9/7/20
By Andrea Portes
Dear fellow White women,
Why am I addressing this to just White women when women of color are also struggling with these same dire circumstances? In fact, aren't Black Americans, including Black women, disproportionately at risk of dying of Covid (as are Native American and Latinos) and at greater risk of experiencing economic hardship from the pandemic? Sadly, yes to all of this. But Black women are not who Trump is trying to reach—and he does not want to discuss the disastrous pandemic with anyone. He would like to discuss something different...and just with suburban White women, who he is not-so-subtly courting and desperate to capture, since these voters have the power to swing the election. Of course, many, many White women—suburban and otherwise—did not vote for Trump last time and have no intention of doing so in 2020. But many did. I'm a White woman, and the truth is I'm moderate—a Democrat, but fairly moderate. But I refuse to be goaded or manipulated by racist fear tactics. I was horrified by what happened to George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and now, Jacob Blake. I detest racism and police brutality; it has no place in this country. And when Black people (and their White allies) rise up to protest against this, their legitimate grievance should not be twisted into a wedge issue by any leader. At the same time, some of the images of looters --in LA, Kenosha and elsewhere--taking advantage of this moment of racial reckoning rub me the wrong way, too.
My best friend has opposite political views from mine. And, in true, politically disengaged, Gen X fashion, I don't care. But let's be clear: While we can all have political disagreements, we must be firm in rejecting Trump's, or any politician's, attempt to use racist campaign tactics, like referring to protesters—the vast majority of whom are peaceful-- as "anarchists" or downplaying Blake's shooting—seven times in the back-- during a police stop in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to divide White suburban voters from Black urban voters, as though we are not ALL Americans. By employing the image of the sinister Black bogeyman looting American cities, Trump is reaching for an offensive strategy that has been used for years in American politics. Trump wants to divide us by exploiting what he hopes are our subconscious fears, by making it look like Democrats are going to allow "danger" into your quiet suburbs. This couldn't be further from the truth. So please, I'm begging you, my fellow pragmatic White women: together, this November, let's not fall for Trump's bet that we are more racist than we are smart.
