@BlackAzizAnansi But seriously. Racism is America's original sin, so that's a fundamental, but... I think back to a few decades ago when, though USA had serious problems with bigotry, we were at least moving toward a society where overt racism, misogyny, antisemitism, etc. were publicly shamed. Then the reactionaries got their shit together , and ramped up their pushback. What did they do that was so effective that we ended up where we are today, on the verge of a fascist takeover?

@NMgal I think Kwame Toure said it best when he said you can't work to reach out to your oppressors conscience when they don't have one to reach out to. That's the GOP today, they have no conscience.

@BlackAzizAnansi I was having a similar conversation today (over Zoom, so modern) with some empathetic, compassionate, aware folks. How do you reach out to oppressors, and wannabe oppressors, who straight up want to see you suffer and die? How do we find common ground with that? I think at least we have to be honest about it. In (mostly white) liberal spaces I see a lot of denial: "Can't X see that Y action will actually hurt people?" Yes, yes, they can, and it's a feature not a bug to them.

@NMgal Bingo! It's the definition of being between a rock and a hard place. On one hand you have the GOP, who sees Black and Brown people as inferior, and wants to pass policies to ensure that they're a permanent underclass. On the other hand, you have some mostly white liberals who think you can negotiate with the GOP, and lecture them into morality.

@BlackAzizAnansi I see a need for a clear-eyed view of the problem and better solidarity. A sliver of silver lining in the derangement of the GQP is that more white liberals might understand the othering of POC is rapidly extending to them (I should say us, I'm an older white liberal). The "them" they salivate to subjugate is EVERYONE not a member of their Dominionist cult. In a crowd whites can pass, but if they have info on voting record or even social media posts, skin color won't be armor.