#Whitelash

Last night, Van Jones identified the election of Donald Trump as a racial reality. He’s not wrong.

Now, in the words of President Obama, let me be clear. I did not vote for Trump. I was #NeverTrump from the beginning. I am a straight, white man, and I am very unhappy with what happened this year, and in particular, last night, in American politics.

But I know a lot of white guys.

Many white men are racist, sexist, homophobic, and actively participate in injustice against people who don’t look like them.

Most white men that I know, however, are a bit more moderate than that. They are trying to live their lives, find decent jobs, take care of their families, and say what they think with honesty and respect.

To my horror, I saw more and more of these middle-of-the-road white men consider Trump more and more seriously over the course of the last several months. I couldn’t understand it. I didn’t want it to be true. But it happened. Despite all of Trump’s gaffes and flaws and character deficiencies and lies, white men increasingly came to support Trump.

Let’s also remember that Hillary was an extraordinarily bad candidate:

Remember, what started as a plurality of the Republican primary electorate (about 3% of the electorate), became a near majority of the entire electorate. How did this happen? We know Hillary Clinton was an historically weak candidate, but I want to tell you a story that might help you understand.

I know a man named Tom (not his real name). Tom was a weed-smoking, libertarian-leaning Bernie Bro-type not so long ago. He’s never tried to hurt anyone or interfere in their lives. He’s gentle, thoughtful, and cares about people. He’s young, educated, motivated, and a voracious reader.

He voted for Trump.

He voted for Trump for several reasons, but here are some of the most important ones:

He believes that radical Islam is a real threat to free societies, and that it’s being ignored or downplayed by most on the left. He believes that if you aren’t actively racist, you shouldn’t be blamed for things other white people have done to non-whites. He believes that identity politics are not based on truth, but on feelings, and that people’s feelings shouldn’t determine the course of national policy making. He’s not a fan of #BlackLivesMatter.

Speaking more broadly, I’ve seen white guys quietly register their opinion, feeling like they’ve been unfairly singled out as bad because of who they are. They believe they are being judged by the color of their skin rather than the content of their character.

They’re sick of elites telling them they’re stupid and racist because they don’t agree.

They’re tired of people telling them how privileged they are when many of their lives are really, really hard.

They have been forgotten, left behind, and been made the lame sitcom dad of popular culture.

Many of them voted for Trump.

This is in reference to the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.

This morning, these working-class and middle-class white guys are watching social and mainstream media as comparisons are made to Japanese-American internment camps, the Civil War, and other violent events from history.

Many educated people on the Left have become unhinged in the minds of these moderate white guys. People were worried that Tump supporters wouldn’t accept the results of the election; the question is now whether Clinton supporters will.

Once again, some Trump supporters are simply racist. But most of the 59 million people who voted for Trump are less extreme. They watched Barack Obama promise hope and change, and their lives got worse.

They were told their lives were easy because they are white men, and yet they struggle. They believe the media and other left-leaning elites have lied, bent the truth, and are untrustworthy.

Ultimately, many of these white men were raised to believe, and still do believe, that it is the content of your character, not the color of your skin, that should determine how you are judged. They believe that they have been judged by the latter, not the former, and they have done the thing that makes the most sense to them, even though it is unthinkable to many of us.

They leaned in. They voted for someone who race-baits, who was endorsed by David Duke, who used the racial divides in our country to his own advantage. This is on them, but it’s also on us.

In the field of education, we are taught that our students will meet our expectations, if only we will expect them to rise to the occasion. The opposite is also true: if you tell a kid he is stupid long enough, he’ll eventually believe you, and he will live into that reality.

To white men who disagree with their dogma, the Left has said:

You’re a racist.

You’re sexist.

You’re a bigot.

You hate gay people.

You’re transphobic.

You’re an oppressor.

We made believers out of them. Donald J. Trump is our President-elect.