A CALL TO WHITE AMERICA: A RESPONSE TO DONALD J. TRUMP (2016)

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A Call to White America This is a Call to White America to put down your American Apparel tote bag, your vintage copy of VICE, your American Spirit rollie and your new lite taste microbrew beer. It's time to take action. Light a candle, sit down and get ready for some hard news. If you think of yourself as a White person who has some integrity, it's time to prove it. If you think of Black people as being your equal and you enjoy and regularly consume their culture, then now is the time to show some love. As I write this, I am looking out onto the beautiful French countryside where I have been serving in a Vipassana meditation centre, working in the laundry, trying to meditate my pain away about this year's election, knowing that in a few days time I will be flying into the City of Angels. Like the rest of the conscious world, I have been shocked and saddened by the events in the last few weeks and have wondered why it has taken a deeply troubled man like Trump to get the Left motivated again? Has the Left in fact with its ever growing obsession of attaining a perfect hipster lifestyle while denying the realities of its own consumerism, become complacent? Probably yes, but as musician Adam Bainbridge aka Kindness, kindly points out, that this time the work of combating white supremacy is entirely for white communities to do: For the next 4 years we encourage POC [People of Colour] to mostly disengage from the process of educating the rest of the population. There are now enough eloquently defined explanations for how white supremacy functions, and how it needs to be dismantled & fought. Anything further is repetition. No more assistance or guidance from those who are now living in danger. If you recognise your privilege, use it! And I have to say I agree. The next four years work is not for Black, Latino, Native American or any other minorities. It is for White, working, middle to upper (elite)-class America to finally

come together on. This includes most of my friends whom I love dearly and are educated White women. Although they still experience sexism on a daily basis, they still have White privilege. The only people who can make America great again and get America back on track, to being the principle global symbol of a functioning multi-cultural democracy is White America. Minorities have been fighting for White America to accept them for years. Not only symbolically, but actually. That is why Obama winning in 2008 and 2012 was so significant because he gave a face to a fight that had been going on underground for decades. But for the first time in American history since the Civil War, White America is also threatened by the powers that be. As a person of colour, this is the perfect time to perhaps sit back and observe what will happen. Because what happens when White liberal liberties are threatened? Does the world go back to the medieval ages just as the Taliban wants or does White America get up and face its own demons that have now manifested so aptly in Trump and his horrific administration? To allow a White supremacist and some say a Neo-Nazi in the form of Steve Bannon: ultra altright, executive chairman of Breitbart's News into the halls of The White House is a dangerous precedent to set not just for America but for the rest of the world. Just as China, Africa, Latin and Muslim countries are becoming more democratic, egalitarian and dare I say feminist minded, what kind of example does this set have a leader of the free world who doesn't believe in climate change and an administration who wants to demolish abortion rights, thinks Muslims need to kept internment camps like dogs and think it's ok if young black men are killed by the police on a daily basis - all in the name of re-balancing America's cheque book? You might ask what right do I have to speak on such matters. As a Black, female, non-American foreigner who used to live in the red state of Texas and has working class roots and a Third World family still in Africa, I think I have the most right because America does not just belong to the American people, it belongs to everyone.

