A couple of nights ago my wife and I watched the debate between current U.S. Senator from Georgia, Kelly Loeffler and her Democratic opponent the Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock who is vying to unseat her.
In Kelly Loeffler it was clear that Donald Trump was in the room and on the stage and she was speaking to Donald Trump’s base.
She came not to debate the real issues confronting the people of Georgia but to paint her opponent a black man in an unflattering light.
It made no difference if what she was saying about Reverend Warnock was untrue,
Trumpism has never been concerned about truth.
But if you say something about someone long enough and often some who are listening will begin to believe it as true.
Donald Trump used that approach in pushing the Birtherism lie against President Obama.
Kelly Loeffler tried desperately to frame the Reverend Warnock as “a radical, leftist, liberal.”
She was banking on the die hard Trump loyalists to hear her.
A radical, leftist, liberal who was out to take this country from hard-working white people.
Ms. Loeffler did not come to debate. She came to stoke fear and exploit white racial anxiety.
She would do that by mischaracterizing and belittling her black male opponent.
But white women mischaracterizing who black men were was nothing new.
White women lying on black men was nothing new.
Black men have lost their lives because of lies that white women have told on them.
Racialized politics was front and center in that debate.
At one point the Reverend Warnock would say to the viewing public as he continued to listen to Ms. Loeffler, “Those who have ears let them hear.”
Dr. Warnock never reacted to Ms. Loeffler’s description of him as a “Radical, liberal, leftist.” To my mind she could have just as easily called him, “A radical, leftist, nigger.”
And while she never used those words the inference was there.
So here is the real truth Ms. Loeffler and those that you were speaking to.
Your opponent is an American who could not access the American Dream in the same way that you could because his skin was black and yours was white.
Your opponent came to speak for people that you would never speak for because those people you never thought mattered.
Your opponent was a black man who was confident in his blackness and confident in his humanity.
He did not belittle or disrespect you in any way.
He did not characterize you or mischaracterize you as some sort of devil that people should be afraid of because unlike you Reverend Warnock was secure in his humanity.
Donald Trump did lose.
He lost the popular vote.
He lost the electoral college vote.
We have a new President and Vice-President elect who will become on January 20 President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris.
The work ahead of them and the work ahead of all Americans will be to break through the walls of fear-to tear those walls down so that we can begin to humanize one another no matter what side of the political spectrum we happen to be on.
In his closing remarks Reverend Warnock took the opportunity to tell who he was in his own voice. His words were not wasted on any of us who were listening and hearing.
I am the son of Jonathan and Verlene Warnock.
I am one of 12 children and I am number 11 of the 12.
My father was a small Businessman who taught me and all of his children the value of hard work.
I am the Pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church.
It is the Church of the Reverend Vernon Johns, the Reverend Martin Luther King Sr. and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. These great, courageous and prophetic men I am honored to follow in their footsteps.
These great men were radical followers of a radical Jesus.
So Ms. Loeffler The Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock stands in good company.
I wish that your whiteness would get out of the way so that you can see what many of can see and celebrate in a man-a servant of God who walks in the radicalness of Jesus of Nazareth and that a good thing-a righteous thing.
KW
She had learned that lesson well from the outgoing president a person that she even refused to acknowledge had lost the election.
Very well said friend
Well written. We must keep pushing the truth with the same fevor our opponents use in propagating their lies