Past Is Prologue
How We’ll Get Over: Going to the Upper Room With Donald J. Trump
White America may be meeting Donald Trump for the first time, but Black people have known him for centuries
“Wade in the water, wade in the water, Children. God’s gonna trouble the water.” — Traditional
“My soul looks back and wonders, how I got over.” — Mahalia Jackson
1
Months ago, I turned on the TV and saw a white mom at a protest in Portland dragged across the pavement and abused by the cops who surrounded her, her white flesh handled with no more care than Black flesh is usually afforded in this country. For a moment, my mind flinched from a lifetime of conditioning. I thought, “You can’t do that to a middle-class white woman!” But under a Trump presidency, you can. Niggerland has come to mainstream America.
I would venture that more white people in America feel powerless about their government right now than at any other time in history. And with so many dead, with protesters being arrested in the streets for civil disobedience, with the possibility that every office that is meant to protect Americans is being turned against us, we may all understand that Niggerland is no longer a place you drive by or…
