An Open Letter to White People

Dear White Folks,

Travis Naughton

Time and again, I keep hearing that it is “time to take back America.” This mantra is often repeated by the same people—conservative Whites—who are also fond of the all-too familiar slogan, “Make America Great Again.” According to recent statistics, non-Hispanic Whites make up 61.3% of the population in the United States, a vast majority. So, the question I have for my fellow 200 million White Americans is, “Who, exactly, do we need to take America back from?”

Some estimates place the number of illegal immigrants living in this country at around 11 million. That represents just 3% of the total population of 325 million people living in the United States. With 97% of us living here legally, surely you aren’t concerned about taking America back from the small minority here without permission.

Perhaps you are concerned, not about illegal immigrants, but about immigrants in general. I shouldn’t need to remind you that as White people, you and I are the descendants of immigrants ourselves. By the way, most Whites who came to this continent did so without asking permission of the native population, but we’ll just ignore that inconvenient fact for now.

Maybe you want to take America back from Black people. African-Americans make up only 13.4% of the population, according to the United States Census Bureau. With only a tiny fraction of Blacks occupying political offices in this country, surely you cannot mean that we need to take back control from them in order to Make America Great Again.

It must be the gays. A 2017 Gallup poll concluded that 4.5% of adult Americans identified as LGBT. Hardly a supermajority. Then it must be the transgender people from whom we must take our country back. An estimated 0.6% of adults in the U.S. identify as transgender, a miniscule number. Yet the president wants to strip away their equal right protections guaranteed by the Constitution.

In recent months, White women have been doing their darnedest to take America back and make it great again. Some have called the police to report “offenses” such as a young Black girl selling water without a permit and a sexual assault by a young Black boy who in truth had accidentally bumped his accuser with his backpack (as was proven by surveillance footage). White women have recently called the cops on a Black man admonishing his own child for arguing with refs at a soccer game, a Black man babysitting two White kids, and a Black man trying to enter his own apartment.

White men have been busy doing their part, too. Just last week, a White supremacist and rabid Trump supporter mailed 14 potentially lethal pipe bombs to liberal critics of the president, including the Obamas and Clintons. Another White man attempted to shoot up a Black church, but when he discovered the door locked, he walked to a nearby grocery store and murdered two innocent Black shoppers while reassuring frightened White customers that they were safe. A third White man walked into a Jewish synagogue and gunned down 17 people, 11 of whom died, telling a SWAT officer, “They’re committing genocide to my people. I just want to kill Jews.”

As White people, we must renounce the deplorable actions perpetrated by our racist peers. As a liberal Democrat, I embrace diversity. I believe that peace-loving Native Americans, Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Asians, and those who identify as LBGT are what makes America great. I also believe that bitter White folks with hate in their hearts are a minority—a vocal and violent minority—that the rest of us must speak out against.

I implore you, my fellow White Americans, to make America great again by supporting candidates who understand that ours is a nation of immigrants—a melting pot—that can only improve through inclusivity and love, not violence and hate. We must also do a better job of modeling positive behavior for our children, lest they become tomorrow’s racists and hate mongers. America can be great again, if we can summon the strength to take back our country from those with hate in their hearts. That process begins Tuesday, November 6th, and continues through every Election Day thereafter.

Sincerely,

Travis A. Naughton