest that you take some time to delve into the true background of voting and voter suppression in minority communities, especially in battle ground states. There may be a really racially/privileged explanation for the difference in the minority vote... I will also say, that just because you are triggered by Whiteness and its implications doesn't mean that someone else didnt read my statement and feel convicted along the lines of religion, or heteronormitivty, or any other potential area of dominance. Lastly, I would like to say that marginalized communities ARE ALREADY (and HAVE BEEN FOR CENTURIES) doing the work to counterbalance the systems that are built to destroy them. We don't need YOU to tell us what our mirror looks like or how to use it. -This shall be my last response... Carry on

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Monica Johnson https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../86d9182a-a845-11e6...

Black women — Hillary Clinton’s most reliable voting bloc — look beyond defeat

WASHINGTONPOST.COM|BY VANESSA WILLIAMS

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Howard Lewis You are making it an us versus them argument to fit your narrative rather than seeing the obvious that while the white vote went overwhelmingly for Trump there were a missing 5 to 9 million votes that cost the election. Only a fraction of that lost vote would have been changed everything. That white voting block was not a lock on outcome at all if Hillary received Obama number of votes.

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Leah Lewis Again, "YOU". You are making this an Us versus them mentality when it isn't. The actual statistics show that Hillary did not get as many minority votes as Obama which could have flipped at least four states. You are acting like I have some white guilt mentality. Am I pissed off at white people and white women in particular for voting for Trump. Fuck yeah. But that doesn't negate the fact that a lot of minority communities did not show up to vote. if they had, then Hillary would've won PA. I am just pissed off at your post acting like white people are the only people to blame, and that is what you are doing, don't be coy. Is the safety pin thing bullshit to make people feel better, yes it is. But if I see anyone being bullied for their race or gender or whatever I will stand up for them, regardless of safety pin.

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Sit in it!

PSA...Stop waiting on People of Color and other Marginalized folks to absolve you of the gravity of your Trump vote. We collectively will not do it.

The fact of the matter is that you prioritized your needs above all of the clear and present danger that a vote for that man could have on historically disenfranchised of the country (US). You turned a blind eye to the threats that YOUR candidate consistently made to Black folks, the disabled, Latinx folks, Muslims, LGBTQ+ folks, Women, and all other others AND you voted for him. You may not want to be called racist, xenophobic, homophobic, islamaphobic, ableist, sexist, or bigoted BUT you thought, acted, and VOTED like one last Tuesday...

So Boo, you gone have to sit with that. You are going to have to walk around with that shame and live in your truth. I'm not going to put my needs and safety to the side to help you feel better...

Cause last Tuesday your vote proved that at the core of you, you could give a damn about my LITERAL SAFETY, WELLBEING, or LIVELIHOOD.

P.S. ... You can buy all the safety pins Hobby Lobby (that's a read) got on clearance, me and mine already know that you don't have stamina to ride this thing out with us. You will be "ok" and move on in a couple of days...

AND

We will be left over here readjusting our lives to whatever jacked up ass legislations, regulations, and new disenfranchisements that YOUR president and his cabinet of BAD BIGOTED BITCHES and his House, His Senate, and (Lord Forbid) Supreme Court chose to come up with. If some of us make it out of these 4-8 years of potential warfare that is coming our way, then we can talk about rebuilding, but right now... Gone on somewhere with the bull****

#YesAllTrumpSupporters #EveryLastOneOfYall #NoOneGetsAPass #KeepYourPen #WorkingOnMyOwnSafety #CantBuildBridgesWithFolksHoldingDynamite #ISeeYou #GoneNah
*Blog Post*

I See You

I've always had that this theory that if the world suddenly became more of a dystopia (Hunger Games/Walking Dead) than it already appeared to be, that those in the dominant group would cut all the crap of civility and finally begin to truly live within the abilities granted them by various forms of privilege (I.e. Racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamaphobia, xenophobia... so on so forth). 

Welp- cue the horns... This election, and America basically proved me right. And you know what... it really hurts. 

Now there have been plenty of scholarly folks that back my theory. The Critical Race Theory, for one, makes it very clear that within the context of race, dominant groups only dismantle portions of their dominance, if and only if they are benefit for them. (CRT has many other gems, please research at your leisure)  

I've listened to the standards in Black thought and the architects of my new-age liberation (Davis, Baldwin, West, Alexander, DuBois, even Coates). I've seen the ebb and flow of support for marginalized folks within systems like higher education (programs built for grit and support of 1st gen students the live alongside programs that prioritize quality of housing based on incoming grades, testing and strength of high school). The criminal justice system determines the severity of the drug charge based on what boils down to the race of the individual most likely to use that drug. Governmental agencies devalue minority families by withholding resources to 2 parent households and continuously allowing the myth that the standard welfare mother is named Shakisharita, has 5 kids, a hair weave, and acrylics while the truth is that she typically is single, rural, with children, AND White! 

