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I'm going to share some unvarnished and uncomfortable truths—views many Black people in your life may never say to your face but quietly believe about you and your choices. While unsaid, these thoughts are stored away as we draw conclusions about your character and if we'll ever truly trust you. And by "you," I mean white people.
First, let me clarify a critical point: I speak for myself. I do not and cannot speak for all Black people. We have divergent opinions and aren't monolithic.
All white people do something highly offensive, harmful, or eyebrow-raising at some point. This is what many Black people conclude through a lifetime of daily evidentiary exposure to white behaviors, actions, privilege, and power imbalances while navigating American society. But if no one ever tells you what they truly believe, you won't be able to expand your perspectives, to learn and evolve, or to develop empathy and positive cross-racial friendships.
Now, let's rip off the band-aid.
If you support Donald Trump, many of us believe that you're either a white nationalist, white supremacist, middle of the road racist, or complicit status quo-supporting accomplice (which is still racist). It's irrelevant if you think racism is bad, donate to charities helping people of color, or have close Black friends. This is overridden by political affiliations and choices.
You don't have to like Trump or agree with his views. You can even think he isn't racist, misogynistic, or corrupt. If you're along for the ride since he's allegedly "better for your taxes," you can hold your nose all you want while casting your ballot, but the conclusion remains unchanged for an overwhelming number of us.
If you vote for Trump or other politicians with similar goals and ideologies, no matter the reason, many believe you're collaborating with a clear threat to Black people. We've long since concluded he's a self-actualized white supremacist who'd gladly wear a white robe in public if it boosted his popularity. After all, his father was arrested at a violent Ku Klux Klan rally. Supporting him means most Black people will privately see you as having an identical boot on our necks.
It's hard to draw any other conclusion. We predominantly see 45 and the current iteration of the Republican Party as four-star generals of a broader Confederate diaspora seeking a return to supposed "good ole days" that were never great. And you enlisted—weren't conscripted—to stand with them on the front lines of white supremacy. This becomes the dominant thesis.
That said, don't think we believe racist whites living among us are limited to just conservatives. Many of us also know plenty of white Democrats and liberals are racist. In small and large ways, we watch the majority of you make choices to fervently protect what I call "White Welfare."
White Welfare is America's ultimate entitlement program for white people leveraging past oppression and present-day discrimination for contemporary power-and-wealth windfalls of white privilege and white-centered opportunity hoarding. Taking advantage of history, policies, and social norms, it's built on unjust wealth transfers and theft at the expense of people of color. It's racism's daily wealth redistribution mechanism—securing financial gain, promoting white privilege, and fostering a mental state of feeling entitled to limitless winning. White Welfare is foundational to maintaining a racialized caste system and at the epicenter of racial wealth and opportunity gaps.
You may support Black Lives Matter and progressive causes, but that doesn't make you impervious to the seductive comforts of White Welfare.
Upholding white domination can manifest through not-in-my-backyard policy decisions at the heart of intergenerational racial inequality—namely housing and education. NIMBYism rears its ugly head with blue-state Democrats when progress and desegregation come to their neighborhoods and local schools. This explains why "liberal" states like New York are still extremely segregated.
We hear the hypocrisy when many say you value affordable housing, yet roadblock developments near your home, possibly by amplifying tropes. We observe doubletalk when you word salad about equitable education access for Black children while derailing requisite restructuring of school funding linked to property taxes. Concluding you're racist if supporting the infrastructure of racial segregation, many of us have mental flashbacks of Alabama's Bull Connor.
Racists don't have to consciously seek to hurt or dominate Black people. Malice isn't required. They just need to make selfish choices that maintain power in ways that harm and negatively impact people of color.
The bottom line is that many Black Americans think you engage in racism in some capacity as evidenced by racist political decisions. Many believe that white people are on a racism spectrum from extremist to casual racist – conservatives and liberals alike. This is what we aren't telling you but thinking not based on your words or if we spend time with you, but harms caused by your actions and choices.
Think about what you'll do with this newfound information. You've been told, now what? The answers are in the choices that you make every day from now on.
Fatimah Gilliam is an attorney and activist. She is the author of Race Rules: What Your Black Friend Won't Tell You, in stores now.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
