An even minded, white Alabamian gets up to grab their cup of coffee and opens up another local news app only to find Joe Reed, civil rights stalwart, former Montgomery City Councilman and in many minds concerning all races, troublesome instigator; is causing more problems with some group, somewhere. Then another newsfeed arrives in their inbox about how the city of Birmingham has sent another resident a utility bill for no less than $3,000, because the city is in debt for over a billion dollars. This due to corruption and gross mismanagement. The news gets worse as it’s determined that the city of Montgomery’s school system is in dire straights. Wanting to escape such as reality; that same white Alabamian then goes to social media to check in with friends or to view photos they may have been tagged into from a ball game or a lake party the preceding Saturday. Before they get to those photos they have to swat away 5 or so messages from Nigerian ‘romance scammers’ posing as a celebrity or attractive woman trying to get them into correspondence. Over time they begin to ponder all the toxic tropes they know are wrong. Those they heard about involving Darwinian evolution and ‘survival of the fittest’ in regards to racial hierarchies. They may even be evangelical Christian, knowing every race created is an image bearer of Christ. They soon forget the fact that white Russian instigators also purvey online harrasment. That whites have mismanaged governing bodies down through time as well. They then condone the actions in their minds of white online criminals compared to those of the African ‘third world’ online nuisances by believing at least the white overseas fraudsters don’t try to contact me as directly and consistently as the black Nigerian fraudsters do. At least they are more sophisticated and not as much of a nuisance. They then learn that the founder of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement had stolen money from that organization. Then during a moment of weakness and through a myopic lense they began to view race relations through the prism of their own daily frustrations.
Welcome to my world! Someone who marched with progressives of both races a week after George Floyd was murdered. Someone who has sent money to black candidates running for office in Alabama and throughout the country. Reader, these are the things I’ve been pondering for the last year. The dissonance in my mind about the subject of race in our state is so real. I’ve had this discussion with family about it. I’ve been that person who in moments of weakness is tempted to believe those racist tropes as I look around me and see reality. I’ve been on the precipice of condoning white supremacy in secret because of laziness in not seeing fallacies in all men, in all races. I believe that’s how whites in Alabama and America at large become white supremacist. They see examples that are quite frankly, realistic. Yet, out of bias and laziness don’t stop to consider the full picture of how all men are inadequate, corrupt and problematic in some way. How all races need Christ as much as any other ever created down through time. And I write this giving black and progressive readers, candidates a reason as to why white supremacy is so endemic in Alabama. It’s reality, to white constituents fair or not! It’s case of ‘perception being stronger than reality’ to the most capable black candidate to come in future elections. Racism is sin, yet the above examples are some crystalized illustrations as to why white Alabamian’s partly vote the way they do…………… as a way to say things they can’t say out loud. It’s an issue I struggle with in honesty and integrity. It’s my hope the decent part of me wins out each morning I get up. It’s my hope my fellow Alabamians see it the same way!
