“So look, all I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes…” Donald tRump to GA Election official, Jan. 2, 2021.
That sounds like a bad optic to me. Being responsible for the deaths of more Americans since the Civil War sounds like bad optics to me. Being a failed businessman, mass murderer, pedophile rapist fraud is bad optics to me.
“Unprofessional, hostile, combative, defiant, defensive, explosive, confrontational, non-responsive, condescending, arrogant, heated, angry, out of control, contrary to democracy”
– words used by American news outlets to describe DA Fani Willis throughout this hearing on her relationship with Nathan Wade.
I’m sure most Black women alive have been called one or more of these words at some point in their lives. I know I have, especially when I've been in situations where I've had to stand up for what was right. Or for even simply existing as myself. Black women are always going to be too much for a society that is not enough. Hearing those words used towards her brought me an odd sort of comfort knowing that these words are nothing but that- words and also lies. “These are lies!!” as Fani Willis said.
“…a lie does not die by itself, particularly not when it has been consecrated by the highest court in the land. It must be dissected, anatomized, and then attacked–not once, or twice, but a thousand times over, until at last the core of the lie is exposed for all to see, and shown to be the mockery it truly is.” – Dovey Johnson Roundtree
The way this hearing played out was a real-time look at the way lies inevitably crumble beneath their own weight. American racial capitalism relies on the myth of inherent white innocence and innate Black deviance. What is happening now is a reversal of those roles, an exposure of the truth, and the chickens coming to roost (for everyone to see on national television too). In this case in Georgia, you have a white male criminal who broke the law, and a qualified Black woman lawyer risking her life to do her job, fight for justice, and for more fair elections. This reality goes against the white male exceptionalist myth we’ve been force-fed as a nation. And people are mad that this lie has come full circle - that not only is Trump idiotically trying to destroy the very nation that gives him and white men privilege, but that he also has to answer to the very power America has tried to exploit and defame for so many years.
It really does not matter that Fani Willis had a consensual relationship with another adult in the grander scheme of things. My perception of her has not been tarnished. If anything, I respect her more for not taking advantage of her position like countless other politicians around the country. Black women are always going to be guilty to people who want to believe there is something wrong with us. People can stay mad that their ignorant false and tired beliefs about Black women don’t line up with reality, and they can keep trying to stand atop their crumbling, mythical, pedestal of white male mediocrity by attempting to chastise a Black woman. But I hope those people check themselves before they wreck themselves because you will find out. Black women have every right to be angry, explosive, heated and out of control in a nation that disrespects our lives everyday. And one day people will wake up and realize that Black women are not responsible for the fugly lies people cling to to make them feel better about themselves. Black women are not responsible for the actions of white men.
“You may write me down in history, with your bitter, twisted, lies. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I’ll rise.” – Maya Angelou
Go Fani Go!!