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Lie: “I Don’t Know White People Who Voted For Trump”
Oftentimes, in person or online, I see a lot of responses (mostly from white people) trying to downplay the role of white people in the current state of our country. These are the responses white people give when a minority tells them they need to talk to their white friends and family members about voting in the best interest of all people rather than just white people. These are the “I live in an urban city and I don’t know any racist white people who voted for Trump”. As though there are no racist incidents in urban cities (Proud Boys/NYC anyone?). You’ll also hear renditions of “not all white people”, “not all white women” or “only the ones who voted” that, intentionally or not, downplay the “white problem” while simultaneously diminishing minorities arguments by implying we are exaggerating this great racial divide.
While we can argue about whether or not voting is being complicit in the destruction of minorities and draw parallels between that action or lack thereof and being complicitly silent when you see a racist act being perpetuated in person, the point of this is to do a numbers breakdown to see how much weight and value these words have. So let’s see just how likely it is to not know a white person who voted for Trump. We are going to break this down in numbers, percentages and fractions and ratios.