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Michelle Richmond's avatar

I grew up with a connection not to Macomb, MI, but to McComb, MS (Mississippi), which is half an hour from Brookhaven, where my parents and all of my extended family grew up . I'm a liberal who comes from a long line of evangelical conservatives. Blatant, outright, unapologetic racism was alive and well in Mississippi in the 70s, 80s...and now.

It is especially alive and well among evangelicals, including in my own family, who contort themselves and their self-proclaimed Christian faith into grotesque and nonsensical knots, proclaiming without irony that Trump is doing God's work. I think the only way they can perform those acts of blind submission and idolotry to Trump, in absolute betrayal of the teachings of Christ, is to harbor extraordinarily racist views, to believe deeply that their "way of life"--indeed their natural "supremacy," was under threat and is now being restored. My mother grew up very poor in Mississippi. What drove many white people at that time and in that place, I believe, was a desperate need to believe they were better than someone else. They chose color as the dividing line. What is happening in America breaks my heart, but it does not surprise me.

Queen Kwong's avatar

I have an essay in my substack drafts folder about how liberal hollywood culture has turned into what Camus warned us about in Create Dangerously. But you've made so many of the same points, I feel like I don't even need to publish my essay now! As someone who also traded Hollywood for London and believes that silence is the real abdication, I want to THANK YOU

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