Everyone is familiar with the words of that immortal philosopher Forrest Gump: “Stupid is as stupid does.” My mother had a similar saying which she used any time she felt we were placing too much emphasis on trying to make ourselves physically attractive: “Pretty is as pretty does.” Both sentiments serve to state what seems too obvious even to need saying: what we do is who we are. Talk is cheap. Words can be deceptive. My mother also frequently reminded us “Actions speak louder than words.” Another well-known teacher, Jesus, said it this way: “ You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit” (Matthew 7:16-17).
In the current war of words over who is racist and who isn’t, what we’re learning is that in today’s political climate, the word “racist” is more offensive than the racially biased actions are. A person who says racially degrading things may be described as unwise, crude, or careless; but anyone who calls him racist is the real villain. It’s considered racist to call out a prejudiced person and give a name to the person’s actions. We’re lost in a maze of circular reasoning, with no sign of finding our way out any time soon.
One of the reasons we’re not going to find a quick or easy solution to our nation’s polarization is the nature of today’s “conservative” movement.
Donald Trump’s supporters fall into three main categories, as I see it: white nationalists, evangelicals, and the types of people who are most likely to join a cult. As diverse as those three categories may seem, they actually have several common characteristics. Essential to survival for all of them is maintaining an us vs. them mentality. For the white nationalists, it’s white people (specifically white men) vs. everyone of color; for evangelicals, it’s the real Christians (as they see themselves) vs. nonbelievers, Muslims, and Christians who have a different view of Christianity than they have. They are God’s chosen; they are the insiders. For the cultists, it’s the members vs. the outsiders, obviously. But it’s worth enumerating here the characteristics which make people prone to joining cults and the fulfillment they find in membership.
Carolyn Steber (June 21, 2018 on Bustle.com) lists these nine personality traits as the primary markers of those most likely to join cults: wanting to feel validated, seeking an identity, being a follower (as opposed to a leader), seeking meaning, having schizotypal thinking (more on that in a moment), being highly suggestible (falling for conspiracy theories, e.g.), constantly blaming others, having very low self-worth. Important note, Ms. Steber defines “schizotypal thinking” as “walking along the edge of schizophrenia, without actually having the delusions or disconnection from society that’s associated with the disorder”–yet still falling prey to “alien-type,” “conspiracy-type,” or “supernatural-type” beliefs.
I think the cult-like nature of Trump’s base has been well established, but when you add in the characteristics of the people who are attracted to cults, you have a pretty clear picture of who these followers are and the futility of trying to reason with them.
A second distinctive which all three legs of the Trump Base share is reverence for authoritarian leaders. White nationalists, evangelicals, and cult members all exhibit fanatical devotion to their grand exalted leaders, even at times following the leader into their own graves.
A third distinctive, and the one which makes the currently existing critical mass of these types most problematic, is the utter lack of reason in their thinking and their actions. All are taught to accept only what they hear within the group; outsiders are the enemy and are out to steal their brains and deceive them into denying their allegiance to the group. Attempting to present facts or to reason with them has the adverse effect of causing them to cling more fervently to the ideas with which they have been brainwashed. The person attempting to engage them in discourse and expose them to logic becomes the face of the enemy who is trying to lead them astray from the truth. When you consider what’s lost by leaving a cult (one’s identity, validation, meaning, and self-worth), it’s not hard to understand why members cling so frantically to their membership.
A fourth distinctive shared by these three groups is fear: fear of losing their racial majority, fear of going to hell, or fear of being disconnected from the social order. Fear keeps them loyal, keeps them chanting, keeps them deceived, because listening to reason would lead to having to completely revamp their world view and let go of their safety net. And that’s scary for anyone.
All three of these groups, in their fervent devotion to their authoritarian leader, will defend that leader against all critics, no matter how outrageous the leader’s actions. This is how it becomes acceptable for a fascist dictator to tell women of color to go back where they came from, even though they came from here, but not okay to give a name to his statements and his attitudes. Those who do call a spade a spade become the enemy because they have assaulted the untouchable, so they are in fact the ones who are prejudiced.
But racist is as racist does, so here’s what racists do. You may be a racist if . . . Wait, no, you ARE a racist if . . .
. . . you think there are degrees of citizenship.
The United States of America was founded on this premise, written by Thomas Jefferson as the introduction to our declaration that we were claiming our rightful place as an independent nation:
“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
What does it mean for a truth to be self-evident? It means it is or should be obvious; it doesn’t need explanation, justification, or defense. It just is. In other words, Thomas Jefferson was not stating ideas or personal opinions; he was putting into words a fundamental principle: there are no degrees of humanity. Of course, we can’t escape the fact that Jefferson’s definition of “all men” was different from ours. It didn’t include black men, and it didn’t mean all humans; it literally meant men, not women. However, as enlightened citizens a couple of centuries later, when we say “All men are created equal,” we mean all human beings. To believe differently assigns degrees of humanity, and assigning people of color to a lower caste is racist, because racism is a form of prejudice, and prejudice is the prejudgment of people based on a particular characteristic. When that characteristic is race, the judgment is racist.
The rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, according to Jefferson, are given by our Creator (more room for discussion there, but let’s save that for later); they are not given by the government, and because they are “unalienable rights,” they can’t be taken away by the government. Depriving certain people of their God-given rights because of their race is a racist act. Causing certain citizens to feel “less than” because of their race is a racist act; placing certain citizens’ lives in danger because of their race and because your fanatical followers have been so whipped into a frenzy that they say a woman of color “deserves a round” is racist, dangerous, and evil.
. . . you agree with and defend other people’s racist statements.
Spreading dangerous and degrading attitudes requires the cooperation of many people, not all of whom agree with the attitudes being spread but some of whom lack the courage to take a stand against them. We have as a culture too long held the belief that discussing politics in polite company is inappropriate. Conventional wisdom teaches that in social gatherings, at Thanksgiving dinner, in school classrooms, and in church, politics and religion are taboo (with the obvious exception of discussing religion at church). In the 21st century, add social media to that list. Make too many political posts and see what happens to your friends list.
Politics is life; it’s our communal beliefs about how we join ourselves into a civil body, how we relate to each other within that body, and how our government should facilitate our peaceful and harmonious existence. How did those subjects become taboo? They should be discussed frequently, and what better places than with family, friends, faith community, and educational institutions. Why can’t a family have a rational conversation around the Thanksgiving dinner table without its ending in a mashed-potato fight? Why can’t a minister point out ungodly government actions without expecting a tirade from a parishioner as he greets people at the door, an angry Monday-morning phone call, or a letter of notification that some parishioners have found a different congregation where they’re not challenged to think about matters of national importance?
. . . you treat people differently–or excuse their inequitable treatment–depending on their race, color, religion, country of origin, or length of residence in the U. S.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar are citizens of the United States of America. Representative Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx, New York; her father was also born in the Bronx, and her mother was born in Puerto Rico, which–contrary to Donald Trump’s belief–means she also was born a citizen. Representative Pressley was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and raised on the north side of Chicago. Does it get more American than that? Representative Tlaib was born in Detroit to Palestinian immigrants, making her the first generation of her family to be born in the U.S. Representative Omar was born in Mogadishu and lived in Somalia until forced to flee to escape the war. The family arrived in New York in 1992 and were granted asylum, when Ms. Omar was ten years old. The family moved around a bit before settling in Minneapolis. Of the four young elected officials who have been the objects of unprecedented vicious attacks by the POTUS, Ms. Omar is the only one who is not native born; she has, however, been a naturalized citizen since 2000, when she was 17 years old. In addition to her skin color and foreign birth making her a target, she also wears the hijab in respect to her Muslim faith.
Donald Trump is only the second generation of Trumps born on American soil. His grandparents migrated here from Germany. On his mother’s side, he is the first generation native born; she was from Scotland. In other words, his roots in this country don’t go deep. He has been married to two immigrants: Ivana from Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) and Melania from Yugoslavia (now Slovenia). Melania, the First Lady of the United States, migrated here in 1996, a mere 23 years ago. She became a citizen in 2006, a mere 13 years ago. A recent Huff Post article points out that Ilhan Omar has been a citizen six years longer than Melania Trump has, yet so far, Donald has not ordered Melania back to where she came from.
When the person who holds the highest office in our land goes on an unprecedented rampage against four young elected officials, the fact that all four are people of color can’t be a coincidence. To say that he is not motivated by racism is to be either mentally deficient (using my nice words) or so blindly devoted as to be incapable of admitting the obvious. Maybe both.
. . . you ignore or reject the legal parameters governing interaction with people of different race and different national origin.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission makes it illegal to discriminate against anyone because of the person’s national origin:
“It is unlawful to harass a person because of his or her national origin. Harassment can include, for example, offensive or derogatory remarks about a person’s national origin, accent or ethnicity. Although the law doesn’t prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that are not very serious, harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim being fired or demoted).
The harasser can be the victim’s supervisor, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or someone who is not an employee of the employer, such as a client or customer.”
Based on that definition, Donald Trump’s protracted attacks on those four women would get him fired from Applebee’s, Macy’s, or Walmart. We’ve reached a sad stage in our history when the qualifications for POTUS are lower than for a supervisory position at McDonalds.
We’re in a mess, and we’re not getting out of it any time soon, but complacency is a luxury we can ill afford right now. Truth is our only refuge during troubled times, and we must keep proclaiming it. Silence is complicity.
“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.”
Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor