The judge gave Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio ( a Donald Trump henchman) a 22 year sentence for his role in organizing the Jan 6th insurrection. It makes one pause. In the space of about 10 years Donald Trump has turn our country inside out, destroying the fragile progress I genuinely believe we had made in marginalizing racism. As the chart above shows, racism has emerged from the closet and it is once a gain a major issue people cite as a national problem. Racism is back as a top issue and out in the open. It is dangerous and capable of destroying us.
For Trump, Racism is a tool to win
Donald Trump has brought racism to forefront again and has stoked the passions that surround this issue. 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. For him, it is not about beliefs or convictions but rather can they help him win.
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. 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.
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 chart below 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.
But most concerning, we now have public figures and legislators embracing racism and taking actions to remove many of the protections that have been put in place to protect against racism. They are busily changing the laws, striping out any remaining elements of affirmative action. They are banning books and changing school curriculum, re-writing history to soften or remove some of the most heinous events. Some even suggest we recast how we present slavery in school curriculums by pointing out the positives of the system (What the f*#%?). For example, the new Florida standards for social studies (for grades six through eight) say teaching will:
“Examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation)…Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” University of South Florida news
Slaves got personal benefits from being enslaved? What Neanderthals wrote this and reviewed and approved it? We are rolling the clock back 100 years.
There is no way to immediately turn the tide on the direction we have been going. The 2024 election is paramount and I hope that the American people stand up as say with the strongest voices possible, this not us.