Even after all of what I've read and what I've seen, Tuesday night was a slow death. Wednesday was a somber funeral. I was hurt. 

Now I don't want to talk about 3rd party voters, the half of the country that stayed home, or the more that 100,000 jack asses that voted for harambe. I want to specifically address the "well meaning" dominant privilege folks, 

(My coworkers, professors, administrators, friends from church, neighbors, lady at the bank, ministers, friends from college, parents of my child's classmates, school teachers...)

who walk along side me and other marginalized folks, smiling and joking and pretending to care about me and ours that snuck off into voting booths, when no one was watching and purposefully cast a vote for a bigot, liar, rapist...so on and so forth. Not a suspected or alleged bigot, liar, rapist, homophobe, Islamaphobe... but a real live, proven, on tape bigot, liar, rapist, homophobe, Islamaphobe...

Regardless of your "legitimate" reasoning for casting your vote for Ol Boy, your vote, investment in the bigot, moved me and mine (people you pretend to respect and love) closer to that society where my life is at risk because it is less valued than yours. That's it... 

On Tuesday, when you cast your vote for them, you acknowledged that my life, and my ability to live it like you can in your dominance, didn't matter to you. You voted with them and as the clearly stated throughout their campaign, a vote for them was a vote against me. 

And on Wednesday, it began... you've seen the reports... your children have taken this act that you have modeled for them out into the world in force....

 2 men driving through a women's college harassing them with the campaign signs of an admitted rapist...

Grade school children chanting build a wall while their Latinx classmates cry...

 KKK spray-painted anywhere that is flat enough to hold it...

Muslim folks being openly berated and threatened with branding and registration...

Open use of racial slurs in high schools... 

It was a day when many unsuspecting marginalized children learned that the world was never meant to be safe for them. They realized that in a dystopia, they (the others) are the prey. They are afraid... as they should be in the context of this world... and that hurts to write... but it's the truth. 

You've seen the reports... and now you my friend are concerned... more so you are embarrassed... as you should be... but what's done is done. 

I now know that all of this "I love all people", "I don't see difference" bull is what you say to preserve the working relationships that you have in mixed company. Besides whether or not you "see color". 

The fact of the matter is... Today... I... See... You...

Self-Care: a non traditional form of activism

Self-Care is Activism

The Day I Learned About Social Justice: For Donald Trump Supporters Who Feel Stupid CauseThey Now See What Everyone Else Been Talking Bout

When I was about 6 or 7, I was standing in my grandparents' front yard raking leaves with BB (my grandmother). The garbage truck came around the corner and the garbage workers started collecting trash and returning the cans as the typically do- well not really- they were dumping the trash and then flinging the garbage cans in the middle of people's yards. BB watched them come all the way down the street. One house after another of flippantly returned garbage cans. When the truck got down to our house, the workers- seeing her standing in the yard- dumped our garbage and gently stood the can back up. BUT before they could pull away! BB raises her hand to get their attention and called the young man over.

As fierce as I had ever seen her (and BB was FIERCE) she raised her manicured arthritic finger in that man's face and said, "I done watched you throw all them people's cans in the middle of the stews house by house. Why didn't you do my can like that? -he didn't answer- These folks doe took the time to place their trash in a can and set it on the street and that's how they deserve to pick it back up. Not throwed off in the middle of their yards. Now on your way back up that street, you fix them garbage cans, hear." He replied (visibly annoyed) "Yes Ma'am". And she watched him as he fixed every garbage can until the truck left the street.

As a 6/7 I was kinda confused. I thought she was being knit picky. I asked BB, why'd she made him pick up all those cans. She looked me straight in the face and said "Moni, the garbage man go to everybody house on the street. What I see him do to them, he eventually gone do to me. You got to learn to respect folks even when nobody's making you."

It took a good 25 years for those words to sink in. And even today, they come back to me at the most convenient times. I think what has drummed them up today is the new realization for some folks that Donald Trump is a vile human being, now that he has been caught on tape perfectly modeling rape culture towards a privileged married White woman. That one act was when the garbage man showed up at the Conservative moral right White privilege voters house, and he flung that garbage can right at the front door.

Those same folks weren't bothered by Trumps attack on The country of Mexico or Mexican people.

They didn't have an issue when he made fun of people with disabilities.

They weren't affected by Xenophobia or Islamaphobia.

They  didn't ask questions when he was blatantly racist and received endorsements from White supremacist.

They didn't feel pain when he openly attacked LGBTQ+ folks or other women outside of specific spheres of privilege.

They weren't up in arms when he cheated the poor.

But NOW that he is at their yard... they expected something different. -just don't work that way.

Human beings have got to learn that respecting and protecting others is the Only way to truly respect and protect oneself. That, for me, is at the heart of social justice. Glad BB modeled that for me.