Way back in December of 2025, thousands of White people roasted JD Vance, the first Ohio resident to ever serve as U.S. vice president, on social media.
At Turning Point USA’s AmFest, Vance had declared: “In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for being White anymore.”
The prompt, posted on Threads by writer and social media influencer Yashar Ali, went like this:
“White folks on here … What are you doing with all the extra time you have now that you don’t have to apologize for being White anymore? Look forward to the number of people who don’t get this post.”
People got the assignment and the connection to Vance.
There were nearly 9,000 sarcasm-laced responses to the post, which was viewed more than 800,000 times.
Were the responses funny? I laughed at several.
Is the situation we find ourselves in as a nation infuriating? It is more than enough to make you shake.
The fact that our vice president made such a declaration about the supposed lifting of White oppression could be seen as a weird one-off, if not for the war on historical facts and current reality he and his boss have led against the American people.
In supposed post-racial America, they spend a hell of a lot of time stoking racial tension and fostering oppression.
I suppose White people have been treated ‘bad’
Perhaps reminded that Martin Luther King Jr. Day was fast approaching, President Donald Trump, in a Jan. 7 interview with the New York Times, said he believed Civil Rights-era protections resulted in white people being “very badly treated.”
The 1964 Civil Rights Act, which was overwhelmingly approved by White lawmakers, was partly an attempt to provide Black Americans with equal access to education and employment, and dismantle segregation.
According to our president, it “accomplished some very wonderful things, but it also hurt a lot of people.”
The reality is that the law allowed room — far from an entire floor — for the people White people have almost always leaped over when America was supposedly so great.
I concede that not having an automatic advantage could make some individuals feel bad, hurt and not-so great, but equality would flourish in a just world.
If civil rights were extended to us all, no one would have automatic advantages based on skin color in the first place.
To believe Trump’s worldview, you’d have to — as many people do — close your eyes and lock your doors to the race-based injustices King and so many others before and after him have worked against.
You’d have to truly — as many people do — believe we were better off when separate-but-very-much-unequal was the law of this land.
You’d be OK with people being judged by the color of their skin, religion, gender or ethnicity, as are the many who believe Ohio Somali American day care owners are corrupt because Somali Americans in Minneapolis have been accused.
Content of character isn’t a hard concept.
A crime committed by Irish-American bar owners in Boston wouldn’t lead to persecution of Irish-American tavern owners in Ohio.
I don’t want White people to apologize in America
The pursuit of equality has nothing to do with making White people cry, apologize or grovel.
It’s about accepting the truth, finding solutions, and getting on with life in an America true to The Declaration of Independence.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
It is the freedoms, justice, and equality found in our Constitution, and longed for in King’s famed April 3, 1968 “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, the last before he was assassinated.
“All we say to America is to be true to what you said on paper. If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand some of these illegal injunctions. Maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they haven’t committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right.”
White folks reading this, whether you’re nodding along to what I’ve written or cursing my name, don’t you want to move beyond our past to something better?
I know I do. I want to see King’s promised land and not just from the mountaintop.
No matter how the facts get distorted and reality twisted, you know the promised land I am talking about.
Don’t know about Trump, but I suspect James David Vance of Middletown, Ohio — despite the division he sows in an attempt to retain power — knows it, too.
You might be surprised to know I agree with Vance — to a point. White people don’t have to apologize in America. America needs them to truly reject the lies, and embrace the truth for the good of us all.
“I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”
Amelia Robinson is the Columbus Dispatch’s opinion and community engagement editor.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Trump is right. Civil rights made some White people feel bad. | Opinion
Reporting by Amelia Robinson, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
