I can’t think of a better way to word this or title this, but I read an article a while back written by a black writer saying that educated, middle class white democrats are feeling what it is like to be a black American under the Trump administration.
- Police officers can shoot you in public in front of tons of witnesses, and there will be no accountability.
- You are outnumbered in a society where the majority of voters hate you and want to make your life worse.
- Politicians who represent the majority of voters actively campaign on making your life harder and more miserable.
- Your civil rights are constantly being targeted. Social programs that benefit you are targeted.
- You realize the government not only doesn’t represent you, it represents the majority group, who are people who want to cause you pain, suffering and make your life harder and more miserable.
Things like that. Basically people will say ‘This isn’t America’ when they talk about America under Trump, but this has always been American for black people. When people say America isn’t a dictatorship, America was a dictatorship for black people up until a few decades ago. Slavery, Jim Crow, redlining, etc.
My impression is educated middle class whites are used to being insulated from the dangers of America and what it is capable of. Yes there are minority groups within that rank like LGBT, Jewish, etc who know what it is like to be a minority and a target. But I feel like a lot of people who are used to being protected by their race, education, income, class, etc are seeing the dangers for what they have always been.
Supposedly this is one reason Sanders was a candidate of educated white liberals, and not working class POC. Educated white liberals can afford to gamble on a potential utopia that will likely never materialize because if it fails they are protected by race, class, education and wealth.
But people who aren’t in that group need concrete, incremental reforms and protection from mistreatment from people actively trying to harm them.