Racism, Free Markets, Coronavirus, and George Floyd
I have lived in this country for long enough to understand that endemic racism, the glorious pursuit of dollars through free markets, our absurd response to the coronavirus pandemic, and Trumpism are all rooted in the same evils. It is this concurrent confluence of reality that made the murder of George Floyd a national tipping point. I hope the forces against change don’t prevail, yet again.
I am a privileged white male, so I cannot say I have lived the direct experience of daily assaults and minimization that black people suffer. But I do read, and watch, and listen, and I am empathetic. Last year I drove for Uber and Lyft, taking passengers from all parts of Boston while learning that other white drivers avoided Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan and other predominantly black and ethnic neighborhoods under the guise of safety, economics, or other rationalizations for their racism. I lived in the wealthy Newton neighborhood for 20 years and over, and over, and over saw cops pulling over the cars that were beat up and had black drivers. I watched as guidance counselors at the high school steered my kids’ black friends to lesser colleges, and discouraged them from taking AP courses — Newton is pridefully enlightened, and even…
And now, as our narcissistic president appeals to the factions of his “base” with rekindling of racist tropes and dog whistles, I am furious. The breadth of hatred is breathtaking (and indeed, literally, as “I can’t breathe”) covering nearly all disadvantaged groups. Simultaneously the orange man drips out the regressive changes wanted by the remaining radical factions of conservatives in order that he can retain his power, gradually removing the carefully built structures designed to keep us safe, less unequal, just, and stable.
The implicitly consensual rape of the country has been going on since Reagan, or perhaps even Nixon, but these last decades have seen it turn from the plausibly consistent Conservative philosophy, to simply craven, hypocritical, brazen and unapologetic redistribution of wealth in the name of glorious free enterprise. Or even more recently, simply in the name of retaining power over the hated and despised liberals and socialists bent on the destruction of everything good and right. Trump has completed the bifurcation of our country into right and wrong. Without his utter incompetence to impede his efforts, Trump would successfully enable authoritarian government in the US.
In short, Trumpism is the abandonment of pretense, civility, and cooperation leading to the unvarnished and unapologetic disassembly of The United States, based on abeyance to a single metric: the stock market. And when that metric faltered as the pandemic hit, the house of cards began to fail, as card houses do, catastrophically. (It is alarming that the markets have largely recovered as this great and glorious metric once again threatens our reality.) The most egregious display is our absolutely bungled response to coronavirus, coupled with politicization of the basic science we need to follow to minimize the virus impacts. Masks as a political symbol? The level of ignorance, anti-science, and subservience to the masters at Fox and the White House continues to amaze me.
Meanwhile, and as a direct result of decades and centuries of institutional disadvantages, blacks and people of color are being disproportionately impacted by covid — more than twice the number of cases and deaths as whites. A disease that treats all hosts the same has found the weaknesses in our “perfect” society, not because the disease affects people differently, but because for decades, or actually centuries we have actively prevented blacks from getting money and stability, access to decent healthcare, access to good nutrition, or access to well-paying jobs. Centuries.
All progress has been incremental and minimal, leaving blacks and other people of color in better shape, but still having the unequal footing and disadvantages of being partial citizens with a lifetime of shortchanged opportunity. Who was targeted in the 2008 recession? Blacks who might finally get access to a benefit long held by whites: home ownership. Yet starting at an economic disadvantage these new economy entrants were sold toxic loans whose eventual collapse resulted in a whole new wave of racial disenfranchisement. Two steps forward, one step backward. Or two, or three.
In this shit stew, a man is murdered during an arrest for passing a $20 counterfeit note, his neck held down for eight minutes as he begged for life, by what seems like a disinterested police officer, with several others standing around watching. All while being videoed. This is white power in its most naked form. Many other similar incidents have been recorded, and in all cases there is increasing outrage by the black community.
Maybe this murder was simply the straw that broke the camel’s back. I think, instead that it is the confluence of Trumpism and Trump’s horrific response, the pandemic and its disproportionate impact on black health and employment, and the result of decades of racist and diminished recognition of the black experience that together caused this flashpoint. And if I am being honest, there’s an opportunity to make the protests bigger and broader simply because there are more of us available from the pool of unemployed, and those who are locked down. Movements are opportunistic, and there is nothing wrong with seizing a moment. It is how past social changes have occurred.
The media is doing its job, reporting on the protests. Organizers have done a spectacular job ensuring that, after a violent start, protests are largely peaceful now. The initial fracas about looting and vandalism has been displaced by a national movement, including all races peacefully protesting against police brutality. And yet, every day still we see images of what looks like disproportionately harsh police brutality directed simply at enforcement of arbitrary curfews and other reactive policies intended to keep protests peaceful.
While these are the images we are seeing, the murder and its outrage, these visions of police brutality are secondary. The George Floyd murder has sparked a much more important social movement: we may be able to make one more step, or perhaps even several steps, that help remove some of the intentionally placed impediments to black equality. Maybe. Maybe.
An obvious prerequisite of such social change is the bold and complete removal of the Trump administration, of course, but also the regressive forces of Congress, especially our feckless and spineless Senate, run by McConnell, and supported by numerous Trumpism enablers. At the very least, progressives need control of the executive and legislative branches.
Given the degree to which Trump has bungled everything he has touched, but notably his response to the pandemic, and now his absurdly militant response to protests, it seems almost inconceivable that he could be elected for a second term as president, and dwindling support here in June suggests the kind of landslide needs to gain control of the Senate and House, as well. Local elections. also matter. Yet, it’s far from certain.
Just today, we saw unemployment numbers, which had fallen from near 20% in April improve to 16.5% in March, with Trump touting this improvement and (of course) giving himself full credit. It’s hard to imagine how a country with one in six people unemployed can celebrate.
In any case, it’s the coming elections that will truly determine whether this at this moment in our horrible racial history we takes a real step forward, or whether we only take small steps focusing only on policing. It’s early June now. We have a president whose core skills are distraction and creation of chaos, at any cost, so in the nearly half year before we cast votes, much could, and undoubtedly will happen. Will we, once again, squander the chance to vote for dramatic change?
