Memo to white America: This is who we are | Opinion

By Ryan Haygood
White America, this one’s on you.
About 85% of Black people voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in this election.
Of white people, who comprised 71% percent of voters, a majority – 57% – voted for Donald Trump.
The way Black people showed up in this election brings to mind Nikole Hannah-Jones’ belief that “More than any other group in this country’s history, [Black people] have served, generation after generation, in an overlooked but vital role: It is we who have been the perfecters of this democracy.”
There’s no doubt voting shifts in some communities of color must be studied so we can learn from them.
But an outsized portion of the post-presidential election analysis has focused on what Black people, and Black men in particular, did not do.
Concentrating on that at the expense of the white majority vote, which decided the election, is pure misdirection. The majority of white people re-elected a purveyor of hate, racism, misogyny, division, xenophobia and chaos.
Why does this clarity matter? Because without it, even well-meaning white people fail to appreciate how we got here – and the honesty and accountability required to respond. I’ve been inundated with outreach from well-meaning white friends expressing dismay at the result. Many understand something terrible has happened – but fail to appreciate that the root cause is white supremacy, and that this election was largely about the preservation of it.
“This level of vote was not because they were worried about grocery prices. They were worried about white privilege, white status, and sent the message that a multiracial democracy is fine as long as they’re at the top,” Melanie L. Campbell told The New York Times.
Without this clarity, the responsibility for addressing our challenges, as it too often is, will be assigned to Black and other people of color to solve a problem we did not create and cannot fix – certainly not by ourselves.
You see, Black people who have this clarity were not shocked at the results. Brokenhearted, yes. Because our deep and abiding love for this country, in which our ancestors were enslaved and which we built into the most prosperous on earth, compels us to pray – and fight – for better days, even as we are clear-eyed and intimate with the racism and sexism that stand against the realization of a better America. The kind of racism that has already manifested in reported text messages threatening to return us to slavery.
So with that clarity, what next? I believe that even – especially – in the most difficult times lies an opportunity to harness our collective power to not only react, but to advance a bold vision. One in which we don’t simply ask what Trump will do to us, but where we actively repair the harm of our enduring racism from the ground up in our communities.
In New Jersey, where like America, we experienced a marked shift to the right, the New Jersey Reparations Council is leading an overdue conversation about our often-overlooked history of slavery and structural racism. The Council’s work will propose transformative policies that will build a more equitable democracy less susceptible to anti-democratic forces and benefitting Black and all New Jerseyans.
We’re also waging a campaign for a New Jersey Voting Rights Act. The heart of the federal VRA has already been torn out by the Supreme Court – and we’re prepared for it to be further decimated. We must protect New Jersey’s voters, especially our Black and other voters of color, and build a more representative government truly accountable to the people.
And we’re directly expanding our democracy by working with municipalities to follow Newark and lower the voting age to 16 for school board elections. Bringing young people into a democracy that hasn’t been responsive to them is essential.
Accountability means white people should join these campaigns, and our Legislature and Governor should turn the Reparation Council’s proposals into law when its report is released next Juneteenth. In New Jersey, we wear a progressive halo betraying our history and racial inequities. Like in America, too many white people have not been honest with themselves about who we are – which is a state that voted 46.3% for Donald Trump.
That must stop.
White people, here and across America, must embrace the truth about how we got here and have unblinded conversations with one another about whiteness – what they’ve been willing to tolerate, if not embolden. With this clarity, we can lean into this moment clear-eyed and unbowed by fear and self-delusion. We can finally create a multiracial democracy where we can all thrive, succeed and win.
Ryan P. Haygood is President & CEO of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.
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