7/21/2019

My dear Friend and president, DJT,

https://strangesounds.org/2019/07/heat-wave-usa-canada-europe-july-2019-2.html

            While it is sizzling hot all over America, I am chilled. Reading the Guardian brought down my temperature a few degrees. Writer David Smith talked to people in Charlottesville, VA and believes that "racial tensions could explode again." He quoted one of your voters, Tyler Sewell, who said, "there’s a real white, blue-collar American fear of the browning of America. They’re afraid of brown people. It’s irrational. It’s unavoidable. Our country is getting browner and that’s just the way it’s going to be. They see the browning of America as a loss of American values." Is that IT? Is that what's going on? 

            I know that you do not consider yourself a "racist." My guess is that only about 5% of Americans do, and those folks call themselves, "white supremacists." Everyone else likes to think of themselves as "color blind."

            I know that you do not consider your remarks about the "squad" to be "racist." Obviously, some people disagree with you. Personally, I don't think it's productive to use the label "racist" because it's not productive.  What I do know is that we live in a racist culture where, whether consciously or not, we associate a person's race with all sorts of attributes based on how much melanin they have. Those associations come from the media, from family, from school and sadly, from church. Dr. Beverly Tatum calls it the smog that we live in and are just barely aware of. She teaches her students to combat this smog and "try to identify and interrupt the cycle of oppression that plagues our country." 

            So DJT, it's not helpful to keep denying you are a racist. Just, stop oppressing the "squad" by calling them names. You will have to be creative to come up with a way out of this that's not too self-deprecating. But you are a creative guy! 

            I'll be holding you in the Light today as I do every Sunday.

            Best,