Who’s The Loser Now?

It’s reflection time. 

Even with all the post Presidential election accolades and noise about the Biden/Harris win, the best line I heard was made by MSNBC commentator Ari Melber. He implores us to accept that Trump’s reign of divisiveness represents who America truly is.

According to Anna Jacobs, a Doha-based researcher on US politics and foreign policy, “The Republican Party and Donald Trump used White supremacy and racism to stoke fear and fomented the flames of division”.

So as a result, Ari reiterates that;

“Anytime you walk into a room of white people, you have entered into a room of people who have registered to vote statistically to back Donald Trump.”

A. Trump lost the election, but he won the vote of the majority of White voters. He went from 61 million votes to 71 million votes since the 2016 election.

B. Trumpism grew his base of the wealthy and Latino voters.

C. Most of Trump voters were men; while 56 percent of women voted for Trump while 42 percent voted for Biden. Most of the 19 million new voters backed Biden. That’s encouraging.

D: Women of Color ” powered” Biden’s win. So, what does that tell you about America? And where does this leave us?

So was it a bad dream?

Nope, but, I wish.

So,  why are people surprised at the storming of the Capital on January 6th after what we experienced the last four years? I wasn’t because I grew up in this very same America.  But, somebody, please tell me why I saw a picture of Trump wearing a Black Glove on his fist to proclaim that he will legally fight this vote until all the courts reject his loss in front of a huge crowd over the weekend? Really? So what is he a Black Panther or one of the men who during their medal ceremony in the Olympic Stadium in Mexico City on October 16, 1968, now?

Joe Biden wasn’t stupid. He knew if he wanted to win this election, he had better choose a woman as his Vice-President, and she’d better be a woman of color. He understands who his base is. The first move is to deal with this pandemic, he’ll have to clean house and undo all the stupid shit Trump and the Republicans were able to pull off. Let’s hold our breath that Trump and his compadres don’t blow up the world rather than turn the reins over.

“O say can you see by the dawn’s early light.”

But, who ate the last piece of Chocolate.

Despite all the misleading statements Donald Trump has made, he has never fallen much below 40 percent approval,” Kim Darroch, the former British ambassador to the United States, told me. “That’s pretty solid. What does that tell you? That we’re living in a post-truth world. Politicians around the world will be looking at this and saying, ‘You can get away with it.’ It’s a shift in the landscape that may be irreversible.”

                                                                                                         (November 8, 2020, Peter Nicholas, “The Atlantic.”)

Pay Attention Now.

Over the last few days, I noticed the media coverage of voters celebrating the Biden/Harris win in the streets. Oakland, in particular, caught my attention. That’s because the majority of the “jubilant” in those streets were White. So, where were all the Black folks? Why weren’t they dancin’  in the streets? Could it be that they don’t live there anymore?

Come on now. What do you think of when you think of Oakland? Go try and buy a house there. What was once “it’s not safe to live there” zone in the SF Bay Area including Richmond, CA is where prime property resides. In 1990 you could buy a house in Oakland for about $79,100.

“The typical home value of homes in Oakland is $841,775. This value is seasonally adjusted and only includes the middle price tier of homes. Oakland home values have gone up 9.4% over the past year and Zillow predicts they will rise 11.0% in the next year.”

So What Happened?

For example, did you ever wonder why the opening scene in “Black Panther” took place in Oakland? Its director Ryan Coogler’s birthplace, is Oakland, along with the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Oakland housed one of the largest Black community in the SF Bay Area. But, not anymore. Remember when it was one of the top crime cities in the country, along with parts of Los Angeles and other “urban” communities?

Can Biden address these issues, or is it too late?

I’ve seen more Black people at tailgate parties outside the Oakland Coliseum at Raider games, or at least I did than I’ve seen in any dancin’ in the street party around this election. Well, now it’s the Las Vegas Raiders. Think you’ll see and Black and Silver gathering there?

Or what about all that dancin’ in Washington D.C. or, for that matter, any other place that used to be a “chocolate city.” The majority of Black people who resided and owned houses in those cities were either kicked or priced out due to gentrification. One election won’t fix that, and the list of grievances on other issues to tend to is a long one.  Biden has got his work cut out for him, that’s for sure. And, now the aftermath and rising of a civil war. You wouldn’t want that job trust me.

Mark my words.

We haven’t seen the last of Trumpism in America. Conspiracy theories he propagated are not going anywhere. The Cult of Trump and the Republican Party’s complicity at any cost, I believe, won’t suddenly drift away. The majority of Americans don’t even know what they don’t know. That’s what’s scary to me. A

nd, being nice or polite isn’t going to work against fear, hate, and cultism. Trump should follow Jim Jones’s advice and get his supporters to drink cyanide -aced grape juice to prove their loyalty. But, what will we do with the 164.754 million dead bodies along with all the COVID-19 victims due to ineptitude and negligence?

The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it. Albert Einstein.

But, while Democrats are still dancin’ in the street because Biden won, a lovin’ White girlfriend of mine expressed her fear, just like Ari did on MSNBC, that any time she walks into a room now or on any street in America, she hates knowing that most of them voted for Trump. I plan to remind my Grandkids of that fact.  Because when it comes to this country…

Anyway, I  don’t want to hear anything more about this fool and his attempts to overturn this election.

Next! It’s an empty wish.

This country is in trouble.

Information: In celebration of the Black Community in Oakland CompassPoint staff members, organized by Jasmine Hall. Read about the lives of Michelle Alexander, Civil Rights Lawyer, Chauncey Bailey, Noted Journalist, Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, Elaine Brown, Angela Davis, Pat Parker, Assata Shakur, Tupac, Mother Wright, to name a few.

Oakland’s Two Black Panthers: The Movie and The Movement.

Jonestown (Americans Cults)

Rebecca Solnit: On Not Meeting Nazis Halfway: Why Is It So Hard for Democrats to Act Like They Actually Won?

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