Stop Using Whataboutism to Minimize White Terrorism

Why can’t some people just condemn racism without a comma or a caveat?

Image: JHDT Productions, Shutterstock, standard license, purchased by author

Maybe it’s just too difficult for them.

Too difficult for MAGA-nation to simply condemn white supremacy and the Great Replacement Theory that has animated multiple terrorist attacks, including the latest in Buffalo, and leave it at that.

Too difficult to just say that these things are unacceptable and that anyone who adheres to them is a horrible person who isn’t wanted in any right-leaning political coalition.

Too difficult to just say, as Republicans: We denounce you and don’t even want your votes.

And then, rather than follow the denunciation with a comma or the word “but,” just end the sentence with a period and be done.

But they can’t — or rather, won’t.

And why not?

For the same reason Donald Trump refused to unequivocally condemn the white supremacists in Charlottesville in 2017, one of whom attempted to murder multiple people with his car, ultimately killing Heather Heyer.

Because, as Trump told former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan:

These people love me. These are my people. I can’t backstab the people…