[The words that follow should be prefaced upon the understanding that the author has lived in South Florida since birth and has family roots stretching back in the state for four generations.]
During an interaction on Threads someone shared a meme that said, “Can you imagine being stupid enough to vote for Donald Trump?” to which I replied he should focus on the leaders who have been lying to their voters, not the voters themselves, who weren’t the racist evil people they were being made out to be. The question I was asked, “Do you really honestly think these people aren’t bad racist people?” was enough to make me start a Substack and write the following words.
I do not believe that the people who voted for Donald Trump are bad people. I can only say this about the people who voted in South Florida though.
South Florida isn’t like most of the United States. In fact, it shares a great deal more in common with the Caribbean islands around it than it does with Tallahassee or Tampa. To truly understand why South Florida is the way it is you need to understand it’s history.
One of the defining factors influencing South Florida’s culture is the Mariel Boatlift of 1980, the year in which over 100,000 Cubans consisting of political prisoners, dissidents, criminals and other “undesirables” were given the option of fleeing Cuban or facing constant violence from the government and pro-Castro citizens. Many of these “undesirables” were gay or trans which is one of the reasons South Florida has become a mecca for so many in the LGBTQ+ community today.
On May 17th, 1980 the McDuffie Race Riots in Liberty City set much of Miami ablaze, literally and figuratively, when the police officers who beat former marine Arthur McDuffie to death were found not guilty for his death.
1980 is also the year that I was born in Opa-locka, the city where Amelia Earhart started her journey around the world, that was built with an Arabian Nights theme and today has the most Moorish architecture in the western hemisphere. My father had lived off the coast of Yemen and in Saudi Arabia for a decade in the 60s as an imported American worker before coming back home to South Florida where he worked as a construction worker.
In the 1980s, the city of Opa-locka was just transitioning from predominantly white to predominantly black but had been in decline since the 1950s. From the 1980’s onward Opa-locka became one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the United States and consistently ranks in the top ten most dangerous cities in the United States. Most people don’t see the name Opa-locka listed in these crime statistics because is often referred to simply as “Miami”.
The Mariel Boatlift, you see, did bring in a huge influx of crime. Both the show “Miami Vice” and the movie “Scarface” capitalized off of the crime and backdrop of South Florida. Unlike the Mexican and Central American asylum seekers coming here to better their lives that have unjustly been called “rapists and murderers”, some of the Marielitos actually were. This doesn’t mean that Cubans are all rapists and murderers; it means that Fidel Castro opened the prisons and released all of the murderers, rapists, drug-dealers, and violent criminals as well as the mentally ill.
I don’t recall growing up in a drug-dealing, race-rioting city. Some of my earliest memories are of canepole fishing with my mom and dad, often with black or brown friends of my parents and their children. My father worked as a construction foreman putting in steal rebar before concrete was poured in building foundations. I know both from his own words and from knowing the men he worked with that he helped countless “illegals” work under the table for the places he worked.
My father raised me to be the person that I am. He never let me badger the waitress to refill my drink because, and I quote, “She’s busy, don’t drink so fast”. I might have been born looking like a blond haired Aryan baby but it is only because of my mother’s genetics. My father is descended from the Arapaho but could never prove it because of his father’s 1917 forced adoption.
We left Opa-locka when I was four and my family still owns a home passed on to us from my grandmother built in the 50s located on the county line between Miami and Broward. For those of you that might consider this ‘white flight’ it was not from fear of people of color but because of a serious influx of crime and my family didn’t want to get murdered.
Growing up I existed in this weird dichotomy of visits with family in northern Florida where it was very much the South and a day to day existence of living in a world where I had to speak Spanish if I wanted to do anything. The schools I went to were overwhelmingly black and my high school had less than ten percent of white people.
The school systems in Broward County, while no longer segregated “de jure” (under the law) were still segregated de facto. White kids needed to be bussed in from other locations. To the best of my knowledge the school systems were still not fully integrated when I graduated.
When I came out as gay at 15 years old I recall big black boys from the football and basketball team walking up to me and saying, “Yo, dawg, you gay?” and nodding “yes” and extending my hand in introduction.
In my 11th grade English class I asked, in front of mostly black classmates, my white teacher if I could write about the queerness of Plato and Socrates during Black History month. She asked the rest of the class if they thought it was OK. I remember being overwhelmed with feelings of acceptance and pride when my classmates not only didn’t object but supported my choice to be gay and understand who I was. This was two years before June was designated Pride Month by Bill Clinton.
