5/10/2020

My dear Friend & POTUS, DJT,

            Please give Wanda Cooper-Jones (WC-J) a call on this Mother’s Day to express your condolences for her loss of her beloved son, Ahmaud Arbery. Please express regret that she had to wait 2.5 months before the police arrested the McMichaels for shooting him. No mother should have to lose her son that way & no mother should have to watch his killers walking free.

            I know it’s hard for you to put yourself in the position of WC-J. Being White makes it easy to ignore what philosopher Charles Mills called the “racial contract” which Adam Serwer (AS) wrote about in the Atlantic. According to AS, “The underlying assumptions of white innocence and black guilt are all part of … the “racial contract,” … a codicil rendered in invisible ink, one stating that the rules as written do not apply to nonwhite people in the same way… that nonwhite subpersonhood is enshrined simultaneously with white personhood.”

            It’s nice that your mom believed that you could do no wrong & raised you to have supreme confidence. Unfortunately, moms of color have to instill in their off-spring an understanding of the “racial contract.” They may not call it that, but it’s something they have to grapple with, that us White folk (WF) can blissfully ignore.

            I’m afraid that your exuberance about opening up the economy reveals similar blissful ignorance that CV is hitting POCs much harder than WFs. Please make every effort that you can to protect our essential workers and those folks who are suffering right now. I know you’re worried about the economy, but you need to show that you are worried about people, too, ALL people, because as CV is making clear, we are all connected.

            HYITL,

            RCA

PS- Make sure that Barron treats his mom well today.