White conservatives have made it abundantly clear they have no interest in students learning the true history of America. They have also made it abundantly clear they need to learn this shit more than anyone else.
Meet Arizona Republican state Sen. Wendy Rogers.
We often claim that white Americans are a culture-less people because their only true traditions are racism and jingoism and because American popular culture consists almost exclusively of things Black people created for white people to Columbus. But Rogers is here to remind us that the whites do, indeed, have a culture—the culture of white feelings matter.
Unlike “Black lives matter,” which doesn’t imply that Black lives are the only lives that matter, the white feelings matter movement seeks to preserve traditional America, which is an America where only white people’s delicate sensibilities count and everyone else is just complaining and being un-American.
Last Friday, Rogers tweeted her thoughts on Cleveland’s Major League Baseball team’s decision to ditch its racist name, the Indians, for a less white supremacy-friendly name, the Guardians.
“I like Indians and I like Redskins,” Rogers tweeted. “I like Aunt Jemima and I like Uncle Ben. I like Robert E Lee and I like Stonewall Jackson. I don’t like traitors who hate America. Stand up for our culture!”
Let’s set aside for a moment the fact that Rogers is clearly a history major in the same way Ben Carson is clearly an expert on opening one’s eyes all the way while speaking. Instead, I’ll start with my earlier point about white feelings being all that matters.
It doesn’t matter that Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben are both logos born out of Black caricature or that Aunt Jemima is often used by white people as a racial slur against Black women—all that matters is Rogers likes them.
It doesn’t matter how Native Americans feel about their actual cultures being reduced to team mascots and logos that represent how white people see the indigenous—all that matters is Rogers likes those team names.
I’m not sure Rogers meant to identify the stereotyping of people of color as a tenet of America’s defense-worthy culture, but that’s exactly what she did just before going on to demonstrate that she’s a historian like Ben Shapiro is a WAP enthusiast.
To say, “I like Robert E Lee and I like Stonewall Jackson,” but “I don’t like traitors who hate America,” is like saying “I support the ‘me too’ movement, but I’d also love to have a drink or two with Bill Cosby.”
To be fair, leaders of the Confederacy weren’t haters of America as much as they were lovers of negroes in chains, but they were undeniably traitors who literally divided the nation. And if white obliviousness wasn’t so deeply embedded in whatever the hell culture Rogers is pledging to defend, she would at least know that those two sentences written back to back would make for an easy rebuttal by the fine folks on Twitter.
And booooy, did they have plenty to say how Rogers knows American history like Ted Cruz knows the appropriate time to take a vacation.
Of course, not every responder focused on Rogers being a Civil War expert like Rudy Giuliani is an expert on dental care and keeping his hair dye from melting down the side of his face. Many people pointed out how the tweet was basically an ode to racism.
Maybe we should give credit to Rogers for being honest about the “culture” white America wants to defend.
If only it weren’t for all those pesky non-whites who somehow are under the impression that their feelings also matter.