All my adult life I have been reminded of impending "White backlash" as something to be feared. I don't fear White anger at my legitimate demands anymore.
A musician-actor named Marvin Lee Aday, whose genius is that he now goes by the moniker "Meat Loaf" – and others like him – have some quaking in their boots again because Meat Loaf has warned of a "storm cloud" over America, and we're not talking about Superstorm Sandy. He is talking about the re-election of President Barack Obama.
But after we laugh at all the joke lines about the etch-a-sketch, gaffe-filled, myth-a-minute campaign of Gov. Mitt Romney – who, with no shame at all, just last week purchased $5,000 worth of canned goods from a local Walmart store to give to his supporters at a rally so they could "donate" the supplies back to him at a rally in front of TV cameras to ostensibly help East Coast hurricane victims – when we pick ourselves up off the floor about all the stupid lies and tricks he and his sidekick Rep. Paul Ryan perpetrated in order to steal – not win fair and square – the election, there is this serious concern about the White backlash.
A number of "legitimate" White political thinkers are arguing that the Obama re-election will lead to White southern politicians once again advocating secession. They're delusional.
By the 1980s, the most vicious end game of the race-baiting Romney presidential campaign mindset – the Ku Klux Klan – had dwindled to around 600 chapters. After the election of President Obama in 2008, their numbers surged once again. Now, they are poised for an even greater comeback, this time, right out in the open and with the witting or unwitting blessing [or denial of their threat] from most of the GOP establishment.
The only problem is their antebellum vision is doomed for the trash heap of human history. The proverbial genie is out of the bottle. The toothpaste is out of the tube. They cannot be put back inside. Sorry race-hating White folks.
The secessionists tried this same, lame strategy in 1861. It didn't work for them then. It won't work now. The Confederate States of America [the original backlashers] was composed of millions of White traitors. They betrayed their country, and they failed in their rebellion. They had the most brilliant general in the U.S. military leading them and they were crushed by the Union with the help of the slaves.
They were crushed thanks in large measure to the very slaves whom they held in contempt. They didn't win then. Their successors cannot win now!
"Unconditional surrender." Those were the terms when Gen. Robert E. Lee gave his sword to Gen. U.S. Grant at the Appomattox, Virginia Courthouse in 1865 ending the Civil War. Unconditional surrender, Johnny Reb. Unconditional surrender, Tea Party, or whatever name by which you identify your racist crusade today. Yours is truly "The Lost Cause" for a reason.
Those who would embrace, or revive, those antiquated notions of American hegemony in the 21st century are badly mistaken. They think America – with strong White leadership again in charge – can impose its will on the rest of the non-White world and "win by winning" like they did before. It can't happen like that again.
The path of the backlashers today heads down the road to treason. For his part in the 1861 traitorous adventure, Gen. Lee was punished by the revocation of his citizenship, which was not restored until 110 years after his death! It took an act of Congress to make that traitor – who already had roads and schools named for him – an "American" citizen again. Did I already say these ideas belong on the trash heap of history? Well they do.
On the other hand, the legitimate insistence on the part of Black people for freedom, justice and equality cannot for long still be denied. The delusional American Exceptionalism crowd cannot govern, or dominate in the world without the willing, voluntary, enthusiastic participation of the 47 percent in this country who they believe don't take responsibility for their own lives, and the participation of the others they have kicked to the curb this election season – such as Black people and Latinos, whose "dream" path to citizenship they've thwarted.
So the Romney vision cannot be achieved unless, that is, the folks who have benefited most from the subjugation of the downtrodden are willing to abandon their notion of White privilege, and stand up and fight their own wars, and do their own dirty work. Fat chance of that happening.
