When episodes of racism and hate arise, we all – regardless of political persuasion – must stand up and speak out.
Since President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, we’ve read about an outbreak of xenophobic attacks occurring nationwide. This is not media sensationalism. The sad fact is that such vile incidents are actually happening to people we know. The mixed-race daughter of a friend was accosted Wednesday at a convenience store in Wichita by two elderly Trump supporters. They used the “N” word and told her to “watch out – we’re taking the country back.”
Another (non-white) friend was confronted in Durango on Veterans Day as he watched his son play in the marching band during the parade. A Trump supporter came up and asked him abruptly if he “was a citizen,” and suggested pointedly that he had no right to be there.
Beyond the hurtful nature of the encounter, the painful irony is that he’s a lawyer who defends the constitutional rights of the poor.
Finally, Trump-linked incidents occurred this week at our son’s middle school that, as our principal wrote, made “some of our minority students feel unsafe.” This is not media fiction and hysteria, folks. This is happening here, now, to people we know.
While any decent person must stand up against such attitudes and behavior, I believe it is especially important – and helpful – for our fellow citizens who voted for Trump to actively speak out when such incidents occur. Failure to do so sends the unintended message that, for Trump supporters, racism and hate are compatible with “making America great again.”
That notion is despicable for the Trump voters I personally know. Yet silence implies complicity. Standing up against racism is not just for “liberals.”
As Edmund Burke wrote, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
Let us all actively nurture the “better angels of our nature,” as Abraham Lincoln put it.
When we hear or see such reprehensible behavior in our community, let us all respectfully, but firmly, confront it, speak up, and push back.
Gregor Gardner
Durango