Not only because of its endless foreign policy and its American imperialism through its proliferation of Hollywood films and celebrity culture, the whole world has fallen in love with this crazy, mad stupid American dream. It’s not just for Americans that peace, justice and an elevation of higher consciousness need to be restored, but also for all of humanity. As ex-Daily Show host Jon Stewart rightly said, “America is not natural. Natural is tribal. We’re fighting against thousands of years of human behavior and history." But isn't that the point and that's actually what makes America so great? Yet, as Stewart rightly pointed out, no one actually ever asked Trump what he thinks makes America great and I fear his answer would be this: My idea of a great America would be to return America to a postwar 'Mad Men' time. An America of freely expressed sexism and racism, where men were men and woman were girls and antisemitism was ok [or as the casually racist Clint Eastwood prefers to say , "when men weren't pussies."] I would love an America, where fathers are allowed to beat their children in-order to discipline them and minorities have no voice. My ideal America, is an America with a booming economic power and reckless regard for the environment, where I have the power to scare little Muslim children with bedtime stories of an American invasion and the threat of imminent nuclear war. Yet it is Trump's obsession with hating political correctness that is in fact the most revealing of all. All he wants, is freedom to be as racist as he wants, without any consequence. Call a spade, a spade, as you will. Obviously for him and his anti-politically correct brigade, holding it in is no longer option. It's just way too difficult for them to keep in their offensive, xenophobic thoughts and try to get along with people who look different than them, for the sake of peace and harmony. Isn't this what Trump is in fact admitting?" Fortunately for the sane, the world has moved on. Now we live in a world where Obama can be President, Viola Davis can win an Emmy award and Meghan Markle might marry Prince Harry, at long last permanently diluting the blueblood of European royalty and giving White purists a real turd to swallow. A world where Queen Bee who I am not normally a fan of, can make a liberating visual album like

Lemonade that gives Black women across the world some breathing room to be themselves, without the burden of having to have all the answers and be the mammy to White America at this time. Yet Trump has many fans in denial of their own 'Trumpness', which probably in their own ignorance don't even know they are supporting Trump's agenda. Amy Schumer for one. Someone who most people would think of as a Left, politically savvy comedian, who up until recently I had always found quite enjoyable, but now I ask: Shamy Amy, where is your compassion, your racial sensitivity? Yes you can hide behind your plump, blonde, Upper East Side quirkiness and say you were only joking and that your Formation was a tribute to Beyoncé, but Amy what were you thinking? At this point in history to make such a divisive clip that undermines Black culture in the Southern States. Whether it was paid for or released by Tidal, which Beyoncé owns or has Wanda Sykes in it, posting a naked picture of yourself is not an apology. Yes Amy you're fat and Beyonce is not, but what's that got to do with the police killing Black people? Where is your solidarity? Ask Larry David or Issa Rae, maybe they can help you next time. Or maybe simply think of the bigger picture. For most Black women, they see Lemonade especially the track All Night, as a praise song to them and their hard won freedoms, a love poem to their suffering, not yours, Amy. Next time, use your college educated brain and your heart and think of the long-term effect of your work. If you have to use political satire, think Horace & Pete, not American Dad. Because of Formation, you have finally lost the street cred you desperately wanted. You have lost the respect of Black folks, yet probably gained a whole new following of Trump supporters, which I am guessing is not exactly what you wanted. Selling your soul for fame, is too high a price, Amy. Shame on you! Which begs me to question, why is White America so obsessed with Black culture? What is it that it wants from Black people that it cannot get from its own cultural achievements? It is the fact that deep down it knows that it and all its children sprang from the loins of a biological Black Eve and therefore, to really understand itself, it will inevitably have to crossover to the 'dark side'.

Isn't this Trump's ultimate fear? That the love affair between Black and White America, starting in slavery and has only really begun now to sprout as the mixed population of America soon become a voting majority and a pure White race disappears. Isn't this what Brexit and its ugly U.S. counterpart really want to stop? A final showdown between the colour-blind and those who can finally see. Because for Trump, to look in the mirror every morning and to see white skin, is for him to negate his own Blackness and his own genetic history. Trump's self-hating attitude is exactly what Hitler embodied when he rejected his own Jewishness. So if you are White at least acknowledge your White privilege to yourself. Black people shouldn't have to feel ashamed of being poor, just because you don't want to admit or feel guilty about your own White privilege. Black people don't get to switch their race on and off when they feel like it. They stay Black, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. For example, below is a good case of voting with your feet which shows two different examples of poverty at work; one that you are actually born into, where there is little or no possibility of escape and one I call Hipster Poor, a privileged 'social' contract which you can choose to enter into and leave when needs be. Many White artists and cultural producers move to poor neighbourhoods to live and work primarily before they have children. They automatically benefit from the cultural cache of such neighbourhoods. But when they eventually become parents they choose to play their Trump card (no pun intended) of being White and middle class; and the local multicultural schools, that were so hip and cosmopolitan earlier, are no longer good enough for their own White offspring, so they move to more affluent areas with better, whiter schools. Most POC don't have that choice. Moreover, as an artist, Trump's election is a mere nightmare reflection of the disturbing tactic of using culture to whitewash Black neighbourhoods. Using the terrifying combination of art

and real estate speculation as an excuse for gentrifying poor areas into hipster meccas, forcing minorities to leave their homes and their communities, or as I wrote to my fellow gallery artists last week: Art galleries belong in industrial areas or those designated for commercial business, not where people reside. No one should lose their home just for the sake of art even if those galleries represent minority artists. What is happening in L.A. is exactly what happened in East London. White galleries moving into a poor Black neighbourhood creating a very dysfunctional situation. I tried to live in it for six months, renting a room in a working class Black household but the contradictions of also being an educated artist in a White system were too strong. Everyday I was angry. Yoga studios and artist's bookshops next to Black families living hand to mouth and while there were gang shootings and shootings between kids and police. It was only when White artists starting getting mugged, that people started talking about it. Luckily, now the galleries have become shit galleries but the neighbourhood looks like Williamsburg hipster awful. It's best to stop regeneration while you can. To summarize and to be really clear, I am not suggesting that White artists can save minorities by joining contra-artwashing schemes, or building token art houses in neighbourhoods like Watts, or that the general White population can save the world through protesting. Look what happened with Occupy! No, this time a multi-prong attack is needed. So my advice for White America is this: First, invest in some rigorous mental training using Neuro Linguistic Programming, hypnosis, exposure techniques to get rid of your own racist thoughts and projections. http://richardbandler.com/ Second, boycott celebrities or companies that align with Trump. It worked to end apartheid in South Africa, why not now? Boycott art-washing schemes. http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_582c789de4b0aa8910bde58f http://alianzacontraartwashing.org/en/coalition-statements/l-a-onda/ Third, participate in social activism by any methods necessary – protest, finance grass-roots organisations etc., but think Jet Li, Jackie Chan, 'Man of Tai Chi' aka martial arts – harness your

power and then surprise your opponent; e.g. UK art protest group - BP or not BP, have done wonders in this field and have got several museums to drop their sponsorship by BP. https://bp-or-not-bp.org/ And remember to protect your own energy and take care of yourself when doing this type of activist work. Either by cultivating a deep spiritual grounding in nature or perhaps through a daily practise meditation. https://www.dhamma.org Fourth, the White working class don't feel listened to by the White elite. They are in-fact the Blacks of the White race, just like the Irish were until recently the Blacks of Europe, forgotten and downtrodden. The White working class aren't automatically racist but giving them no choice of a Democratic candidate that actually listens to them, has put them in the awkward position of backing a racist one, that does listen and promise (false) hope for them. So begin to petition the Democratic Party leadership and DNC to make sure Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are on the ticket for 2020; working towards changing the electoral college process that landed America in this current Trump mess. http://www.sanders.senate.gov/

Fifth, try using empathy and education instead of patronising or physically assaulting Trump voters; i.e. instead of arguing with your Republican family member over turkey legs and stuffing this Christmas, be clever about it – do a Net-flicks on them and open their mind through a mixture of creativity and suave. Show them that the anti-Trump movement can spawn a whole (cottage) industry of new jobs. Show them the actual benefits of a multicultural society not just culturally - i.e. more great places to eat out but also economically. Show them that a peaceful world, is a healthier world and therefore, a more economically viable America.

Lastly, real risks are always inconvenient and this time you may have to face betraying your own race and enduring a loss of power. But it will be worth it in the long run for the planet and entire human race, if you can make a much needed personal sacrifice now. So this holiday season, I ask you to heed this call.

One person at a time. Open their minds.

And make America great again!

Grace Ndiritu Dhamma Mahi, France November 2016

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