For the last several days, I have been trying to process what the hell is going on in the United States. How did the death of a 31-year-old podcaster bring us to the point of a Constitutional crisis that no one in power seems able or willing to stop?
I have two words for you: white grievances.
Really, the country since the election of Barack Obama has been slowly building up to this moment. As I have written numerous times, many saw that moment as a shifting of our racial tide—a new beginning—when, really, we were ignoring the growing threats.
The first Trump presidency brought us face-to-face with the reality of white grievances but far too many saw that moment as an anomaly and not as the harbinger of things to come that it was. Especially when Trump lost in 2020, and there was a collective sign of relief that we weren’t really a country that was still that racist. When we allowed a few years of a little racial and social progress to lull us into a false sense of progressive and forward movement, thus ignoring the threats all around us and how those threats were prepared to strike back with great vengeance.
In the days since the podcaster was killed, I have spent hours learning all about him beyond what I already knew, and I have been stunned to discover the political indoctrination apparatus he built with support from many well-heeled people who shared his beliefs and white grievances. On the surface, many believed him to be earnestly seeking his truth and engaging in good-faith discussion through his campus debates. But I am old enough and experienced enough in the non-profit world to say that for a young college drop-out to build a $12-million-a-year operation with the type of political capital he amassed only happens when powers larger than him decided he was a useful tool in their quest to turn white grievance into a national movement and a takeover.
The dead podcaster’s work along with the work of other young white conservative influencers and podcasters has literally created a new generation of racists, many of whom are not even as old as my eldest kid, who is 33.
For years, I have heard people say that once the old racists die out, we will see attitudes shift. That was wishful thinking because instead, we have a full suite of young racists, ranging from followers of the dead podcaster to the Nick Fuentes crew of Groypers to other alt-right subgroups too numerous to mention. What seems to link them all starts with white grievance. Their feeling that what they are “entitled to” as white-bodied people is being taken away from them because of diversity.
As the dead podcaster said, Black women are taking away white people jobs because, yeah, of course unqualified Black folks are just snatching up white people jobs left and right. Please. None of this is based in reality, but these people are not based in a reality that includes all of us; they are based in a regressive fantasy of America that would not have any real momentum if we didn’t have a president who rode white grievances to the White House—not once but twice.
I watched the dead podcaster’s memorial service in almost its entirety because I found myself nursing a hangover and, well, what better to do when you are as hung over as Cooter Brown but to check out the scene.
I won’t provide a play-by-play but in the words of George W. Bush, after attending President Trump’s first inauguration and listening to the inauguration speech: “That was some weird shit.”
Weird shit is really the only way to describe a memorial service where the dead man’s parents and sibling were conspicuously missing and his wife, when she came out to eulogize him, came out to pyrotechnics and a vibe that seemed more fitting for a WWF event.
For hours, we heard the dignitaries of the right wing speaking, along with a good chuck of the administration, and the only throughline was talking about a Jesus and God who only loves certain people and the United States. Bible verses used as weapons and a repeatedly expressed desire to reclaim America for Charlie and their white people.
There were exactly two non-white people who spoke: Ben Carson, the once-esteemed Black neurosurgeon who served as the Secretary of HUD during the first Trump administration, and Anna Paulina Luna, the first Mexican-American woman elected to Congress from Florida. Not even Candace Owens, Charlie’s dear friend, earned a slot on the roster of speakers.
At a certain point, it was just a weird Christian nationalist circle-jerk that was a weird mix of political rally and Evangelical tent revival with the ascension of the podcaster to sainthood status. There was a vibe that if people could make him the 13th apostle, they would, and others sounding as if it were Charlie who died for their sins and not Jesus. Like I said, it was some weird shit.
But it got really weird when Stephen Miller spoke and his tone was straight darkness—full-on white nationalism. I mean, speaking at your dead homie’s memorial and talking about how they (white people) built everything and they are taking it back for him is definitely a choice. Especially given that this event looked eerily like a certain event that happened in the 1930s with a certain tiny-mustached fella.
Like I said, I am not doing a deep dive into the entirety of that event because I want to keep my blood pressure down, but the service wrapped up with a very clear sense that they are going full-on “America is for white Christian folks” and either you get with the program or you are out of here—and if you dare to speak out, the same free speech that the dead podcaster supposedly believed in would not be available for you. Or me. Of course, since the podcaster was killed, people have been doxed, threatened, and had jobs lost for daring to say anything that wasn’t singing the praises of the dead man and this administration.
Which is what is bringing us to the Constitutional crisis. The First Amendment guarantees you the right to be critical of your government; we have the right to voice our discontent and concern. But in this weird upside-down version of America, people are bending to the will of the administration, which is how comedian Jimmy Kimmel briefly was taken off the air because of his comments about MAGA in the aftermath of the murder of the podcaster. The irony is that this administration is using this death to ramp up their efforts to squash dissent. So, Jimmy wasn’t lying.
