It’s not a joke

A Surviving Facts Blog

On Wednesday, the day after the election when many Americans were still trying to process the results, Black adults and students woke to text messages. They all were written similarly to the one below:

“Greetings [name of person plus last name initial], You have been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation. Be ready at [time] SHARP with your belongings. Our Executive Slaves will come get you in a Brown Van, be prepared to be searched down once you enter the plantation. You are in plantation group [letter or number].”

If you think this isn’t true, just Google it. There are news reports from across the country. The FBI, Dept of Justice and FCC are investigating- though Project 2025 plans to change those institutions as well. The authorities have no idea who is sending the texts, how they obtained the names and phone numbers of Black people across the country, and the origin of the numbers sending the vile messages, though some came from TextNow in what they say is a widespread coordinated attack.

Already, the far right are claiming it’s a leftists’ scare tactic. The left couldn’t even organize itself well enough to turn out people to vote in a critical election. How do we expect them to deploy such an expansive tactic? Every time a right scare tactic goes into effect, they point fingers at the left. Projection, much? Donald always gives himself away similarly. “They’re cheating,” he says, then we find out his cronies were the ones who were doing exactly what he said the left did.

I said I wasn’t going to write another political post, but here we are. My daughter is scared to death that a black van is going to pull up and scoop me inside never to be seen again. If that happens, I disappeared for a good cause.

Here’s my question: if Kamala Harris had won, would these messages have gone out? What do you think? That’s a genuine question. I can’t imagine that happening, but, go ahead, prove me wrong.

We’ve known since Trump came onto the scene that there has been a marked increase in hate crimes. This from a 2023 article in Science Direct, a journal focused on the cognitive sciences:

“Evidence suggests that hate crimes increased substantially during Trump’s presidency. For example, anti-Semitic incidents in the USA increased 86% in the first quarter of 2017 (post-election) compared with the same time period in 2016 (pre-election)^vi. Similarly, there was a 91% increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes in the first half of 2017, compared with the same time period in 2016 (pre-election)^vii. These trends continued throughout Trump’s presidency, with annual hate crimes remaining around 20% higher during his administration^viii. Other research specifically tied these increases in hate crimes to Trump himself, finding that counties that hosted a Trump rally showed hate crime rates almost double those of similar counties with no rally [1]. These findings suggest that discrimination increased following Trump’s election.”

Trump, the article claims, made it ok for Americans to express openly their prejudices. It made it ok to make America racist again. Or sexist. Or anti LGBTQ+. It made it ok to apply equality only to white men. According to Constitutional originalism, we have to look at our forefathers’ intent at the time of writing the constitution. They were all white, privileged men. Did they mean when they said “all men are created equal” that only white men were defined by “men”?

I would like to think that the beauty of the American Constitution is its ability to grow and flex over times. Our forefathers could not possibly have seen a world of computers, AI, machine learning. Does that make the Constitution irrelevant? Of course not. Words have connotations and denotations and intent. What those were in the 1700s versus now can certainly flex enough without erasing original intent. Back then, white men had no idea that they were the same species as Black men. We now know we are the same. So the term “men” should certainly expand to what we know today. Human beings are human beings, no matter the color or gender.

When folks speak about going back to the good ole times, I see lynchings, inability to vote, lack of protections for women and zero understanding of neurodivergence. Times when, “spare the rod, spoil the child,” was an accepted childrearing approach. My dad quoted that saying, and I went to school with welts on my legs and butt. I had to hide my welts- for even then we knew it wasn’t the right thing to do.

It’s the economy, people will say. The economy is in a better place than when Trump was in office. Unemployment, though wobbly right now, is lower. The stock market is higher. What are people looking for? Lower taxes? Unless you make above $300,000, under Trump your taxes are going up, not down. Healthcare? Trump is likely to end access to non-private, subsidized healthcare as well as restrictions on drug prices. As he’s always done, he will support the corporations and their profits.

How many Americans are now finding out that American companies and the consumer pay for tariffs? Do you know how many people thought China did? I’ve seen so many reports of people scratching their heads because their companies are trying to produce as much as they can before tariffs go into effect. Prices going up under Biden- the horror. Prices going up under Trump- ah well, that’s the way it is.

Which brings me back to my original point. America is a racist country. It started with slavery and continues to disempower, not protect, turn away from and brainwash minorities, women and the American worker. The American worker will actually vote for the rich getting richer- as if it’s in their own interest. The day after the election, the world’s 10 richest people got a record $64 billion richer from Trump’s re-election. Did you make any money the day after the election? How’s that working for you?

Corporate America and billionaires largely lead the political arena with huge lobbyist groups and PACs. In addition, Republicans own most of the major news stations and vehicles: Fox, CNN, OANN, Newsmax, Daily Wire, Twitter/X, Parler. Bezos owns the Washington Post. None of these owners are close to the realities of daily life. To know what it’s like to use food stamps, to be unable to get medicines or medical care, to not have a home or the resources to find one. Millions of Americans are in these circumstances and they think the trickle down will help them. History does not have one instance of that happening. So how will that happen now? If these billionaires got together, pooled their resources, they could solve every problem our country has. But they have not. They are consolidating their money for themselves and that is part of what’s creating our economy’s challenges. Less money in circulation. Less money flowing to workers. It’s hurting all of us. (As a footnote, I do want to recognize billionaires like Gates who have done excellent work on wiping out some of the world’s worst diseases through mass vaccinations. With RFK heading whatever cabinet, will that now be wiped out?)

Black Americans have every right to live in fear after receiving the post-election text messages. Slavery is still a family memory, passed down generations along with the trauma that came from it. That’s the whole nature of systemic racism. Take away any opportunities to enable success and then blame the victims when generations later, they haven’t risen or have struggled to rise above it.

So about those text messages… we shouldn’t be worried, right? They were just a joke, right? Don’t overreact. Everything will be fine. Trump was just joking when he said this or that. The far right, they won’t go that far, it’ll be fine. We learned on Tuesday, most Americans must think this way.

I’m not laughing.