When anti-wokeism goes south

Donald Trump is scheduled to be a speaker at the Libertarian Party National Convention.

The ESPN Daily podcast episode One Racial Slur Tore a Baseball Team Apart is about events at Florida's Fort Myers High in 2023. A white assistant baseball coach sent a group message to the team that contained a racial slur. He quickly deleted it and said it was meant for some black war buddies. This was a year after an incident involving the n-word on the school's junior varsity team. This coach, a new hire still in his probationary period, was fired.

Many parents of players thought firing the coach was too harsh a punishment, and the families of the two black players on the team were blamed. Later, the head coach was suspended with pay for grabbing one of the black players and for other incidents. Ultimately, the third-base coach, temporarily in charge, led a walkout of most of the team, leaving the two black players in the batter's box and on-deck circle.

Bryant records the observations from an assistant coach on the opposing side:

As the bizarre scene unfolded, he was witnessing the antithesis of what sports were supposed to be about. The cliches of teamwork and togetherness were collapsing in real time. Players wearing the same uniform were not united against Estero [the opposing high school]. They were divided against themselves. His second conclusion was even worse: The walkout did not appear to be a reckless act concocted by teenagers, but rather orchestrated and blessed by coaches and parents. The kids were taking the lead from the grown-ups.

The rest of the season was canceled. Firings at Fort Myers High, investigations, and lawsuits followed.

One of the grievances that led to the walkout was that white people can't say the n-word, but black people are allowed to say it to each other. This is viewed as a double standard and an example of how white people are unfairly treated.

The greater context is the location of the controversy: Fort Myers is in Lee County, named for Robert E. Lee and one of the last holdouts against school desegregation. Moreover, Florida Governor Ron De Santis has led the charge against "wokeism." 

In its original slang meaning, to be "woke" is, as AI puts it, to be alert to ongoing racial prejudice and discrimination. Anti-wokeism, from my understanding, is the belief that the country isn't racist and that those who perceive and speak out against racism are themselves the real racists. In other words, whites are the victims.

The subtext of anti-wokeism is that it's okay for whites to resent blacks. When a white person gets in trouble for saying the n-word, black people are to blame. It's as if there's a plan to steer white voters who do not think of themselves as racist to align with self-avowed racists and protect themselves from the "woke mob."

I can't help but think of this as Donald Trump will speak to the Libertarian Party (LP) national convention this weekend. Since Trump's rise to political prominence some nine years ago, racists have come out of the closet, and the LP has been courting them.

In 2022, the Mises Caucus (MC) took over the LP with the aid of longtime Trump friend and advisor Patrick Byrne. That same year, the MC led the removal of the LP's platform statement calling bigotry "irrational and repugnant." Racist social media posts from official Libertarian Party accounts appeared. Fundraising and membership fell, and the party might not achieve ballot access in all 50 states as it normally does.

One could surmise that the leadership of the Libertarian Party is trying to destroy it. Portray the LP as a party of white nationalists to drive everyone else out in disgust even as white nationalists will vote for Trump anyway. Invite Robert F. Kennedy to speak as well to suggest he's also acceptable. Just don't vote for the candidate we nominate. The LP candidate may dare to talk about abusive, overreaching government when the real enemy is the woke mob.

The original meaning of "apocalypse" doesn't refer to destruction or the end of the world, but to a revelation or unveiling. We might be living in an apocalypse. What I've seen, what has been unveiled to me, over the past several years is that white resentment and racism can lead to the hijacking of a political party. And, 77 years after Jackie Robinson's debut in the major leagues, it can even derail a baseball season.

Perhaps we need less "I'm not racist, they're the racists" and more "I'm not racist, so what can I do to support those who have been wronged?"

James Leroy Wilson writes The MVP Chase (subscribe) and JL Cells (subscribe) and is a monthly columnist at Meer. Thank you for your subscriptions and support! You may contact James for writing, editing, research, and other work: jamesleroywilson-at-gmail.com.