The current situation for people of color in America

I was stunned but not surprised to hear that Trump supporters attacked an innocent black female in LA last Wednesday. Video shows the senseless mob going after the woman who was simply walking nearby. She says they called her the N-word and shouted “Black Lives Don't Matter." I am an avid walker and often go out alone and I ponder that this could have been me or my daughter. Donald Trump has so riled up his base that they are going after any and everyone and it’s scary. I now have to be concerned that a MAGA maniac might not like one of my online stories about Trump and come after me.

I must be cognizant of the fact that as I’m walking or even driving, some crazed lunatic will call me names or even shoot at me for no reason other than the color of my skin. My husband once shared a story of how racists attacked him when he was a 7 year old boy. He was walking home from the store when a car passed by and someone threw a milkshake in his face and called him the N-word. To think that adult males would target a child is despicable.It shows that the blood of the ancestors still runs warm in the veins of their descendants today.

This type of behavior brings to mind the hooded night riders who dragged black men from their homes, hanged them from trees and set them in fire.The mob mentality in America is clearly visible in the old westerns where lynch mobs broke people out of jail and administered their own brand of justice without benefit of judge or jury. I heard Trump supporters admit on televising tecently that they wanted Civil War and are willing to die, but I don't and neither do millions of other Americans of all ethnicities. I and many other African Americans are now forced to be more cautious and wondering who the enemy is.

We know that many law enforcement officials who were sworn to protect and serve joined in the attack on the White House. Who else among us, even our "friends" is a Trump sympathizer or even a radical supporter? To think that police officers aided and abetted the rioters is very troubling. It's coming to light that there are law enforcement officials all over the nation who were in attendance and proud of it. The idea that adult males would urinate and defecate inside the federal property is revolting, but it shows the level of evil within the hearts of men.

So now. black folk in America have to suspect anyone and everyone of being a racist. It could be your doctor, your boss, coworker, car mechanic, or even your neighbor. Donald Trump appealed to the very worst in this nation because he knew his tatics would work. For the 8 years of the Obama administration, these extremists laid low and in 2016 one of their own ascended to the highest office in the land. I don’t mean the fact that Donald Trump is white, but I address his being a radical conspiracy theorist who coddles Supremacists. Those who hold the far right viewsnow feel empowered and as if their day has arrived. All that pent up anger because a black man was in the White House for 2 terms can now be unleashed.

For this reason, black people have to be extra careful not to accidentally cut someone off in traffic or get too close to the "Karen's' inside a grocery store. One-half of American voters wanted Trump to gain another 4 years and that says something disturbing. Not all Trump supporters are racists, but it's obvious that all racists are Trump supporters and they are letting us know it. If the issues that led to the mob attack were political only, then why carry Confederate flags into the White House. Why attack an innocent black woman who was minding her own business and use the N-word?

This opens doors for more attacks, even on innocent children as happened to my husband. I recall a few years back a white male cut me off in traffic and when I honked my horn he held his head out the window and called me the N-word. I watched on Facebook as Caucasians I knew said ugly things about BLM. These were men and women I went to school with, some who had visited my home and fellowshipped at the black church I attended. I deleted many but those who remain are actually defending what happened last Wednesday.

To be black in America in 2021 feels like it's the days of Jim Crow. We must be looking over our shoulders and wondering who the enemy is. Yesterday my daughter shared that her 3 children walked to the store alone for the first time and I prayed no one would call them names or throw a milkshake in their faces. That's my reality and I don't like it but I cannot change the content of anybody's heart. Donald Trump has caused some Americans to reveal what they were hiding deep inside. It's ugly, hateful, and dangerous but this is who we are.

It's not a good time to be a person of color in this nation because we never know when or where racism will rear its nasty head. This brings a level of stress that those of other races do not have to deal with. Is it any wonder that black people have higher levels of elevated blood pressure and other diseases? We must live each day on the edge for no other reason than the pigment of our skin. We must worry about our men becoming another George Floyd or black women being another Breonna Taylor. This is not a comfortable way to exist but it's the hand America has dealt us.

The truth of the matter is that the leader of the land simply brought out what was already in these hostile US citizens and because of these ignorant Trump supporters the lives of the innocent are at risk. Every decent, law abiding, United States citizen needs to declare this day that they are on the side of peace and loving thy neighbor. These immature, racist bullies must be stopped. One of the most revealing issues to come from recent events is this: Although the mob of overzealous white males was shouting over and over? “ Hang Mike Pence” most black Americans saw the noise that was displayed and felt in our hearts that it was really for one of us.

Joe Biden is seen as a traitor and ni**get lover because he as a white male served a biracial president and now will have an African American female as his Vice President, Kamala Harris is a target because she is a black Roman and her husband is hated by some because he married her. First Lady elect Jill Biden is surely feeling the pressure with all of this chaos surrounding her, African Americans who live with this type of pressure all the time can surely relate and empathize with her.