Let’s empty the vault of comments on our November 16 issue about Donald Trump’s victory, which is set to be ratified by the Electoral College on Monday. On Barry Yeoman’s story on the parallels between 1968 and 2016 [“A Return to Nixonland“], commenter ccroveti writes: “I am so naive to have believed that, since the late sixties, racism was lessening in America. I am a child of that era, alive for the assassinations of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy. Since the 2016 primaries, watching the hateful language, acceptance of sexism, racism, religious freedoms being taken away, the rate of violence increasing within our youth, and civil liberties taken away, what I feel is that the anti-Semitism, racism, and loss of freedom for some Americans never really changed. The monsters are loose.”
“I am so bothered by this article,” BrandyJRL writes about Troy Herring’s exploration of Trump supporters in rural North Carolina [“Trump’s America“]. “This persuasive and biased writer has already fueled anger from people that has led to racial comments. I was born and raised in Dudley, just barely north of Mount Olive. I attended the same predominately African-American high school as the kids from Mount Olive. Do y’all really think for one second that any racially fueled hate would be tolerated in my school? In my town? Painting my county in a bad light speaks to the amateur ability of the writer to think ‘liberally’ and consider all viewpoints.”
On Brian Howe’s story about reconnecting with disenfranchised white men [“Poor White Man“], James Coley writes: “In this article I read that ‘white men are a huge problem.’ This is blatantly racist and sexist. It holds an entire group of people responsible for what only some of them have done. It tells me, a white man who supported Hillary Clinton and abhors Trump, that I am somehow responsible for the behavior of other people who share superficial characteristics with me. The essence of racism and sexism is to not see individuals. If the shock of the Trump election is a wake-up call for liberal intellectuals, that has to go way beyond articles like this one. We liberals, as I have said for those many decades, must stop this delusion that it somehow combats prejudiced judgments about African Americans and women to make prejudiced judgments about white people and men.”
“Since the election of Donald Trump,” writes Chris Burner of Durham. “the ‘alt-right’ has seized a platform to vocalize white supremacist rhetoric and hate speech. The KKK’s renewed energy is not surprising, as many white supremacist organizations have expressed elation over the success of Trump’s campaign, which emphasized the deportation of immigrants, official registries for Muslims, a wall separating the southern border to Mexico, and enhanced policing in African-American neighborhoods. Donald Trump ran his campaign under the slogan ‘Make America Great Again,’ and to the KKK, this ‘great America’ is one of white domination and supremacy. What is essential to remember is that we have federal laws to defend against bullies of this ilk. These laws cannot and should not be just symbolic legislation that expresses our disdain for hate crimes. We must hold perpetrators accountable.”
Moving on: last week’s Triangulator featured an item on Duke Energy’s stalled plans to build a natural gas-fired power plant on Duke University’s campus. John Trololo takes aim at NC WARN, a critic of the plan: “As always, that holdover from the ‘China Syndrome’ anti-nuke days NC WARN screams the sky is falling, and they are of course wrong once again, and they will be ignored, thank heavens.”
“It might be worth reminding NC WARN they advocated for the same combined heat and power technology three years agoand wanted Duke Energy to pursue it,” writes Duke Energy spokesman Randy Wheeless. “What changed?”
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