In the modern era, it was not until the late 1950s and the Civil Right Movement, that racism became a major topic in the national political discussion. However, within a few years it was completely acceptable in northern states, to express one’s support for the fight against racism. In fact, the political button pictured above is one I own that dates back to about 1970s. Racism was front and center on the political stage and, in 1966, 52% of American’s surveyed cited racism as the most important problem facing the country as shown in Exhibit 1. Over the next 10 years, its ranking as a major issue of concern slowly declined. There was a brief reemergence around 1992 (the time period of the Rodney King riots) and a sustained uptick starting 2015, which coincides with when Trump became a major player on the political scene,
Exhibit 1. Percentage of Respondents who Cited Racism as the most Important Problem Facing Country, 1948-2020.
Donald Trump: Champion of Racism
Donald Trump has brought racism to forefront again and has stoked the passions that surround this issue. I think Trump’s position on racism stems from his intense drive to win, no matter what it costs. He sees it as advantageous to include extreme groups as part of his base and I do not think he cares what they believe or promote. His support for racism manifests itself in two ways. First, he repeatedly refuses to criticize racist groups’ violent activities and second, he encourages extreme expression. Through these behaviors he has provided tacit support to various racists groups and created an environment in which no idea is too extreme. It is unclear if he intended to empower racists or if he simply responded in ways that were expedient for him at the moment. It does not really matter if this is a carefully planned strategy or a gut response as, in the end, the result is the same: he has empowered racists and racist ideology.
Support for Racists Groups
During his presidency, there were multiple incidents in which Trump supported white supremacists. Trump’s reaction, in 2017, to a white supremacist killing a protestor at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was to say he condemns hatred and bigotry on “many sides” [1]. This response suggest all parties were some how guilty in the murder. Another example occurred during the presidential debates in 2020 when Chris Wallace asked him point blank to if he would denounce white supremacy and he side stepped the question. [2].
Promoting an Extremist Dialogue
In parallel to providing political support to white supremacist groups, Donald Trump created an environment in which publicly saying whatever pops into your head is fine no matter how extreme, angry, or hurtful the thought might be. Much of his appeal is his willingness to say extreme things. He started a movement in which nothing is too extreme to say out loud. Now, we have representatives in Congress who heckle the State of the Union Speech and suggest that half of the country should secede from the union. But most concerning, we now have public figures openly embracing racism.
The Consequences
One could argue that the current environment is just revealing the racism that has always existed throughout our nation’s history. If it has been lurking just below the surface the whole time, what is the big deal with bringing it into the open? Bringing racism into the discussion of ideas legitimizes it, and allows it to be a force in shaping laws and institutions. It emboldens hate groups to take violent actions. One measure of racism levels are the number of hate crimes committed. As Exhibit 2 [3] shows the total number of hate crimes basically fell during the first 3 years of the Obama presidency but started to raise again after 2014. There was a significant jump up in 2017, after Trump was elected.
Exhibit 2. Hate Crimes, 2007-2020
Having Trump on the campaign trail for the next two years will continue to stoke racism and anger. Hang on, it is going to be a bumpy ride.
End notes
[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-to-comment-on-violence-in-charlottesville-over-white-nationalist-rally-live-updates/
[2] (https://www.npr.org/2020/09/30/918483794/from-debate-stage-trump-declines-to-denounce-white-supremacy
[3] https://www.statista.com/chart/16100/total-number-of-hate-crime-incidents-recorded-by-the-fbi/#:~:text=According%20to%20statistics%20released%20by%20the%20FBI%2C%20hate,percent%2C%20showing%20a%20steeper%20growth%20than%20previous%20years.