Say it with Me: We Have a White Supremacy Problem.

Western Colorado has a white supremacy problem. As we approach the election, the Democratic and Republican parties are being excited and agitating their bases to the point of slander and violence. 

White supremacy today is embedded in certain ideals but it’s not as obvious as it once was to spot a racist. White supremacy is the ethos of valuing white lives over the lives of people of color. It’s no longer manifested in such obvious forms as the KKK or the Nazi Party although these groups still exist.  But what they stood for still plagues the minds of many who support Trump. Although people in the Trump base are not outwardly part of the KKK or the Nazi party, they are practicing the same credo in how they live their lives. White supremacy has been rebranded as Western culture or American ideals.

White supremacists can be our teachers, tellers, veterans, bus drivers, small business owners and so on. It’s no longer a matter of membership to a group but a subscription to a set of ideals with no real nucleus of origin.

The path to re-election is looking slim for Trump which is why he has incited groups like the Proud Boys, Boogaloo Boys and hasn’t outright condemned white supremacy this election cycle. Trump is not polling well. He and his campaign are acutely aware that inciting the white supremacy groups around our nation is key to his victory.

Defenders of the president might argue that Trump is not a racist, citing his 2017 statement, “Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.” 

But three years after that condemnation—and in the middle of a campaign, Trump has turned around and appealed to these very groups. Condemning hate groups is the standard position for both parties. Once a president begins to stroke these groups for votes, it’s a normal reaction to call into question a party’s allegiances. 

During the first presidential debate, when asked to condemn The Proud Boys, Trump said, “Stand down and stand by.” His supporters hang on the rhetorical meaning behind the statement. News outlets dissected and analyzed the meaning of his words. When we have to diligently parse the words of our president to uncover their true meaning, it means we are more afraid of criticizing the president than we are about inciting a real race war in our country.

It should never be acceptable for the President of the United States to stoke the ideals and passions of white supremacy groups to get votes. It is the lowest level of campaigning. If he could condemn them once in 2017, he should have zero problems condemning them now.

The Proud Boys and other white supremacists love to highlight their non-white members. They love to see a Black or Latino person come out in support of Trump because by their logic if one minority is pro-trump then that means their ideologies simply cannot be racist. It’s literally the “I have a Black friend” argument.

For instance, Enrique Tarrio, the face of the Proud Boys, is paraded around as a token Latino to disprove the group’s supremacist ideals as if people of color cannot be white supremacists. I will state clearly that people of color can be white supremacists. 

The problem is exacerbated when other political candidates engage with and support hate groups and conspiracy claims. For instance, Lauren Boebert, running for Colorado’s 3rd District representative, is one of many congressional candidates across the country that openly supports QAnon. QAnon is a conspiracy group created by a 4-Chan user claiming to be a high-ranking government official.

QAnon believes says that there is a hidden scheme to overthrow Trump and hurt his base, all orchestrated by a leftist cabal. Its supporters believe that “Q” is communicating with them through a coded language involving the number 17 and the letter Q. This line of communication is referred to as a “Q drop” within the community. QAnon is gaining traction because of the sense of community it provided its members. All who follow the QAnon pipeline are fighting for a presumed just cause and are banded together to fight the alleged evil plaguing the underbelly of our government. Frankly, it’s absurd. 

To deflect criticism and to give themselves legitimacy, QAnon has created #SaveTheChildren, a group purporting to be against child trafficking and pedophilia. I think we can all agree that our children should be protected from pedophilia and child trafficking, but #SaveTheChildren is a ruse meant to draw in the apolitical, and a rhetorical trick to shield QAnon from criticism. The rhetoric is framed so criticizing QAnon is to criticize #SaveTheChildren and therefore be pro-pedophilia.  

And the apolitical who might support the of ending child trafficking are unwittingly drawn into the conspiracies created by QAnon. Such conspiracies include the notion that there is a complex market of child trafficking run by our government that is actively trying to push Trump out of office before he exposes it to the world. 

Sadly this conspiracy group has grown on Facebook tenfold since January of this year. The FBI has labeled QAnon a domestic terrorism threat.

QAnon and its supporters have zero substance, zero evidence and zero credibility. Yet, it’s supporters say QAnon asks its members to be skeptical.  They say that it is raising a lot of interesting questions.  This is the rhetoric Lauren Boebert uses. “Everything that I’ve heard of Q, I hope that this is real because it only means that America is getting stronger and better, and people are returning to conservative values,” Boebert said.

QAnon has been adopted by militia groups and far-right activist groups have adopted #SaveTheChildren as a shield from criticism. It’s a way to avoid discussing critical racial topics like Black Lives Matter. #SaveTheChildren is not only a bogus group based on a conspiracy, but it’s also a cop-out for anyone who simply does not care to solve the racial divide in this country. To attack this movement is framed as being anti-Trump and anti-children. 

If you are actively choosing to support the GOP and the Trump campaign, you might not be a white supremacist but you should be aware that the white supremacists are on your side. And Trump actively stokes this community in order to gain votes. Trump has stated that QAnon believers must love their country. Well, you can feel patriotic and be a white supremacist. White supremacy is a lens through which to see the world. Just as your religion and your career shape your outlook on our country, so does your stance on race relations. 

Racism is a result of people’s ignorance and lack of education. Americans who are ignorant and uneducated are more likely to subscribe to white supremacist ideals. 

The Republican Party is aware that white supremacists and conspiracy groups make up a large portion of their base. Condemning hate groups should be the lowest bar to clear in political morality, yet here we are.  

We can elect a racist president because America has been and continues to be a racist country. I don’t say this as a treasonous socialist that is set on destroying democracy. I criticize the state of our nation because I love it enough to recognize its flaws. And right now, one of the most prominent issues threatening our country is white supremacy. 

If we have a race problem in America then we have a race problem in our smaller communities. The communities most impacted by the actions of our president are rural like Western Colorado. The people hurt by baseless conspiracy and racism are those living in our small towns. 

If Western Colorado is really to become pro-diversity and anti-racist, then let it be reflected in the election this November.  Let us vote for our true ideals so that the notion that we are racist can be dispelled once and for all. 

I look towards our ballot and see candidates like Donald Trump and Lauren Boebert and I see a clear trend in what outrageous platforms gain support in today’s political climate. I look at the ballot and think that this is the last off-ramp we have left before a permanently divided America takes form.