mekka okereke :verified:
This November is extra weird. Without a shred of self-awareness, a lot of people are about to go from:
* Getting on social media to blame Black men for Trump winning the election
* Going home to eat Thanksgiving dinner with their family, most of whom are Trump voters🤡
* Getting back online to despair about "Whatever shall we do now?" And "Something must be done!" And "Why did men do this to us?" And "Why didn't Black women save us?" And "What's up with Latino men?"
1/N
mekka okereke :verified:
You want to fight fascism, but the call is literally coming from inside the house. Not a figurative house. A real house. Your house.
Trust me, I do understand that some families are tough, and confronting your family is challenging. I get it. Sincerely I do. It's difficult. I'm not asking you to fight.
But don't pretend that you don't know who's voting for Trump, and don't you dare pretend that Black strangers that you've never helped, didn't do enough to protect you from your own family.
2/2
mekka okereke :verified:
Jesse Watters is the Fox News host that says nonsense like "men shouldn't eat ice cream in public." His mom is not a Trump voter. She is deeply disappointed in him, but tries to love him. He makes a joke out of reading her disappointed texts on air.
He recently shared on air that he has been uninvited from Thanksgiving dinner this year. She said he can come to the house on Friday, but not on Thursday.
Jesse's mom has taken a bigger step than most fascism enablers are willing to do.
3/3
Michael T. Bacon, Ph.D.
@mekkaokereke I am encouraged by the number of social media freakouts I'm seeing third-hand from Trump voters because close family members have cut them off.
At least some of them are finding out.
IPmonger
@mekkaokereke that is a strong statement from his mother. Much more realistic “tough love” than the nonsense pushed in the 1980s…
The Animal and the Machine
@mekkaokereke
I’m filling this one under:
“White people, you just gotta stop blaming Black people.”
It’s just true.
ajn142
@mekkaokereke god do I. There are 6 of us within the pool of >40 by the time you widen it out to second cousins and spouses.
Micah
@mekkaokereke It isn't an easy step, but it is important.
I told my mom yesterday that I want no contact at all from any family that voted for Trump, and she responded as if she is confused and doesn't understand why I feel this way.
But, this is important. Family is not just genes, and people who would vote for that kind of harm aren't my family.
Fear and Tooting in Las Vegas
@mekkaokereke All I can think of is that quote from the Simpsons -- "We've tried *nothin'* and we're all out of ideas!"
klausfiend
@mekkaokereke It's too bad there aren't prizes for "Most Clued Out", because it's one of the few things Jesse would actually win on merit.
Wyatt H Knott
@steevmi1 @mekkaokereke That one and "Facts, schmacts, you can prove anything that's even REMOTELY true with facts!"
Lady Errant
@mekkaokereke Whats great is how cis straight white people tell me how hard this is, to my face. I haven't spoken to my dad in a decade (since my transition). They just can't see past themselves.
Michael Busch
There are a couple of members of my extended family who publicly support Trump.
I will not be sharing any meals with them any time soon.
This is also self-interest on my part.
If someone is going to support lack of food safety; it becomes hard for me to trust any food they prepare.
mark
@mekkaokereke I see a lot of messages right now about men talking to their friends about not being fascists or racists.
I dont stay friends with fascists or racists, so I can't help. Some of the weirdest strays I have ever caught
Doeshecook🌴🥥
@mekkaokereke she must have a guest list that has told her they will not break bread with him. Bravo 👏
mekka okereke :verified:
♥️ Sincerely, I know how hard that decision must have been.
Janet
@mekkaokereke me and my hubby are having Thanksgiving at home and avoiding certain family because of that.
Paul Chernoff
@michael_w_busch @mekkaokereke I visited my wife’s family in rural Virginia. I’ve never seen so many Trump signs in my life. Fortunately they all despise Trump. My 95 yr old father in law, his 98 year old sister and one of my sister in laws.
Jürgen Hubert
@mekkaokereke I've had my share of political disagreements with my (German) family, but at least all of them despise Trump, and they are not fans of the German fascist party (the AfD) either. I suppose I am lucky - discussing politics with my aging father is difficult at the best of times, and I don't know what he would do if he had gone off to the deep end
I am very happy that he is not on Facebook.
Jester 🪓
@mekkaokereke I’m starting to feel weird here... am I the only one who cut out all the Trumper family members on January 7th, 2021?
Louis Ingenthron
@mekkaokereke Yup, just told my mom I wouldn't be going to the family Christmas we go to every year because she wouldn't like the shitshow I'd inevitably start with my MAGA uncles.
What I've learned is that ripping the bandaid off may be hard, but grinning and bearing it for the better part of a decade isn't much easier.
mekka okereke :verified:
It's not that they couldn't be bothered. This was an intentional act by people who were sick of everyone else being safe from fascism except for them. They bound their fate with the fate of everyone else. This was an incredibly suicidal act. But it was not apathy, or made with a lack of understanding of what it means.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/113442622342979916
I've been trying to warn people for over a year that the people saying "We will not vote for Biden ever again" were serious.
Cogito Ergo Disputo
@mekkaokereke it is interesting that Trump got the same amount of votes as in 2020. So apparently 13 million people who voted for Biden couldn't be bothered to vote for Kamala.
mekka okereke :verified:
Just speaking for the Black voter portion of the drop off: There were literally surveys.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/113446192875604328
And Black folk, especially Black men 🙋🏿♂️have been *extremely* vocal online about exactly why they are upset at Biden. If you're in any spaces where Black US people talk to each other online, you would've seen about 70% of us, trying to convince about 20% of us, not to sit out in protest. (10% are legit Trump voters. No point trying to swing them🤷🏿♂️).
Cogito Ergo Disputo
@mekkaokereke we're talking about 13 million people. While that will certainly apply to some of them, I find it a bit of a stretch to claim to know the motivation of all of them. But I won't dwell on this for longer as it is impossible to prove either of our assumptions.
mekka okereke :verified:
A lot of my life these days consists of...
telling white folk:
"Yes, I'm serious. Black men really were this upset at Biden. That many Black folk really did sit out in protest. Harris did win most back, then lost some again right before November."
And telling Black men:
"Yes, I'm serious. Most white folk really do have no clue how disappointed you were with Biden, or why. They genuinely had no clue that you really would sit out. They still don't know. They don't see you."
🤷🏿♂️
mekka okereke :verified:
At first no, which is why she was so effective at winning back the disaffected voters.
But then in late October, she pivoted strategies, and started using the exact same Biden talking points that made those Black voters think that they would be thrown under the bus again. It was a complete self own.
In early October, her Black voter support was at close to 2020 levels. By November, she'd dropped back again.
This is where it started to unravel:
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/113439168205113392
Cogito Ergo Disputo
@mekkaokereke that is interesting indeed. But they wouldn't be voting for Biden, they would be voting for Kamala. Did they see her simply as an extension of Biden?
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