Now, this is where I am going to pivot. Anyone whose anti-racism work went deep or at least deep-ish knew this moment was coming after Trump won again.
In fact, in the fall of 2023, I was busy working on a symposium my organization was to be hosting in spring 2024. The theme of that symposium was “Confronting White Grievance.” The keynote address was presented by Dr. Hajar Yazdiha, whose groundbreaking book, The Struggle for the People’s King, was released in the summer of 2023 and whom I met when I was asked to do a book reading event with her, bringing in my perspective as an anti-racism practitioner and activist.
Her book was captivating and factual in capturing the right’s slow measured focus to dismantle rights gained in the post-civil rights era and documenting how the right has rebranded Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a symbol to use in their movement. Have you not noticed how the dead podcaster has been compared to Dr. King?
Dr. Yazdhia’s work became the driving force in putting together our symposium because of how explicit and clear she is in creating the link between the slow burn of white grievances and how it has powered the right, without explicitly naming it as white grievances—instead, creating a sanitized “color-blind” version of reality that left white folks portrayed as victims.
Which is what we have been explicitly seeing since Trump’s first win. Millions of disaffected white people and a few tokens of color who felt they had been erased and replaced instead of the reality: the scales of equity finally starting to balance out more. It is this shift that has raised up a new generation of racists who don’t see themselves as racist. A la, the dead podcaster.
That symposium we hosted also included a panel of white anti-racists who were highly skilled in recognizing the role of white grievances in fueling today’s racist activity. Tim Wise and Chris Crass, both Southern white men whose work revolves around breaking down how racism operates today within the overlapping universe of class status, which far too many of the most popular white voices in the anti-racism world failed to recognize—instead assuming a position that all white people are equally class privileged. Which failed to recognize the threat from white people who were not class privileged, nor did it allow for working to build toward multi-cultural collective liberation that includes a racial and class analysis.
In theory, racism is a choice, and we have a society that pits us against one another. Many of the people who have been seduced into the cult of MAGA are there for reasons that start financially and grow from there. The power brokers have led these people to believe that someone else is stealing their slice of the American pie, when the richest people are the ones gobbling up most of the pie.
The architects of this push for Christian nationalism win by keeping us divided, and the best way to achieve that is to start with what divides: finances, race, and ethnicity. This has been their endgame since the Civil Rights movement forced structural and institutional changes. They want what they perceive as “their country” back and they bided their time and now they have the infrastructure in place to move closer to making that dream a reality—unless we get real about our efforts.
That starts with recognizing that as asinine as it may feel, we need to acknowledge these people and their perception of reality. Acknowledging it doesn’t mean agreeing but it is the starting point to open the door. Because as much as it may hurt to read this, we are not going to stop this train with just us. We must strengthen our coalitions and communities and, honestly, that is the work of white folks who are not looking for a return to yesteryear.
Since Trump announced he was running the first time, I always believed he had a chance of winning, I also believed that despite supporting Kamala Harris, he had a chance of winning again. Why? He spoke in a way that made a lot of white people feel heard and acknowledged.
People are weird like that. We like to be heard and acknowledged, even when that acknowledgement isn’t coming from someone or something that is good for us. How many of us have stayed in personal relationships with shit-ass people who knew how to move us emotionally? You know the person is probably a shit-heel but they have a way of turning on the charm and it sucks you in.
Here’s the thing: To me and you, white grievances seem silly—except they aren’t to the person experiencing them and what the MAGA movement apparently is excelling at is having people who are capable of hearing these petty grievances and exploiting them. And what is terrifying is seeing this happen with young people. The sheer volume of young people who were moved by the dead podcaster is horrific. These young people are old enough to have kids and boosting birth rates was another big push at the memorial service, so that you can get another generation of racists on board.
Moving us even further away from this idea that the racists are dying out. No, they are young and will create and raise another generation of racists and with the Christian nationalists’ takeover that is happening, we will move even further away from the ideas that bring justice and wellness to all and that create a civil society that respects and honors the inherent worth of all.
We can no longer afford to pick and choose what kind of anti-racists we want to be and who we will deal with. Our survival and rights are on the line and while it seems like we are moving closer to all hope being lost, I don’t believe that is true. I believe that we can still move past this chilling moment of American history if people are willing to embrace the discomfort of listening and interacting with those whom they don’t share common ground with—while seeking to move them to common ground for the common good.
How many more generations will be lost and harmed by the bigotry and hate that built this country?
If there is anything that I have learned in the last several weeks, it is that we have to go as hard—if not harder—for our beliefs as the right wing has, and invest ourselves and resources into creating the reality we wish to see.
Because the other side has most certainly done that, they have spared no expense in creating the reality that they we wish to see and right now, we are all feeling that reality, whether we want to or not.
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