On 20 September 2016, Hillary Clinton addressed the Tulsa police shooting. She said that while there are “good, honorable, cool-headed police officers” working across the country, “we can do better. We have got to tackle systemic racism. This horrible shooting again. How many times do we have to see this in our country? This is just unbearable. And it needs to be intolerable.” (eg, CNN)
A month earlier, on 21 August, the Philippine President used his colourful language to say the same: “Why are you Americans killing black people there, shooting them down when they are already on the ground? Answer that question because even if it’s only one or two or three it’s still human rights violation, goddamn – you tell that to that American there.” (eg, CNS, the Hill, NBC)
I am glad that Hillary Clinton used the word “unbearable” as I feel it the same way. I don’t know the statistics but it feels to me that these killings of black people have never been higher than during Obama’s Presidency (2009-2017). That feeling also makes me – reluctantly – wonder if these systematic killings are part of something entirely else.
In a weird way, my perception is shared by Kathy Miller. Until her taped video remark became public, she coordinated Donald Trump’s Presidential Election campaign in Mahoning County, Ohio: “I don’t think there was any racism until Obama got elected. We never had problems like this. Now, with the people with the guns, and shooting up neighborhoods, and not being responsible citizens, that’s a big change, and I think that’s the philosophy that Obama has perpetuated on America.” (Guardian)
Kathy Miller’s observation is factually incorrect but her perspective (or: belief) is intriguing. I think, feel and believe that the 8 years of Obama Presidency changed the perspective of white Americans on black citizens. Essentially, Donald Trump’s campaign leverages on that white perspective.
For many decades, white voters have dominated American elections. Several news media reported that the 2016 Presidential campaign is probably the last one as a result of changing US demographics. On 13 May 2016, US News released a telling article, called The decline of the white male voter: “Nationwide, 16 percent of eligible voters were minorities in 1980. That percentage has grown to 30 percent this year and will be 50 percent by 2052. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that the country as a whole will be majority-minority by 2044.” Alternative sources: link 1.
The ferocity of the 2016 American Presidential Election campaign, and Donald Trump’s in particular, most likely also relates to this white last straw. The belief in White Supremacy is at stake. On 20 September 2016, the WP used this headline: “You can sleep tonight knowing the Klan is awake. Fliers like these are showing up on lawns across the U.S.” One 30 June 2016, the NY Post reported an AP article that “The Ku Klux Klan is slowly rising again“. The “unbearable” coin clearly has 2 sides, like most stories have.
White Supremacy is neither a fact, nor an opinion, and certainly not the Truth. It is a Philosophical Belief system, firmly rooted in its past achievements, guarded by a continued separation between Politics and Religion, pushed by Money and Science, and only threatened by Greed, Ignorance and a lack of Love for people and planet.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) – IMDb, video, Wiki
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