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1/ The additional footage certainly seems to nuance the backstory behind what happened with the Covington students and Nathan Phillips. But it doesn't change the smirk or the jeering, or the MAGA hats, which many of us consider a symbol of intimidation and white supremacy...
...But my view of things is colored by my bias. And I freely admit, I am biased against this president. I am biased against a man who uses "Pocahontas" as a slur, who oppresses immigrants & refugees, who lies & bullies, & who treats women (in his words) "like shit"...
...And I'm biased against images of smirking white men in MAGA hats. Because I associate it with what we saw in Charlottesville and what I've witnessed in my own life these last two years....
...I'm not sorry for these biases. But I need to be aware of them - because people will take advantage of them, because I know I rely on them to justify scapegoating, and because they often obscure the truth by making it seem exactly as simply as I'd like it to be.
And, I should add, I am endeavoring to become *more* biased toward the stories and experiences of those for whom racial injustice & xenophobia have been daily realities for much longer than Trump has been president. Still have a helluva lot to learn.
One thing I am wrestling with is how much of my raging/sharing/ condemning comes from a place of informed solidarity that centers marginalized people and how much comes from this intense need I have to *prove* how bad Trumpism is to the people who seem so okay with it....
...I have to keep reminding myself that Trump isn’t the problem; Trump is a manifestation of the problem. The people to follow, read, march with, and learn from are those who have been leading from the margins from the beginning & will keep on long after this presidency is over.
(*”The problem” being this nation’s fidelity to the unholy American trinity of Patriarchy, White Supremacy, and Religious Nationalism.)
