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Carly Pildis October 6, 2020

This Wednesday, like millions of Americans, my family will sit down together to watch the Vice Presidential Debate. My husband and I will curl up on the couch and pour cocktails and take turns shushing each other not to wake our preschool-aged daughter, who will inevitably wind up in my lap.

My family is much like Kamala Harris’s family, proud of our mixed-race Jewish heritage and inspired by the courage and sacrifice of our immigrant ancestors. I am proud to work as director of grassroots organizing at the Jewish Democratic Council of America, because Kamala Harris’s America looks like our America, and we are proud to be American.

But we were not proud of our country’s President last week. When we sat down to watch the Presidential debate last week, we found ourselves deeply disturbed by what we saw: The President was asked to denounce white supremacists and he refused to do it. We sat in stunned silence. We were terrified. You should be too.

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Trump tried to pivot. He tried to brush off the question. Finally, he told the antisemitic Proud Boys group to “stand back and stand by.” It was the opposite of a denunciation; he was enlisting them in his service.

For my Black and Jewish interracial family, it was a chilling moment.

I cannot overstate the danger that President Trump has unleashed on my family and on the country we love. America has a history of white supremacist violence, terrorism, and murder, including violence aimed at preventing Black people from voting. Now, Trump is urging his supporters, which we can fairly assume includes the Proud Boys and other white supremacists, to “go into the polls.” His supporters have already blocked polling places in Virginia. President Trump has been claiming for months, falsely, that this election is rigged. If he loses the election and refuses to concede, he will have white supremacist militias on stand by, ready to take to the streets.

If you don’t believe me, just listen to the Proud Boys themselves, the group Joe Biden specifically asked President Trump to denounce. They are celebrating. One of the Proud Boy’s leaders, Enrique Tarrio, posted, “ Standing by, Sir.” Another Proud Boys Organizer, Joe Biggs, posted to Twitter, “Sir, we are ready!”

They have already added the President’s words to their logo. They are making t-shirts. They are writing on their message boards that Trump has given him the green light to hurt people.

White supremacists murdered Lori Gilbert Kaye in her Synagogue. They murdered Blaze Bernstein. They murdered 11 Jews while they prayed at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. They murdered nine people at Mother Emanuel church. They murdered 20 people in a Walmart in El Paso.

When it comes to the fight against white supremacy and the domestic terror threat it poses, my family knows who has our back. Vice President Biden decided to run because he was horrified and furious to the Presidents’ response to Charlottesville and his winking approval of violent white supremacist groups.

And Senator Harris understands the threat to our family, because it is the same threat to her family. She will fight for families like ours and do everything she can to protect us. She is a staunch champion for equality and freedom, and would never flinch when asked to denounce hatred.

My family knows who hates us. White supremacists hate us for being an interracial family, which is everything they stand against. They hate us for being Jews. They hate our mixed-race child. They have targeted me in the past, placing me on a list of Jews that should be silenced, a thinly veiled call for violence. White supremacists, like Jason Kessler, a former Proud Boy who organized the Unite the Right March in Charlottesville, want to destroy us.

They hate Senator Harris too, and all she represents.

President Trump would tell me that Muslims, immigrants, and Black Americans are my enemy. The President would tell me the true terrorists are Black Lives Matter protesters who are fighting for racial justice. I know who the true threat is: President Trump and the white supremacists he has emboldened and enlisted into his ranks as he fights for raw unchecked power.

This is the time to stand together. We must lock arms with our neighbors in the fight for America. We need to stand with Black Lives Matter, with Muslim Americas, with immigrants Americans, with Disabled Americans, with Native Americans and all people who are targeted by white supremacy.

We must all come together and defeat President Trump.

Carly Pildis is the director of grassroots organizing at the Jewish Democratic Council of America. She also writes a weekly food column in the Forward, #tweetyourshabbat. Follow her on Twitter @CarlyPilids

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