People are more complicated than a two-party system. I’m talking about ownership and accountability for decisions that had profound averse impact.

I work in org change and orgs are just microcosms of society. What I know is that big change initiatives fail due to a lack of a common narrative, ownership, reconciliation, and amends without seeking forgiveness. I don’t see any of that happening.

Imagine you and your coworkers get to weigh in a new manager candidate. You provide evidence of major red flags but a major of your coworkers over override it and the manager is hired. This new manager quickly demonstrates every shitty behavior you pointed out. It destroys the team’s morale and performance. You go to HR on this manager but your coworkers remain passive and offer no supporting testimony — even the ones who admitted they instantly regretted giving their vote to hire them. You and a few other coworkers become mentally distressed, even going to therapy, and some equit due to this manager’s negligence and incompetence. The manager promises a bigger bonus if people shit on the company’s lawn and today, a couple of coworkers did. Now your remaining coworkers, the ones who stood passively the entire time, cry outrage to HR to have the manager removed.

How do you feel toward your coworkers? Do you trust them to have sound judgment moving forward? Do you even want to work with them?

No one can claim to be hoodwinked here. Trump was unabashedly and bafflingly inappropriate, unqualified, and dangerous from the get-go. There is “something” in “instant regretfuls” that requires deep examination and explusion.

What is anyone suppose to do with this regret, whether instant or at the 11th hour, especially those who lost loved ones due to Trump’s incompetence and negligence during this pandemic?

Did these Trump-voting “regretfuls” actively campaign against Trump this round? Did they pay into a reparation fund? Did they own up to their vote and try to reach out to other “misguided souls?”

Moreover, has Mitt Romney issued any remorseful statement along with actions — along with plans for accountability, reconciliation, and amends — in which he explicitly implicates himself, along with other republicans, that voted to foil Trump’s impeachment when he (again) showed abuse of power and corruption?

And even if he or anyone of them did, what is it worth when there is a lack of trust and credibility? Anyone who actively moved to keep Trump in office, knowing what he is, are just as guilty of being traitors as the Big Cheetoh himself.

This is not about black and white thinking. This is about an abusive relationship on a grand scale. Another around of “Ooopsie” that we’ve seen countless times before, especially in regards to Black people , subjected to silencing tactics for ever elusive unity through “forgiveness.”

I love a good redemption arc; I believe in holding space for it. I’ve also been disappointed in that decision more than not. When people show you who they are, believe them, until they show you otherwise — consistently.

I’m a youngish Black woman in a world that hates blackness and women — nobody matters less. I’m just as likely to be “killed” by “friendly fire” as I am the “enemy.” While I love discussing theory and ideas, at the end of the day, when I step out of my door, are you going to demonstrate or enable actions that can cause me harm based on who I am, regardless of political affiliation? That’s all I think about.