When Segregation is Good Business

What's a business owner to do? (Or, how profit inhibits moral action.)

Wednesday, November 1st, 2023

Dear Freedom Friends,

The Best of Enemies is a great, great movie.

While this movie deals with a lot, there is a scene at the end that is particularly relevant to business communities, especially those within liberal-dominated political enclaves, like Vashon Island. But first, some background.

From 2020 through the summer of 2023, Washington State residents endured more government mandates, coercion, and soft totalitarian controls over their lives than almost any other state of the union. It was ubiquitous, inescapable, and is still ongoing.

American citizens curious about how their state’s laws compared with others will find The Maine Policy Institute’s scoring system valuable, as it offers clear comparisons across the country.

Segregation, Washington-Style!

In 2021, Governor Inslee’s Administration and WA State Democrats forced business owners to actively practice segregation, and — like the American South under Jim Crow Laws — customers were encouraged to help enforce segregation by reporting offending businesses. In WA State, tax dollars were used to create a special Public Health Authority Department [aka: Snitch Line] that took complaints and then called to threaten the business, issued substantial fines, removed licensing, and sometimes shut down businesses entirely.

How did people respond?

(1) To a degree - laws, rules, mandates and requirements differed from county to county. As a result, people living near county borders often drove the extra mile or, in my case, took the ferry, to a different county where they would not be treated like a pariah.
(2) Support groups formed. One was on Facebook. It gave people the opportunity to carefully promote local businesses that were not practicing segregation. Parents seeking daycare recommendations, couples in search of a date night venue, pet owners looking for a dog sitter, patients seeking a new dentist, the group was amazingly supportive and useful.

Weaponizing the Populace!

How did the government respond? Significant social pressure, peer to peer bullying, and citizen policing were encouraged and modeled by the government’s media partners [aka: Ministry of Truth a la 1984]. Aggressive pieces — serving as “how to” guides that moralized segregationist attitudes — were published in writing, radio and on screen.

How did the Public Respond?

In some communities, residents complied with enthusiasm. Vashon Island is one of those communities. This put pressure on business owners, who might not agree, as customers wielded a new type of power. They became a threat. Much like the KKK members in the movie highlighted above.

• Some took to citizen policing like a fish takes to water, berating fellow community members, in public, in front of dozens of people, every day, while at work — and their employer said nothing.

• Others reported local businesses to the Public Health Authorities. Anonymously, of course. Imagine how that feels when you’re a long-time restaurant owner and you don’t know who turned you in (multiple times)?

• Others fired employees when they learned that, though vaccinated, they were dating someone who wasn’t. The reasons given? (1) You’re more likely to catch Covid because you have an unvaccinated boyfriend and (2) “if my customers find out you’re dating someone from that family, they’ll know he isn’t vaccinated, and they won’t patronize my business.”

How Did I Respond? I Escaped.

Thanks to my uncle having a stroke in August of 2020 (which is nothing to celebrate), I escaped the worst of Vashon Island Winter 21-22. After my cousins had both visited to help out, and gone home to their kids and careers, I offered to help out my aunt and uncle in October of 2021. I ended up staying through the winter, which was godsend. My aunt and uncle live in the CA desert county of Kern. In that conservative county, the segregationist laws of California were ignored by business owners and residents alike. I was never refused service due to my personal medical choices and I was never forced to wear a mask. In fact, I was never asked.

But, back home? Things were different. And they still are.

The Corruptive Power of Cognitive Dissonance

Around the state, and here on Vashon Island, business owners were forced to become complicit in segregating their community. Most people in this region of America know segregation is WRONG. Therefore, these mandates/laws caused significant emotional and psychological distress in the form of cognitive dissonance.

This is a big deal.

“In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information and the mental toll of it. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment. Cognitive dissonance is typically experienced as psychological stress when persons participate in an action that goes against one or more of those things.[1] According to this theory, when two actions or ideas are not psychologically consistent with each other, people do all in their power to change them until they become consistent.”

For every business owner not willing to risk losing their business or being publicly shamed for speaking up — the remaining option available to them was to change their beliefs. Business owners, squeezed between segregationist laws and customers who wanted that segregation, either endured the misery of mistreating people — or they convinced themselves that segregation “under these circumstances” was more than okay. It was virtuous. “This is the one time when segregation, bigotry and prejudice is not only acceptable — it’s a good thing!” Pause. “Right?”

The Foot in the Door.

Even as most of the government laws/mandates/requirements have been loosened, relaxed or ended, the segregation remains. This is not an accident. It’s on purpose. This is an actual goal. And, this is dangerous. It leaves all of us (who suffered from three years of celebrated segregation) …very worried about a repeat performance.

If the government did not want us segregated, they would have insisted that all segregationist policies be rescinded. It would be like, “we forced you to do it, now we’re going to force you to stop.” Instead…

The Government’s message has been, “Now that we’re not forcing you anymore, we hope you will continue to practice segregation of your own volition. It’s a great idea! Keep it up!”

As a result — many, many institutions, clubs, non-profits, and business owners kept their Covid Segregationist Policies in place.

Personal example: my son was hired several times this past summer by businesses that, upon learning that he wasn’t vaccinated said, “Oh sorry, we have a Covid policy, so I guess we can’t hire you after all.”

Human Nature Fails Us Again.

It’s not so surprising that corrosive attitudes of segregation, after being forced upon us, have become a semi-permanent part of our otherwise liberal communities in Western Washington. Othering (which includes bigotry, segregation, classism and discrimination) is hard-wired into our species. Resisting this instinct takes conscious effort and willpower. And, currently? No one seems to be trying.

Watch the Movie!

At the end of “The Best of Enemies,” an ex-KKK member who owns a gas station faces economic ruin, ostracism, and harm as white supremacists in his community boycott his business as punishment for him siding with the black community. He did the brave and noble thing and is suffering the consequences. Just as he’s ready to throw in the towel, a line of cars roll up to buy gas. It is the black community, who he previously refused to serve, showing up to give him their business and show their solidarity.

This scene perfectly depicts the economic consequences facing business owners living within and serving a community that has become enamored of segregation. “If you don’t refuse to serve the target minority group, we will take our business elsewhere!”

And, where I live? On Vashon Island? People are not happy about the segregation. Many, maybe most, don’t believe it’s warranted. Especially those who have kept up on the science. I believe most in our community would reward business owners who go public — with an apology and a promise to stand strong next time — with their continued patronage.

If it happened in Durham, North Carolina (1971), then surely, we can do it, too?

More about the movie: “A charette—a meeting in which all members of a community get to vote on the outcome of an issue—sparked Ellis and Atwater’s friendship. In 1971, the city of Durham held a charette to determine whether Durham schools would desegregate. Bill Riddick, who ­ran a consulting firm and had successfully facilitated several charettes in other communities, was the organizer who brought Ellis and Atwater together.”
Read more about Riddick’s experience & what he learned.

Segregation Policies are Toxic.

Segregation always brings about the ugly side of human nature by creating a 2-class system. The effect is felt immediately. The “discriminated against” class feels unwanted, disliked, unvalued, isolated, and cheap — because they are being thrown away with carelessness. Trash. There is also intense fear, confusion and shattered trust as previous friends, family, neighbors and co-workers turn against you, often with violence. “How can this be happening?” is a common refrain.

Meanwhile, the “chosen” class begins to fall for the illusion, experiencing delusions of superiority, as they belittle the pain and suffering of the “targeted” class, both denying they are causing harm or telling the victim they brought it upon themselves. “I didn’t fire you, you chose to be fired by making the stupid person’s choice and you deserve the pain you feel, because you brought it on yourself. It’s not my fault!”

Anyone Heard of the Stanford Prison Experiment?

Do you think all of this is in the past? STOP thinking like that. Segregation is not only happening, it’s becoming official policy all over the world. And, discrimination is absolutely still happening. It happened to me just yesterday morning. And it hurt. It made me cry. It sucked, and ruined my Halloween plans. And for what? I have natural immunity, and have only been sick once in the past four years. I also support anyone who wants to join the Covid Medical Experiment, even though I and my family won’t be doing so. I don’t segregate. I don’t coerce. I don’t ignore other people’s human rights. So, why am I being excluded and denied services?

• In Spring of 2021, I made a down payment with an exceptional tattoo artist, and she still won’t work on me due to her lingering Covid Policy.

• Nurses are being fired every day for refusing more Covid injections.

• I’m pretty sure organ transplant patients continue to be denied life-saving transplant surgery unless they’ve gotten the Covid injections, (but I am not 100% sure — anyone have updated information?)

• On the employment front, it’s not just private businesses who have adopted “long lasting Covid policies.”

• The State of Washington ensured you cannot become a state employee without getting the Covid injections — all the way through to 2025.

And, the list goes on.

Segregation, in left-leaning, progressive, highly educated, traditionally liberal communities has suddenly become vogue, popular, celebrated, and aggressively defended. It has seeped into our citizens, invaded our previously egalitarian communities, and primed us for the next justification to splinter into an apartheid state — with enthusiastic citizens cheering it on, even as they’ll deny it’s happening.

This needs to change. We need to learn different, better lessons from the last four years. We must become Lovers of Diversity, once again, in action as well as word.