Trump's Triumph and its Heralds: Think Like a White Man

... and the sewer cracked, unleashing a deluge of smart whitesplaining men telling us Trump won because of the economy, stupid: materialist supremacism.

It is an easy thing to talk of patience to the afflicted
To speak the laws of prudence to the houseless wanderer
To listen to the hungry ravens cry in wintry season
When the red blood is filld with wine & with the marrow of lambs
It is an easy thing to laugh at wrathful elements
To hear the dog howl at the wintry door, the ox in the slaughterhouse moan
William Blake, The Four Zoas

To those of you confidently whitesplaining to the world that Trump’s victory was about economics, and not racism and the legacy of slavery (I had someone say that the vote cannot have been racist because the US once elected a black president: someone else explained the nature of causality to me – the Trump vote was’ caused’ by economic factors whereas racism and misogyny are more like an unfortunate mood or unpleasant smell going around with no causal impact, like a damp fart) and that people were merely protesting about food and utility prices, inflation, ‘legitimate fears about immigration’, etc, etc:

THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT SLAVERY IS: PURSUING YOUR ECONOMIC INTERESTS AT THE COST OF OTHER(ED) PEOPLE.

Do you imagine that plantation owners or Klan chiefs used to sit around worrying about the economic cost of maintaining slavery and Jim Crow, the terrible expense of housing and feeding their slaves just so they could deny them a seat on the bus?

RACISM AND ECONOMICS ARE NOT COMPETING FOR YOUR ATTENTION, THEY ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME ROTTEN WHOLE, STITCHED TOGETHER BY EMPIRE AND COLONIALISM.

OPPOSITION TO RACISM IS NOT MERELY ANOTHER CONSUMER ITEM, TO BE TRADED OFF AGAINST DONUTS AND PETROL PRICES WHEN TIMES ARE HARD.

To this you can add the irony of hearing all this usually from ‘Marxists’, who say they don’t see the world as a jumble of distinct issues and influences but as a great totality driven by economic forces and relations: everything is connected… apart from voting for Trump and the history of America.

If you think voting for a racist is not racism because it suits the voter’s economic interests…

YOU ARE BOTH RACISTS, YOU AND THE VOTER, BOTH COLLABORATORS WITH RACISM, THE MODERN PLANTATION OWNERS AND THEIR LACKEYS, LET LOOSE IN THE VOTING BOOTH.

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“I voted for Trump!”
“But he’s going to deport your neighbours.”
“Sure, but I did it for cheaper donuts.”
“OK – as long as you didn’t do it for racist reasons. Make sure to explain that to your neighbours before the eviction though – otherwise you might create a legacy of bad feeling that might backfire.”
“Thanks… have a donut.”

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Next week, back to Blake…..