The Banality of White Supremacy

Part One: Attorney Steven Thomas Druckenmiller of Upper Arlington, Ohio

They seem like the typical upper-middle-class professional family with kids that one would expect to find in a big city suburb. But this family is different, for behind Steve’s shiny but forgettable Elmer Fudd façade is a brain brimming with white supremacy and a will to inflict pain on others, including Black residents of Upper Arlington, Ohio.

There were certainly indications that Mr. Druckenmiller was problematic prior to 2020. But it’s recently become obvious that he* is not just trolling.

After the death of George Floyd, protests began in Columbus and its suburbs, including two in Upper Arlington. It appears that this enraged Mr. Druckenmiller to the point that intermittent offensiveness and dog-whistle just wouldn’t cut it anymore.

Stevie not only upped the racism on his personal Facebook page — he also began spewing a mixture of racism and anti-BLM posts on local Upper Arlington discussion forums and the personal pages of other Upper Arlington residents.

In summary, in his posts, he has written that Black lives “only matter insofar as they can be used as a weapon against us” (Us who?). He has disputed that racism happens in UA, and he has vowed to fight against anti-racism measures in the city.

Lately, he has begun organizing with like-minded UA residents. They created a group called “Proud UA,” but many must have realized that name was too obvious, so organized a“We Are UA” page. Chillingly, there are several prominent community members who have also joined this group. (More on their identities in a later writing).

He appeared incensed when the UA School Board announced a plan to combat racism in their schools, and he spoke out against students’ stories of racism posted on an Instagram account:

Reportedly, as he picketed UA’s teachers at the Juneteenth event, he also filmed them and demanded to know their names.

Upper Arlington does not have many Black residents. However, it appears that Steven Druckenmiller has gone out of his way to target several of them. He posted this bad (and likely dishonest) review on the business page of a Black UA resident:

He then appeared to try to affect the employment of another Black UA resident by making claims about the person’s spouse:

Most recently, he has tokenized a biracial young man from UA who wants to become a police officer:

Steven Thomas Druckenmiller is the type of person who should never hold a position in our society that might allow him to have power over the lives of those who are Black, Indigenous, or people of color.

It’s time for all community and business leaders to cut ties with him, publicly condemn his words and behavior, and disavow his endorsements. The people are watching.

All biographical and other information in this essay has been gleaned from publicly available sources.

*While it’s always possible that a friend, family member, or three raccoons in a trenchcoat could be posting in his name, given the consistency of his words and actions, that seems extremely unlikely.

Related posts:

This fear you are experiencing might actually be something good. It might be a warning signal you should not ignore. Or do you simply fear that your dream might never be realized at all because you…

Platform Independent — (Portability) As JAVA is the one of the most popularly known Platform Independent Language known across worldwide. Platform Independent means that- You write your code once and…

But what I expected to be another fad app — something equivalent to Pokémon Go or House Party — has become a new favorite of mine. It’s quickly becoming one of the most downloaded apps, defining…