The whitelash over Black actress Halle Bailey portraying a live-action “Little Mermaid” was saddening and amusing. The people who thought their heritage was stolen by the casting of a Black woman as a mythical character are pitiful. I suspect the real reason they’re mad isn’t that non-existent white mermaids have been replaced by Black ones, but because the world they grew up in where all the heroes were white no longer exists. The people this will drive crazy, I call “Blight People,” you know who they are.
In the real world, the existence of a Black President of the United States was so galling that enough people united to replace him with his polar opposite. America has yet to recover from his replacement, and we face the prospect of his return. An ethical, well-spoken, competent Black man showed up his hillbilly inferiors who still can’t acknowledge his accomplishments. They claim Barack Obama was divisive. The truth is he didn’t create their now open racism; he exposed it.
The same could be said when Joe Biden nominated the first Black woman, Ketanji Brown Jackson, to the Supreme Court. Selecting men accused of sexual harassment, excessive drinking, and taking funds to pay off their debts would have been preferable. I’ve come up with a list of eight things, some inevitable, that would make these people lose their minds. Tell me I’m wrong.
1. When White People Become a Minority in America
If we measured whiteness by the original standard Americans used, white people would already be a minority group in this country. Several groups are now considered white that didn’t use to be: the Irish, Jewish people, Germans, North Africans, and others. It’s projected that by 2045, white people, as presently constituted, will become a minority in America. Look for other groups to be recruited into whiteness. We already have a census category, “White Hispanics.” Look for more and more Hispanics to be considered white, along with Asians and those from the Middle East. Voter suppression will continue to increase along with mass incarceration, which will help concentrate power in the hands of fewer, who just happen to be primarily white.
2. When A Black Captain America Has His Own Feature Film
It’s already happened on the small screen. Subscribers to Disney + have already witnessed Sam Wilson (formerly The Falcon) struggle to accept his role as a Black man carrying the mantle of Captain America. In this case, it can’t be about abusing the source material because Sam became Captain America in the comics in 2014 in Captain America #25. Of course, it was assumed then that the “real” Cap would return one day and get his shield back, which he did. We always knew in the comics that a Black Captain America was just temporary. Wait and see how the Captain America 4 movie gets reviewed on Rotten Tomatoes by those who haven’t seen the film. The same people resented Idris Elba playing Heimdall in the Thor movies. They got mad at focusing on characters of color like Ms. Marvel and got upset at Michael B. Jordan playing Johnny Storm in a Fantastic Four movie. But this is Captain America. Some blight people are going to lose their minds.
3. If Donald Trump Goes To Jail
Some blight people have already been saying they’ll go to war if Trump is indicted, let alone go to jail. Trump has now been indicted multiple times and faces sentencing from one trial in November. Donald Trump is the embodiment of the Great Replacement Theory, White Supremacy, and White Nationalism rolled into one. He says out loud what most racists have the good sense to keep to themselves. By himself, he’s made it okay for them to come out of their supremacist closets, and if he goes to jail, even though his guilt will be apparent, there will be hell to pay. Some tell themselves that Trump isn’t guilty of anything, but they know he is in their hearts. They just can’t admit it.
“If there is a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling the classified information after the Clinton debacle. . . there will be riots in the streets.” — Lindsey Graham
4. What If Kamala Harris Becomes President?
Since the day Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the election for the offices of President and Vice-President, respectively, a steady drum roll of stories have come out demeaning first the Vice-President Elect and then the Vice-President once Kamala Harris was sworn in. They demeaned her intelligence despite a career record saying otherwise. Her leadership skills were attacked, pointing to staff turnover as proof. Despite her service as Attorney General of California and one of its two Senators for four years, she was targeted as an unqualified, affirmative-action selection. What they hated most was her service on the Senate Judiciary Committee in Congress when she picked apart white men on national television when they came before the Judiciary Committee. Kamala is a strong Black woman and would be hated worse than Barack Obama. Kamala is leading most polls in a very close race. Things may get ugly.
5. What If An Honest Version Of Black History Was Taught In American Schools?
First, there was a Black History Week that expanded to Black History Month, though arguably, schools taught only the blandest versions of Black history. My grandchildren were taught about Ruby Bridges and Booker T. Washington. At least we heard about Toussant Loverature, though never about revolts of enslaved people on American soil. Then, the whitelash to the imaginary concept of Critical Race Theory being taught in elementary schools to make white children feel bad became the rage, and almost no Black history is being taught at all. What if schools were taught about a Constitution designed to protect the institution of slavery? How Thomas Jefferson had teen boys beaten that served in his nailery, never mind how he started raping Sally Hemings when she was fourteen. Maybe teach the actual text of the Lincoln-Douglas debates and how inferior Lincoln thought Black people were. Some blight people would go insane if a realistic version of American History were taught. I, for one, would love to see it.
