I’m trying to figure out my life. Running for President is definitely nothing like I expected. I was expecting cheers and crowds and hand-shaking and baby kissing and shoulder stroking and long hugs and hair sniffing. What do I have? Well, right now I’m stuck in my cold basement and feel like I’m in the middle of the most boring class at Junior College.
The team says I have to learn a ton before I’m allowed outside again. Here are a a few of the vocab homework words I need to learn and understand:
White Fragility:
Its not what it sounds like. It doesn’t describe me although it sounds like it: white, frail, old.
At this point I recognize that I do look frail and fragile – you can literally see through my skin now after spending 4 months in the dark basement and then worse, when I do venture out, it looks like a strong wind might blow me over and my hip would shatter.
Anyway, It’s not about me. It’s something about racism and I’m definitely not a racist and will punch anyone that says I am.
I would write the definition of white fragility here in my diary so that I could refer back to it, but I did zone out when the team described it to me for what seemed like the 50th time. I wanted to say, “look, I didn’t get it the first 49 times you explained to me and I’m not listening anymore” but instead I nodded my head and looked off into space and hoped they wouldn’t ask me to ever discuss or explain my feelings on whatever this is.
Micro aggression –
Another doozy. I wrote this one down as:
Quotidian racial slights that make a person feel marginalized
From the definition, I was slightly confused, but then they went through the top 100 things I have said that would count as microagressions like:
“Dr. Jill will do the dishes – that’s women’s work”
or when I laughed at the idea of taking a female VP until the pollsters went through the positive voting ramifications
or when I called my campaign manager “girl” and asked her to get us some coffee so the boys could get down to business
or some of the more famous things I have said in public like “poor kids are just as bright as white kids” or that Obama is the first black “articulate and clean” candidate… or … well, there was a long list.
After more time to think about this – I have to say that I think they marginalize me all the time. I’m going to have to complain of ageism. First, they direct most questions at anyone but me. They assume I will forget where I am or stumble through my answers incoherently if left to my own thoughts without a ton of rehearsing. They go so far as to tell me what to think. All the time. It’s not just my team. Google even is mocking me. When I googled white fragility to try to understand it, I got a “pop-up” for a 3 minute Dementia self-assessment test. It’s just crazy and mean.
I took the test and got “moderate” indication of dementia, so I probably won’t mention that to anyone. But, that’s not the point.
I’m tired of being marginalized. I’m not going to study the rest of their dumb list like anthropogenic, white privilege, climate change, defund, umami, canceled, ACAB, peaceful, Karen, socioeconomic politics, DM, Tweet, Retweet, WiFi, voting rights, women’s rights, equality, entrepreneurs, business, freedom, government overreach, economic stagnation, listening to AOC: when radical becomes too radical —- just a long list of stuff they think I don’t understand.
I’m not going to learn any of it. I’m going to yell upstairs for Dr. Jill to bring me lunch and a blanket for my lap and then binge watch Veep; it’s hilarious. I have nothing else going on. My schedule is pretty clear. I would think that as the next President of the US, I should be much more busy. But I actually feel like the most non-essential person on the planet and very marginalized.
I assume my team will eventually reach out and tell me what to do next. Until then? More TV in the basement. Dr. Jill will have to help me there, too, I can’t figure out how to use the remote or where to find recorded programs on my tablet. That’s normal, right?
Come on, man.