Christmas in November?

It was an unusually warm mid-November afternoon, and after a string of especially gruelling days of work, I decided to venture out while the sun was still shining. In November, when the sun starts setting around 4:00 PM, most of my roaming ends up happening after dark. In the bus and to the local shops I went, in search of nothing in particular but a break from my laptop. Much to my chagrin, everywhere I went, I was confronted by Christmas carols. In one store, my ears were besieged by the sound of Nat King Cole fa la la la la-ing (something I rather enjoy a little closer to December 25^th, but not at all in November) and my eyes bombarded by the sight of frantic shoppers hunting for decorative items to dress their homes for the upcoming festive season. As I moved deeper into the chaos of shopping carts darting in all directions, closer to the centrally located cash registers, I could hear the sound of that computerized voice calling out numbers in quick succession to eager consumers waiting in line for the privilege of swiping their cards. A thought popped into my head: “I hate capitalism.”

I escaped and soaked up the relative silence outside, until I entered the next shop: “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!” This time, at least, the store was rather empty and peaceful. But it dawned on me: This is only the beginning. Soon, the shopping frenzy will kick into full swing. I may have to avoid such commercial establishments from December 1^st onwards.

Finally, I knew there was no hope that this conspiracy to start the Christmas season in November was going to suck me in, when another favourite, Eartha Kitt, couldn’t put a smile on my face with her rendition of “Santa Baby.” That was it for this Grinch; I decided it was time to head home.

I find it fascinating that the winter outerwear is just emerging in clothing stores, but the Christmas music is already pumping through the sound systems of our big box stores. Granted, the pink toque I’ve conjured in my imagination is more of a vanity purchase than a necessity, as I have various other toques to keep my head warm, but said outerwear is of practical use, whereas cutesy snowmen and reindeer to decorate the home are not. But, then, utility isn’t exactly the motivation behind the corporate version of Christmas. 

All I can say is Bah humbug. 

The unshocking triumph of the Right

Like many, I’m still reeling from the result of the U.S. election. I watched with dread as the U.S. map turned mostly red. I felt an intense fear for the safety of racialized, queer, and trans Americans, given the hornet’s nest of macho, hypermasculine, white nationalism that Trump had stirred up to get votes. The reality of this outcome was overwhelming to say the least, but the outcome shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

As I’ve said before, this was the quintessential American running for the highest office of the United States of America. Of course this happened! What else would happen when capitalism is treated like a religion, with wealth worshipped, celebrity revered, inequities maintained to support the pursuit of wealth of those at the top of the pyramid, poverty reviled as a sign of laziness, and humanity dismissed as weakness? Nevertheless, as history was unfolding on Tuesday night, I chose to be in denial. My disillusionment with politics in general had led me to believe that “the system” wanted Hillary Clinton, and therefore she would be the next President of the United States, even if the election was close.

This mistake is exactly the problem. I never took Trump seriously. I thought his presence was strictly to ensure his opponent’s victory. It looked like the Democratic Party agreed, because Clinton didn’t put up a very good fight. In the debates, she stood by and made faces and she didn’t really challenge Trump on what he said. In the second debate, she even let him get away with changing the subject to ISIS when he was asked directly about sexual assault. I don’t know if she and her party were taking voters that much for granted to think that all they needed to do was say “Look at this buffoon!” and the votes would automatically go to Clinton, or if we were duped and Trump always had it in the bag. After all, he kept repeating, “The system is rigged.” The point is that this result was inevitable, and anyone who didn’t think it was at least possible is part of the problem—and that includes people like me.

The world we inhabit today is cutting us off from reality. We interact more with the Internet than our neighbours and in so doing, we control the content we see and read, and we can block or filter out dissimilar voices and create a bubble of consensus that we share with like-minded individuals. The result is that we don’t necessarily know what others are thinking, and so we have the Republicans taking the U.S. Electoral College, when all the polls projected a Democrat win. After the election, liberals and the pundits of their ilk were quick to dismiss Trump voters—the same behaviour that helped him emerge victorious. When Hillary Clinton referred to half of Trump supporters as the “basket of deplorables” she showed how arrogant and out of touch she was. Did she really believe that she could insult thousands of people and there would be no backlash? Or was she so cocky that she thought she could alienate that many people and it wouldn’t make a difference to her campaign? No one likes being spoken to condescendingly or being insulted.

