‘White Privilege’ By Any Other Name

‘They are dying, that’s true, and it is what it is.’ ~Donald Trump

‘…certainly be pushback on Trump’s actions on legal grounds. But, with Senate Republicans out of negotiations, Republicans can frame legal pushback as Democrats objecting to the relief Americans so desperately need, even though the Democrats have been pushing for a relief bill for almost three months, and it is the Republicans who have been unable to produce one.’ ~Heather Cox Richardson

So I’ve heard a good deal recently from ostensibly middle-class white folks across the country that people staying home to collect that big $600 a week instead of returning to work are ‘laying up’: very ‘Donald Trumpian’ of you all. Folks who are not in imminent danger of losing their homes, not in danger of being unable to feed their kids, not about to lose their health insurance. Those who think that their experience is the only experience, the only experience that matters anyway.

This past week I’m seeing some things circulating around the extension of the supplemental Unemployment Insurance benefits in response to the Covid-19 pandemic that are both wildly ill-informed and contribute to a dangerous false narrative. So let’s begin with some givens:

1. Donald Trump has been an abject failure in managing this pandemic, news to no one.