John Paul Brammer‘s writing can be found in numerous prestigious outlets (Buzzfeed, Slate, Vox), but in my opinion, some of his best writing came in the form of a tweetstorm earlier in November.
Brammer, who is Chicano, offered an eye-opening perspective on the phenomenon of white Trump supporters voting against their own interests. Why would “poor, exploited white people” vote for someone “with a golden elevator who would f*ck them over”?
Brammer breaks it down:
So I’m a Mexican American from a poor, rural (mostly white) town in Oklahoma. Missing from this debate? How poor whites see themselves.
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
If you’re wondering how poor, exploited white people could vote for a dude with a golden elevator who will fuck them over, here’s how.
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
They don’t see themselves as poor. They don’t base their identity on it. They see themselves as “temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
The stigma against poverty is incredibly strong. It is shameful to be poor, to not have the comforts of the middle class. So they pretend–
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
That they aren’t poor. They are willing to lie to make it seem like they aren’t poor. They purchase things to make it seem like they’re not.
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
In my town, wealth wasn’t associated with greed, but with hard work and inherent goodness. You are blessed if you have material wealth.
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
When they see Trump, they don’t see an extortionist who is rich because of the very conditions that keep their own communities in poverty.
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
They see someone who worked hard and was justly rewarded with wealth. Most men, especially, think they too could be Trump were it not for
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
the unfair obstacles put in their way. White men who don’t consider themselves successful enough have so many excuses for their “failures.”
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
The idea that immigrants are the reason they are poor and not wealthy like Trump is so appealing. It takes all the shame and blame away.
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
And here we have a man who, they think, “tells it like it is” and is willing to name the things stealing prosperity out of their hands.
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
If these people saw themselves as an exploited class of people, if American culture didn’t stigmatize poverty so much, it might be different
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
But America has so entangled wealth with goodness and poverty with moral deficiency that they can’t build that identity. They won’t.
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
Trump is rich, and so according to American criteria, he is also:
1. Wise
2. Fair
3. Moral
4. Deserving
5. Strong
6. Clever
He *has* to be.— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
Capitalism and the American Dream teach that poverty is a temporary state that can be transcended with hard work and cleverness.
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
To fail to transcend poverty, and to admit you are poor, is to admit you are neither hardworking or clever. It’s cultural brainwashing.
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
So if an exploited class of people don’t want to admit they’re exploited and they blame themselves for their oppression, what manifests?
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
Xenophobia. Hatred of anyone who is “different,” queer people, people of color. These people are eroding the “goodness” of America.
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
And if they would just stop ruining America, then the perfect design of America could work again and deliver prosperity.
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
I’m telling you, as someone who has spent almost his entire life in this environment, that if you think cities are a “bubble…” Good God.
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
But the reality is, of course, that these people are indeed exploited and they are victims, even while they victimize others. Victimize us.
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
How you balance those realities, and what conclusions you reach to improve the lives of both, well, I’m not smart enough to have the answer.
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
Still, we need to understand the identity working class white people have built for themselves, one diametrically opposed to, well, reality.
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
Because Trump won’t make them rich. Even if he deports all the brown people. It won’t bring them what they’re hoping for.
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) November 18, 2016
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