Although the conditions that created this result are complex, it is undeniable that racism was the main factor in this election. Anyone who wishes to argue otherwise is blind to the white supremacy that is the foundation of all settler states including my own country. Speaking of which, those who were able to look past the racism in Trump’s campaign and still vote for him showed that racism isn’t really a problem for them. Misogyny also played a part. Men and women are not measured by the same standards, and North Americans like to judge the rest of the world while pretending things are perfectly fine here. They are not. But I’m less concerned about gender right now than I am about the failures of liberalism. By continuing to brush off Trump voters as nothing more than ignorant, crazy, racist sexists, we will continue to look like egotistical ideologues and we will fail to notice as they organize further. As I see it, this is the key difference between liberals and conservatives—the former have no plan, while the latter are increasingly mobilizing to get what they want. And if what they want isn’t what you, in the centre and on the Left, want, then wipe your tears, forget this “love trumps hate” claptrap, stop being surprised by announcements like the one that racist ideologue Stephen Bannon is on Trump’s team, and organize.

The Americans are not the first ones to elect a government that ran a campaign of negativity and fear and anger toward the “other”. So, the world is not going to end when Donald Trump takes his oath and this is not the beginning of dark days; that is a very American-centric view. And let’s be real: If the election had gone the only other conceivable way, would you really have warm, fuzzy feelings about another President Clinton? It would have been business as usual. No doubt, liberals—especially white liberals—would have heaved a sigh of relief and gone on thinking all is well. This past weekend, I saw a couple being interviewed by CBC reporter Steven D’Souza at the anti-Trump protest in New York, and when asked why they were protesting, they emphasized the rhetoric that Trump used, and the woman said that if Clinton had won, things would be better. So, basically, Trump’s language offended them. If words become the biggest issue in the eyes of dissidents, such protests are not going to achieve anything. This CBC video of D'Souza speaking to a protester in New York is far better:

Given the popularity of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in the party leadership races, it was clear that a large number of Americans wanted change. Clinton was the antithesis of that. So, there you go. Of course the Democrats were punished for putting Clinton forward as their candidate! Now large numbers of liberals—many of them white by the look of it—are hashtagging and marching in the streets. Where were those people when Black Lives Matter was doing the same thing? Where were they when the police were increasingly killing unarmed Black adults and children, and militarizing to keep the public in line? Where were they when the Right was targeting transgender people, fear mongering about washrooms while ignoring the rising murder rates, especially among trans people of colour? Where were they when Obama was setting a record for deportations? Bernie Sanders may have been offering something different, but he alienated many people when he and his supporters tried to tone police Black Lives Matter activists. He showed them that they could expect more white liberalism with him.

The political class is an entity unto itself. The “outsider” whom thousands of Americans are hoping will understand their struggles and “make their country great again” is a white billionaire who was born into wealth. It is entirely illogical. Anyone who argues that this man is the saviour of the proletariat is either incredibly ignorant or trying to conceal their own white nationalism. In addition to this, my takeaway from Trump’s successful entry into politics is that there is a certain kind of “outsider” that gets to infiltrate the political establishment—a billionaire. Talk about being out of touch. Why do we, in our so-called democracies, continue to be satisfied with choosing whom we perceive to be the lesser of the evils? Why do people get angry and try to shame others who choose not to vote or who vote for third-party candidates? This election, with its low voter turnout and victory for Trump, is evidence that a lot of people are dissatisfied with a system that they don’t feel exists for them.

Americans (and Canadians) need actual change. If you agree that Donald Trump shouldn’t be president, then you hopefully see that real change means the obliteration of the entire system of whiteness that is responsible for white supremacy. Anger and vitriol have become the norm in political/social discourse. It certainly helps when our mainstream media normalize racism by propagating the use of terms like “Alt Right.” I have never used this term because, to me, it legitimizes an ideology that should remain on the fringe; rather, it’s taking over. That should make you furious.

I don’t care what angry white men say; I care what they’re given licence to do. Liberals and leftists have been focusing too much on semantics and less on what they stand for. Hillary Clinton was not the answer; she was a symptom of the problem. She was doing what liberal politicians do: giving you destructive neoliberal ideology in a friendly package. Where is the outrage at the disparities in how white and racialized people have always been treated at all levels of society? Indeed, things might get worse from here on out, but if you can’t see that they were already horrible, then I don’t know what your cause is, but it doesn’t look like social justice to me. Let me give you an example. Most people, whether they’re friends with immigrants or not, are aware that a person’s educational and professional qualifications from the developing world are of no value in a country like Canada. Do you think that’s fair?

You don’t have to be openly racist to support white supremacy. If you don’t hear anyone else’s experiences and can’t see anyone else’s struggles, then you can’t care about anyone else’s struggles. If you aren’t outraged at how our countries work, maybe you’re more closely aligned with Trump’s white nationalism than you think.