A while ago, I was baffled why so many people seem so angry all the time. Especially since most of them are not deprived, not poor, not working in terrible jobs. Most of them are middle to upper middle class people who for reasons I couldn’t fathom, are furious with their world.

Then, one day, as they were chanting “Kill the Jews, kill the Blacks” and other charming commentary it occurred to me what they have in common is hatred. They hate ME. And Garry. They hate most of the people I know. They are furious that people exist in this country who aren’t Christians, aren’t white, don’t celebrate the same holidays. They want us to leave and never come back. If that doesn’t work, there’s always killing us as a fallback position.

I’m in the middle of a third book on the history of Australia, Girt Nation: The Unauthorised History of Australia, Volume 3. It’s free on Audible if you are a subscriber. I read the first two volumes by the same author, so it was nice to get the latest volume. A lot of what he’s writing about is racism and that Australians were and are incredibly racist — as are most nations that emerged from the old British “empire.” It turns out the the U.S., Canada, and Australia share a level of racism I thought had died with the end of the second World War.

Not true. It went silent and dark. It didn’t go away and it wasn’t asleep. Even though both Garry and I have been objects of hatred and racism over the years, I didn’t take it seriously. I knew there were a certain number of nut jobs walking around and some of them hated me, others hated him, and together, we were a well-hated couple. I paid them no attention and moved on with my life.

I may have not taken them seriously, but they were taking me — and Garry — very seriously.

Now, I look at those angry people. I know what they want which is for me and Garry to be gone — or dead. Either will do nicely. They want everyone from the Arab countries to go too. They wouldn’t mind if all the Indians and Pakistanis left. Out west, there are a fair number of people who are sorry we didn’t successfully slaughter ALL the Indigenous peoples. Meanwhile, I’m sure those Indigenous peoples are terribly sorry they fed those starving Pilgrims.

I guess I wanted to say that aside from left-right-Democrat-Republican stuff, what is so demoralizing and depressing is after all these years, they still hate us. Racism never left. It went underground and silent and became even uglier than it had been. Trump brought it back to the surface and that’s why they are so fervently loyal to him. Not because they think he did great stuff for this nation, but that he told them “Hey, hate your hearts out! I hate them too. Let’s all get together and do some serious hating.”

They have done that. Scratch one of Those People and beneath the skin, they are crawling with loathing for anyone who isn’t white, Christian, and just like them. They want a revolution — but it’s not the government they want gone. It’s me. It’s Garry. Maybe it you, too. They want things like they were — not in the 1990s or 1970s. More like the 1930s and 1940s when jolly old Hitler showed those damned Jews where to go.

Does this include EVERYONE? Obviously not. It is probably about a third of the adult population — but more like 75% of the Republican party. It wouldn’t bother me if they weren’t encouraging it, but they are. There are a lot of good people out there and some are our friends. The problem is that way too many people ARE like that. They are not the majority, but are a huge and powerful minority who have a lot of control of the government and corporate America.

Society has theoretically changed, but it hasn’t changed nearly as much as it should have. Laws were passed. Even a constitutional amendment was passed. But, NEVER PROPERLY ENFORCED. I think most of us — me included — figured by passing the laws and amendment, we’d fixed it. We also needed some serious education to go with the laws and amendments — and that never happened.

This is why I can’t have a conversation with them. They won’t talk to me or Garry and I’d just as soon skip the conversation. I’ve had a lot of those conversations over the years, hoping that just ONCE I could convince one of those people that we aren’t bad people — just differently colored and differently religious.They are not interested in talking things over. Haters don’t want to be talked out of hating because it’s in their DNA. Take away their hate and they haven’t anything else worth living for. It’s the hatred which drives them to be the horrible people they are. If you don’t believe that, I’m guessing you’re white and vaguely (at least) Christian.

If those people don’t scare you, why not? They should scare you.

Categories: Hatred and bigotry, Racism and Bigotry

Tags: America, bigotry, hatred, Marilyn Armstrong, racism