When an average guy
(someone with a Y chromosome) possessing a vanilla tapioca mayo on wonder
bread lack-of-cultural-heritage, decides to open his mouth and express an
opinion about something he read about, or learned from others, or maybe
witnessed—but which he could never have experienced (and will
never live-thru)—because he was never a woman, or obese, or
transsexual, or suffered from depression, nor was he ever homeless, or
Black, or Native American, or in constant fear of being a victim of state
violence (etcetra) . . . I want to tell that fucker to keep his opinion to
himself. And when that fucker is me, I tend to follow my own
advice. Not always.
Statistics about
racial populations and political tendencies are (in this white guy's mind)
insufficient to explain why I'd never-again live in Alabama or Georgia or
Kentucky or Indiana, nor why I am (relative-to-my-own-past) content living in Vermont.
In the US South, the entire society which
comprises The System (controlled by white people) is waaay beyond
casually racist. If you, dear reader, happen to be Mr or Mrs
Mayo Wonderbread who lives in the South and thinks ‘beyond
casually racist’ is not an accurate description of you? Re-read my statement before you take umbrage.
The system is. Not all people are. (You might-could-just be casually racist and
not waaay beyond).
Racism is so routine-normal in the South
that white strangers assume everyone who looks like they do, thinks like they do,
and they'll freely talk about their KKK opinions. The reason Trump was
(and still is) so popular with white conservatives (from every state) is not because
he accomplished things they wanted the President to accomplish, or that he
fooled them (I met some intelligent people in the six years I lived in the
US South), the reason is: he's as extremely, hatefully, intentionally
racist as they are.
Vermont is more
Caucasian than Oregon, but the few racists in Vermont who I've talked to are careful in their probing conversations. They know they're a small
minority of the population here and they don't like getting scolded or
ridiculed for letting an errant word slip out of their mouth.
The week we
moved here, I met a neighbor from the next building. He'd seen our
license tags and said, “Where in Oregon are you from?” I told him and
he replied, “I heard Portland was a really liberal city, but I guess that's
something that can be beat outta somebody.” “Sounds like a threat,” I
said. He got all apologetic-giggly and denied it with, “just jokin,
not my intention, sorry sorry.”
In Georgia that
guy never would have backed down. He would have known 90 strangers out
of a 100 (including most cops) would back him up in an argument, or a fight,
or maybe even in a late-nite follow-up lynching. In Georgia, that probing conversation
would have quickly switched to fighting-words. And I
would have been the one backing down when he took out a weapon.
Here in
Vermont, the hate-filled Republicans might risk getting recorded on your
security camera sneaking into your yard to take your
Black Lives Matter sign, or your We Stand With: sign,
or your rainbow pride flag but they don't call attention to
themselves. Everyone here knows that 60% of the state is progressive
(Bernie lovers) and 25% are a strange type of Northern Libertarian (love
their weed, hate VT's high taxes, rarely leave New England).
The best way to
describe Vermont is to say that the entire society which comprises
The System doesn't tolerate people who are unwelcoming of people with
differences.
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