6. What If The Tapes Of Trump Using The “N-word” Were Released?
The tapes exist. And yes, there are better sources than Omarosa, who reported there are several outtakes from the set of “The Apprentice” where Trump was captured on tape using the “N-Word.” Show Co-Producer Bill Pruitt also reported Trump using the word when discussing whether America would accept a Black winner during the first season.
“But will America buy a nigger winning?” — Donald Trump
NBC, the network that hosted the show, claims they only have the rights to material that aired on the show. Producer Mark Burnett, a fan of Trump’s, has threatened to sue anyone who leaks the material, and there is a contractual $5 million “leak fee” for anyone who violates their contract. One day, those tapes may be released, and certain people will go crazy, not turning on Trump for his racism but twisting themselves into pretzels defending what he said.
7. What If They Executed Search Warrants At Trump Tower And Bedminster
The Justice Department says there are documents they didn’t recover from Mar-a-Lago during the infamous search of the resort, which resulted in the recovery of classified material and empty folders that once contained top-secret goods. There is a video of Trump workers packing boxes on a plane headed for Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, NJ, before the Florida search took place. The most natural thing in the world would be to search the most likely locations to recover the missing documents: Trump Tower and Bedminster. This time, because Trump supporters whined so much about him not being present during the Mar-a-Lago search, I’d wait until Trump was there and have him pulled out in his sleepwear at 5 am like everyone else. It's not a visual I’m excited about seeing, but I’m willing to make the sacrifice. That won’t stop others from going berserk, showing up in droves with their Trump and Confederate Flags like they did in Florida.
8. Show America What “With All Deliberate Speed” Meant After Brown V. Board Of Education
America gives the Supreme Court way too much credit for ending school segregation in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, argued by Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The decision found that separate but equal was a farce and required America to end school segregation whenever it got around to it. That decision almost didn’t go in favor of the NAACP. The man who was Chief Justice when the case was scheduled to be heard was Fred M. Vinson, who thought the precedent, Plessy v. Ferguson, should stand. Vinson died in September 1953 and was replaced by Earl Warren. Even after the decision, the Court set no guidelines for implementation. In 1955, a clarification said their decision was to be implemented “with all deliberate speed,” which translates into taking as long as you need. It was two decades later before America got serious about desegregation, using consent decrees to force school boards to desegregate schools. There are segregated schools today in such diverse locations as Mississippi and New York. The truth about America’s failure to do the right thing will drive Blight people crazy.
I’m hoping for a new era of accountability. When Obama gave war criminals Bush/Cheney a pass, my heart sank. I knew it would just embolden the next group of powerful crooks and liars. Republicans in the Bush era made disinformation a weapon, (abetted by Judith Miller at the New York Times and other parrots of the lies coming out of the Whitehouse), they got away with it, and look what the Republican Party has become: A soulless Dementor of all that is good. Justice and truth-loving citizens despaired at the lack of accountability, corruption of justice, at the cynical and needless loss of lives, at the failure to investigate the Saudi connection to 9-11. Would Kashoggi’s brutal murder have occurred had there been accountability?
Will convicting and punishing the vile and felonious traitor Twimp result in riots in the streets? Oh yes, but I believe they will be the joyous kind, with brass bands and drums, dancing, spontaneous outpourings of celebration and relief that the Dementors are finally banished, the rule of Law symbolically restored. It would be a great celebration of the end of the era of “alternative facts”, grifting, emoluments, (a shot across the bow, Thomas and the other SJC bribe-uh-gratuity-takers) a casting off of the shadow of doubt that our system of government is even capable of reining in the overweening autocratic privilege that has been hanging over us since Bush/Cheney and the Patriot Act. (And ultimately dates back to the origins of our country, thank you William Spivey, Ibram X Kendi). Praying that Justice will prevail, and a black woman will lead us to a brand new day. Karma is sweet! Here comes the Sun! VOTE!!!
Well, I keep learning so much from you that I just have to sit in silence and reassess so much of what was shoved at us growing up as Baby Boomers. OK, so Obama's election rattled the racists and their President kicked them into high gear. Is that kind of a good thing? Having racists exposed for the [bottom-feeding] blight they are? Maybe just a bit-- they can't go back into hiding. Problem is that racist, homophobic and misogynist bullies use their real threats of violence so effectively that their families and communities are cowed into silence and even going along with them. My own experience is that the worst homophobes have the plushest closets. Mob mentality is contagious and sweeps up the masses in a flood tide of hate. Scary.