Trump supporters don’t deserve your empathy

Welcome to Minority Report, a weekly newsletter from the LEVEL team that packs an entire week into a single email. From the call to be kind to Trump supporters to the week in racism, from pop-culture picks to a must-read LEVEL story, it’s everything you need and nothing you don’t. If you’re loving what you’re reading, tell a friend to tell a friend.

Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.

Dear Trump Supporter In My Life,

Hi. It’s me, your good friend David Dennis. I just wanted to reach out because I know you’re probably feeling sad right now. The man you voted for and obviously love like a play cousin has just a few more weeks left of his presidency. You’ve spent the last four years celebrating — or at the very least condoning — White supremacy, migrant children locked in cages, and more than 200,000 Americans dead due to corrupt incompetence and negligence in federal leadership during a pandemic.

But that’s okay. I forgive you. Katy Perry told me to.

I’ve also been told by White folks that the only way for the country to heal is for me to make people who supported a racist feel better about the end of his presidency.

For the betterment of this country, I want to make sure that you’re okay. I want to absolve you of the burden of having to reckon with the terror you’ve supported. I want to hug the accountability out of you. I want to hold you in my arms and tell you that it’s okay. That I can forgive your hatred and protect you from people judging you for the things you did to us.

But I can’t.

Because you don’t fucking exist. Because I don’t have a single Trump supporter in my life. Why the hell would I? I wasn’t raised to accept bigotry, let alone embrace it. So you, Trump Supporter in My Life, only exist as a figment of the White imagination. Because White people imagine a world where they are off the hook for perpetuating oppression. And they imagine a world where they are still accepted by the people they hurt the most. And they fantasize about the pain they can inflict without repercussions. They dream that they can still be friends with us. It helps them sleep at night.