This Is MAGA America: The White Privilege to Terrorize

As a white man watching the Michigan protests of Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home orders, all I could think was: Black people don’t get to do this. Muslims don’t get to do this. Latinos don’t get to do this. People who look different in any way don’t get to do this.

They don’t get to swarm American capitol buildings in tactical gear with high-powered weapons, screaming in close proximity to police officers. They don’t get to dress up like Call of Duty cosplayers and attempt to physically intimidate politicians into bending to their wills. They don’t get to get to stop traffic in city streets decked out like they work at the Death Star and brazenly wield semi-automatic rifles. They don’t get to terrorize decent people and walk away.

Only white people get to do this. This violence is a singular privilege afforded to caucasian men in America.

People of color aren’t afforded this luxury. They can’t even get close to such ugliness. Heck, they barely get to breathe.

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This privilege has always existed, but it’s been decades since it’s been afforded this wide a birth, this long a leash, and such kid gloves from leaders. The threatening displays of white rage around the country lately, are happening with such frequency and ferocity, because participants know that they have in this president, a dedicated advocate, a willing partner, a powerful accomplice.

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This is MAGA America in its dawning renaissance of outward racism, showing us what is at stake as we approach another election. {snip}

What we witnessed in Michigan was an act of terrorism, by the very definition of the word. {snip}

I fully suspect people of color will oppose this presidency in large numbers, because they see the disparity.

What I hope and pray, is that more white people, especially those who claim to be Christian, will also stand to reject the supremacy and racism that yields such willful homegrown terrorism; that we will use the unearned currency of our privilege to declare this violence un-American and inhuman and unacceptable.

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