A Letter to My White Extended Family Ahead of November 3rd
Over the past 48 hours, I’ve been unable to sleep following President Trump repeated refusal to condemn white supremacy as well as his white supremacist call to arms during the debate—because I know members of my largely white extended family still plan to vote for him.
This morning, I mass-emailed my very large family extended family:
Dear family:
I am writing out of concern that I have family members who, with everything we are seeing, still plan to vote Republican, specifically for Donald Trump, on November 3.
Over the last 48 hours, Donald Trump has not only repeatedly refused to condemn white supremacy, but has called to arms a violent white supremacist group, The Proud Boys. He has instructed his violent supporters to intimidate voters at the polls. And the Republican Party has remained largely silent, afraid to speak out against the leader of their party.
Those are the same Republicans who will appear down-ballot on November 3 in your state.
If you, or any of your immediate family (spouses, children, children-in-law) are planning to vote for Donald Trump on November 3, I ask that you please contact me to discuss before that date. I hope that I never again have the unfortunate experience of discovering that someone in my own family has voted for a president who continues to incite white supremacist violence against Black people, violence and hate against the LGBTQ+ community, hatred and misogyny against women, and violent racist xenophobia against brown immigrants.
If, once again, we affected family members are forced to cope with this trauma, I regret that I, personally, will no longer be able to associate with the family member/voter in question. I will not attend family events where that member is present and will call out said family loudly whenever we interact from now on. I will no longer ignore the fact that my family member voted for all these things, against my humanity.
This is not a threat, but an assurance that I and other Black and brown people like me, must guard our own humanity. We cannot carry on, associating with those who do not value that humanity.
Your views on our humanity will be illustrated by your vote on November 3.
Please feel free to forward this email if you'd like. In fact, I encourage it. Nothing contained herein should be considered secret or confidential.
I love you all,
Johnathan
