The White Privilege to Terrorize [View all]

[babylonsister]

https://johnpavlovitz.com/2020/05/01/the-white-privilege-to-terrorize/

The White Privilege to Terrorize
May 1, 2020 / John Pavlovitz


As a white man watching the Michigan protests of Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home orders, all I could think was:

Black people don’t get to do this.
Muslims don’t get to do this.
Latinos don’t get to do this.
People who don’t look like this don’t get to do this.

They don’t get to swarm American capitol buildings in tactical gear with high-powered weapons, screaming in close proximity to police officers.
They don’t get to dress up like Call of Duty cosplayers and attempt to physically intimidate politicians into bending to their wills.
They don’t get to get to stop traffic in city streets decked out like they work at the Death Star and brazenly wield semi-automatic rifles.
They don’t get to terrorize decent people and walk away.

Only white people get to do this.

This violence is a singular privilege afforded to caucasian men in America.

snip//

This is MAGA America in its dawning renaissance of outward racism, showing us what is at stake as we approach another election. We aren’t just choosing a president or party to steward us through the coming years, we’re making a statement on what we will and will not tolerate as a people.

What we witnessed in Michigan was an act of terrorism, by the very definition of the word. We have seen many such acts this week, and if November allows this malevolence another four years, they will seem tame. The self-appointed soldiers in the army of the lord will grow more brazen and become more violent in their holy war to make America whiter—so decent white people need to resist them in the streets, on social media, and at the polls.

I fully suspect people of color will oppose this presidency in large numbers, because they see the disparity.

What I hope and pray, is that more white people, especially those who claim to be Christian, will also stand to reject the supremacy and racism that yields such willful homegrown terrorism; that we will use the unearned currency of our privilege to declare this violence un-American and inhuman and unacceptable.

White terrorists can no longer have a friend in the White House—not if we really want to make America great.