You know those movies where a character goes back in time to the occurrence of some avoidable tragedy earlier in their lives, only now they're invisible, or a ghost, or otherwise incapacitated from interfering, and they're forced to watch helplessly as the same horrible tragedy repeats itself? That's what I'm feeling like in this post-Trump election season. No level of knowledge gained from hindsight and the critical race understanding of systems and institutions of racism is of any use. We just have to sit here and watch.
Background: the narrative of worthiness.
What I'm going to describe is not White supremacy or the permanence of racism as those terms are commonly understood. I'm talking about ordinary behavior by ordinary people of all races, and how they produce a racial tragedy. Here's what I mean: