There's No Joy in TRUMPVILLE

I work in a predominately White conservative suburb about 20 miles outside of Philadelphia, PA.  Leading up to the election, the TRUMP/PENCE lawn signs were sprouting up wild.  Now needless to say most of the people I work with are White and conservative, and if the proliferation of Trump signs is any indication I can safely say that most of them voted for Donald Trump.

Now if you're a person of color in a situation like mine, surrounded by conservative White co-workers, you may have noticed a sudden shift in their attitude towards you.  Think about the interactions you've had with these co-workers over the past three days.  Have you noticed a certain awkwardness when they encounter you?  Perhaps a certain reluctance?  Well hold on to that observation for a bit, because I'm going to come back to this.

Dear White People: No! You Can Not Use The N-Word

Racists in America are always looking for new and exciting ways to excuse their racism, especially against African Americans, even before the Zimmerman verdict.  Since then, they've clutched at  just about any straw they can to explain away their racist support of Zimmerman, who actively profiled, stalked, and confronted Trayvon Martin, then gunned him down when the young man decided to fight back.  It's only Wednesday as I write this and we've already heard Martin's marijuana use, youthful run-ins with the law, provocative poses on Facebook, etc., used as justification for calling him a thug, a troublemaker, and claiming that he deserved to die (yes, some have said this).  Additionally, these same racist constantly go out of their way to state the fact that Zimmerman is half Hispanic, which is pretty much the same as saying, "Some of my best friends are Black."  Of course the fact that if Trayvon was White they'd be accusing him of being an anchor baby and demanding his deportation goes totally without saying.  A somewhat more recent phenomena involves the use of the N-word.  Racists have taken to the idea that because they hear it in Rap music and in Black conversation (and movies) that it's ok for them to use it.  "Because, after all, racism doesn't really exist anymore, so we can be as racist as we wanna be."