This afternoon I came across the trending Twitter hashtag “GoHomeDeray” - which (I believe?) peaked at #2 on Twitter at some point. For a variety of reasons, this has me absolutely shaking and seething.
The hashtag is directed at DeRay McKesson. DeRay is a prominent activist and organizer who traveled to Ferguson during the Michael Brown protests, and has continued to travel - to Baltimore, to McKinney, and now to Charleston - where he’s been met with this hashtag, among other efforts to discredit and silence him that are as ugly and despicable as the worst of social media (and media) reactions we’ve seen over the last year.
I don’t know when I first became aware of DeRay and his work - so I’m hoping that others will help fill in (and/or correct) this post with additional info - but he’s been highly active and visible both with his physical presence at each of these protests, and through his social media coverage along the way. He’s been active in the Black Lives Matter movement, and is a member of WeTheProtesters.org as well.
He’s been published in the Washington Post, interviewed by various media outlets, including this recent interview on Hannity where Sean Hannity and his guest made baseless claims that he is a “Paid Protester” - an attempt to discredit him (they also called him a “Race Pimp”), which is both untrue and an irrelevant appeal: there are several “Paid Protesters” for various causes, and Fox News frequently lauds the efforts of paid anti-abortion activists as but one example.
There is absolutely no reason to silence, discredit, or otherwise even criticize McKesson and his efforts other than outright racism or White Fragility - which begets bigotry from otherwise ‘well-intentioned’ whites, who would never self-identify as racist.
The interview with Wolf Blitzer above (and linked again here) is a galling example of bigoted (and seriously shitty) journalism - McKesson is largely ignored by Wolf, who spends the entirety of the brief segment demanding that McKesson speak for the entire black community in denouncing property damage instead of giving him an actual interview or chance to speak.
But when anyone refers to white America, or whites collectively as a group, white people cannot handle it. Not for a second.
It’s that mechanism which allows the GoHomeDeray hashtag to take hold and trend. McKesson’s words and his work are deliberate, necessary, and always accurate. He left his job as Senior Director of Human Capital in the Minneapolis school system in order to spend his time and efforts as an activist and organizer. His words are never hateful. His Twitter feed regularly retweets white allies and photographs of white protesters. Yet he’s been painted by his detractors as “Divisive”; “The Real Racist”; and most illogically “hateful” - all because white people are not comfortable with acknowledging the complex and ugly realities of our culture.
I’ve long joked that “Post-Racial America” (11/4/2008-Present) has been marked by way more racism, but no more racists. In the 60s, the Republican Party turned to Dog-Whistle Racism as a central strategy in gaining political support. Although coded language remains a serious and deep-seated tactic within the Republican party and right-wing media, the new gambit has been to turn “Racism” into a binary idea wherein we only have “racists” and “non-racists” - in order to negate serious discussions about the reality of racism by derailing those complex conversations entirely.
Did former McKinney police officer Eric Casebolt act out of racist assumptions when he responded to the pool party a few weeks ago? Abso-fucking-lutely. But instead of discussing those assumptions and actions, many whites turn the conversation to “Is he a racist?” which, yes, he is, but deferring to that conversation at the expense of a broader discussion regarding the systemic racism of police officers is not only a detriment to our society, it’s absolutely racist behavior in and of itself - no matter how “not a racist” you consider yourself.
This is why I’m at my boiling point with White Fragility. As our society continues to gain awareness (at glacial pace, and against belligerent pushback) of white privilege, White Fragility continues to grasp and claw at the status quo beneath the coverage of “I’m not a racist”. This is why an activist who we should all be celebrating is being met with disdain from whites who claim not to be racist - or claim to support equality - all while supporting the right to fly a Confederate Flag as a symbol of anything other than hatefulness.
I know that this post ignores a number of obvious and conspicuous factors in how McKesson is treated as a black man. Perhaps the most glaring is the fallacious and bigoted assumption that he must be paid in order to support himself as an activist. I know I haven’t even touched on the Confederate Flag that continues to fly in SC and across the South. Consider this a very rough draft of a number of thoughts and feelings I needed to write down, and an effort to spread awareness of DeRay’s work - which I’ve hoped to see on Gawker for a long time. I hope that others will chime in and contribute. I hope that others will reach their breaking point.