In 2001, at 21, I began living with my first husband. He was Venezuelan, with so many brothers and sisters, and his family was scattered between the US and Venezuela. A few years earlier when he still lived in Venezuela his superiors at an airline he worked at had him procure a plane for Hugo Chavez to use to campaign with in his quest to become President. He had no idea of the destruction Chavez would bring to his country or his family. For the entire 6 years of our relationship there was always, always a member of his family that we were working to help bring into this country. Cubans and Venezuelans have always had legal pathways to citizenship that have been denied to Mexicans, Haitians and those from Central America.
The entirety of my 43 years have been spent in Florida. I’ve seen snow once.
I, as a white person, was a minority for the entirety of my K-12 education.
I know what it is like to feel otherized and to be a token member of a group.
I understand the pain and anxiety caused by not knowing whether or not your loved ones will get deported or not.
I understand systemic racism because I have lived and been educated under systems that were the direct result of legal segregationist policies.
I understand privilege because these policies never affected me.
So to the person who asked me, “Do you really believe that they aren’t bad, racist people?” I said, resoundingly, no.
Most of these people don't support Trump because they are racist. They support him because they are brainwashed.
My father retired in a very in a retirement community near the Space Coast that is now considered ruby red Republican. His best friend was Fox News. He disowned me because he said “You love immigrants more than you love me”. Then he said, “All of the goddamn Mexicans should be lined up and shot in the head.” We never spoke again. He passed away in 2021.
My mother and father separated in the 90s. Her new husband was a Teamster. He told me the only people worth voting for were Democrats. They retired in central Florida in what is now ruby red Republican country. I called to make Thanksgiving plans and they kept going on and on about how the goddamn Puerto Ricans could come to this country and get on food stamps. She told me how during the 80s she tried to get on food stamps but all she could get was peanut butter.
We were never, ever on food stamps.We had hard times, and should have been on food stamps, but my father was proud and he would take us fishing so we could have fish for dinner. This was something we did almost every weekend when I was a child growing up.
My mother, who can make some of the best Black macaroni & cheese I’ve ever had, suddenly hated Puerto Ricans and could not (or would not) understand that they were American citizens. I told them they were being racist and changed the subject. I asked if they were vaccinated so I could come and visit that they told me, seriously, that the vaccine was a way for Joe Biden to control everything we say and do. I’ve been HIV positive since 2008 but hadn’t told my family until that moment. I said if they weren’t vaccinated that I couldn’t come and see them. My family disowned me after telling them because they didn’t want to get infected by me. Not from HIV but from the vaccine.
My sister, who has a black husband and a biracial child, disowned me shortly after because my mother was so hurt that I had called her racist.
Despite separating from my first husband in 2006 we have always been close. He votes Democratic but almost his entire family, people I know and love and worked to bring to this country, are now Trump voters. They voted for Trump because they saw the horrors that can come because of socialist dictators and wouldn’t vote for Democrats because they were “socialists” and believe that they kill babies after they are born.
I grew up in a loving home and had a really amazing, loving circle of family and friends.
Until 2016.
All of these problems came about after years of disinformation. I've lost nearly all of my friends and family because of all the hate and lies.
Republican leaders tell their voters that they are right to feel the way they do. They tell them lies and fill them with hate. It is because they have believed these lies that they have made such horrible choices. When we call these Trump voters names and laugh at them we simply strengthen their resolve and make it easier for them to keep voting for and supporting Republicans.
Hate and lies are addictive.
Before writing this article it was my opinion that Trump voters were like addicts that refused to give up drugs. After writing it though I feel that many Trump voters don’t realize they are addicts. If an addict loses all of their friends and family it becomes much harder to get clean. If a person doesn’t even know they are addicted and they have no one there for them how will they ever get clean?
In 2018 there was a huge campaign called #DeleteFacebook that resulted in most of the left leaving Facebook and for Twitter. That meant most of our families and friends kept hearing the hate and the lies only we weren’t there to tell them the truth. They believe that Biden is senile because their Facebook friends share that and nobody uses Facebook anymore that tells them the truth. I was able to deradicalize someone on Nextdoor simply by letting him know Biden was a lifelong stutterer.
Please stop attacking low information, poorly educated people who are actively being lied to.
American is not a racist nation. America is an ideal to be aspired to. Trump voters are not causing the hate and the lies. They are a symptom of the hate and the lies. If we ever want to live in a country that we can truly be proud of then we need to rise up collectively and resoundingly destroy the Republicans electorally at the ballot box.
Nothing will change if we do not create the change because WE ARE THE CHANGE.
