It was a wonderful weekend, wasn’t it?
I’ve known for quite some time that I don’t celebrate successes enough. It’s one of those things that I encourage others to do, but have trouble heeding my own advice.
On Saturday, after getting a text from my sister-in-law that said, “GOODBYE TRUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” (+/- five exclamation points) and then confirming the news on three separate websites, I took some time to bask in the sun in my backyard and then head to a neighborhood bar to grab a Biden Beer and hoot and holler at all of the people walking and driving by, honking their horns and flying Biden/Harris, American, and Black Lives Matter flags. It was an impromptu block party, bursting with joy, relief, and hope.
Was it a celebration proportional to the success? No. But here’s the thing—and I think this is why I struggle to celebrate successes: there is so, so much work to do still. And urgently!
The new administration won’t be able to get much done if the Senate blocks their every move. Fortunately, there’s still a chance we can flip the Senate: there are two Senate run-off races in Georgia in January. Don’t think for a second that what happens in Georgia won’t affect you if you live in another state. While you can’t vote, you can help. Consider donating, phone or textbanking, or posting to social media (here’s Jon Ossoff’s website, and here’s Reverend Raphael Warnock’s website). What happens in Georgia will affect the entire nation.
And beyond the urgent work that needs to get done between now and the January 5th runoff elections, there is more work that, while also urgent, will take time, determination, and persistence. In regard to that work, I want to leave you with two paragraphs from Vu Le’s Nonprofit AF post this morning:
We must challenge white supremacy directly: While Biden-Harris won this vital election, it is scary that a significant part of the country still voted for an openly racist, fascist demagogue. White men voted for Trump at 58%. Meanwhile, 55% of white women went for him, shockingly (or not) up 2% from last election. People of color, especially Black and Indigenous folks, voted overwhelmingly for Biden. …Until we acknowledge and challenge [white supremacy] directly, we continue to be complicit in advancing it.
We must demand justice, not continue to be tricked into the toxic empathy of white moderation: If you’re one of those people who are like “let’s forgive and forget” or “we should empathize with those who voted for Trump to understand them better,” you need to get the hell out of my face and the faces of all other people from marginalized communities who have been brutalized, traumatized, and killed these past four years. There is no middle ground if you support separating kids from their families, caging children, ending the rights of LGTBQIA folks, allowing the police to kill Black people with impunity, letting religious assholes discriminate against whoever anyone they don’t like, removing the rights of women to choose what happens with their bodies, and destroying our planet. …Forgiveness cannot happen without justice.
Let’s do this.