Racism is an important propelling force for Trump. His early signals of ”good people on both sides” in Charlottesville brought white supremacists and antisemites out from under rocks. Evangelicals who support Trump seek more than an abortion ban; they seek to end immigration of non-Christian people of color. Trump just stated that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” reminiscent of Hitler’s Aryan race, and demonstrating his desire to be a dictator. The common bond between the Evangelicals and white supremacist thugs like the KKK and the Proud Boys is an oxymoron. Yet, the enthusiasm for Trump has a common denominator– white supremacy.
MAGA Trumpers do not seek the advancement of people of color to have rights equal to white, Christian citizens. Trump has ignited the frustrated base of threatened white Americans who are seemingly ready to use force to get a proven racist back in the White House. The Trump base seems to favor the fascist approach—burn books and censor history curriculums to deny any mention of slavery and racism in America.
Anti-Trumpers must face the reality of American racism and what we can and will do to create greater equality for our people. Black Americans are less willing to vote for Biden again. Democrats must react. A Trump victory would be the end of American democracy.
We are, and have been, a racist country from the beginning. What could be more racist than slavery of African people? American Whites lost their right to own them after more than 200 years, until 1863 when black people became “forever free.” The Whites’ perception of the inferiority of black people persisted and racism continues. During the week of December 11, 2023, just before Christmas, 6 men from different parts of the country were exonerated after decades of imprisonment for wrongfully alleged crimes when they were teenagers or young adults. Your first guess, America, would be correct. They were all men of color.
Speaking to the White readers, did you grow up in a racist community? Did you hear n####r jokes? Did you laugh about them? Did you retell them? Did you hear or make negative comments about black people? Did you live in a totally white community? Was there a perceived crisis over a black family moving into your neighborhood? Was there a Whites only mentality where you grew up? Was it forbidden for young Whites to date black girls or boys?
If the Whites said no to the first question above, would you change your mind now? Like many Whites (of which I am one), I never felt that I would do anything that was unfair to blacks or anyone else. Therefore, I was not a racist. Nevertheless, the perception that blacks were inferior to whites was around many White communities in both subtle and blatant ways. Many Whites didn’t know, and still don’t know, anyone who is black in our purposely segregated society. Segregation has sustained our openly racist culture.
Abraham Lincoln no doubt knew that true freedom for emancipated black people would take time. Would he have expected that one hundred years later, a civil rights leader, like Martin Luther King, would still be declaring that he had a dream that true freedom for blacks would occur in America?
After President Lincoln’s death, blacks remained isolated from whites. Strong and successful efforts were made to prohibit blacks from voting with Jim Crow laws and intimidation. Lynchings of black men were common for many years. Organized racism, like the Ku Klux Klan, gave violent voice to racial hatred. For many years, the Klan was publicly known and received approval in many quarters.
American history shows advances in the freedoms of black Americans, followed by backsliding to more racist suppression. More than 30 years since blacks were freed, the Constitution was tortuously interpreted to the detriment of black citizens. Our country made segregation of black Americans the Supreme Law of the Land in 1896. In Plessy v. Ferguson, by a vote of 7-1, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that the 14th Amendment, requiring equal protection of the laws, was not violated because blacks had equal quality facilities. This contorted and disgraceful opinion was known as the “Separate But Equal” doctrine. As a US Constitutional ruling, all states were obliged to comply. The racist opinion was the worst Supreme Court opinion in our history and the Court itself, other than dissenting Justice Harlan, was the most reprehensible in American history. There are other contenders for shameful Justices and other pathetic reasoning at the Supreme Court but Separate But Equal dehumanized American citizens.
Thus, the U. S. Supreme Court promulgated a racist practice that lasted for 58 years, until 1954, when the opinion was overturned in Brown v. Board of Education.
Nineteen years after the separate but equal doctrine, A US President reinforced racism in America.
In 1915, DW Griffith released the remarkably popular Civil War epic movie, The Birth of a Nation, which portrayed the Ku Klux Klan as heroes and martyrs. The Birth of a Nation was the first film to be seen in the White House during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. For many, he was viewed with disdain for having a White House gathering for the most racist film ever made in America. Wilson was a racist. He championed segregation, overseeing the segregation of federal agencies, rolling back civil rights progress that had been previously made. He wrote a history textbook lauding the Confederacy and the KKK. (Many years later, academic institutions removed his name from their buildings because of his racism.)
Fifty-two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, we had an American President, Woodrow Wilson, who sanctioned racism in our country. A sitting President signaled that it’s acceptable to be a racist, opening the prospects for justifiable violence.
No white supremacist can tolerate economic success of black Americans and certainly not black lawyers, doctors and successful businessmen and women. Least of all, could low-rent, unsuccessful whites bear to recognize the flourishing community of the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Greenwood was one of the wealthiest black communities in the country, known as Black Wall Street.
In two days in 1921, white rioters murdered black citizens, bombed and burned the community, destroying 35 blocks of Greenwood. When the dust settled, as many as 300 blacks were murdered and over 6,000 hospitalized.
This glaring and horrific example of ruthless attacks on blacks without provocation is one of countless atrocities committed by white supremacists. Much sinful murder was visited upon many blacks totally innocent of any wrongful behavior.
Overturning Separate But Equal in Brown v. Board was a watershed opinion in 1954, but it was not, standing alone, a panacea. Racism did not go away. A year later, a 14-year-old boy named Emmett Till was savagely beaten and murdered for whistling at a white girl in Mississippi. There are many such savage examples.
Similarly, segregation did not go away either. Mortgage lenders and white citizens ignored the overturning of Separate But Equal, creating the red-lining of residential communities. Black families were prohibited from obtaining loans in all-white neighborhoods. Segregation was outlawed, but still widely practiced and rarely challenged.
Segregation has long been a critical component of sustained racism. Any remnants of such practice must be crushed. Multi-racial neighborhoods bring people together. We realize how much we all have in common. We become better friends. Years ago, as a young lawyer, I felt that the long-term answer to hateful racism was for all races to intermarry. We would all be some shade of brown and no one would any longer give a shit about the color of someone’s skin.
“Freedom” for African-American citizens to marry anyone of their choosing was not assured until 1967. Beginning in the Colonial era, states had laws banning miscegenation, that is, any marriage or interbreeding among different races. This medieval interference with civil rights produced another reprehensible U.S. Supreme Court decision. In 1883, the Court, in Pace v. Alabama, drew the toxic conclusion that the Alabama anti-miscegenation law was constitutional because it punished black people and white people equally. Again, our highest court in the land declared racist interference with the personal intimacy of marriage to be constitutional.
Richard and Mildred Love were married in Virginia in violation of the state’s anti-miscegenation law, since Richard was white and Mildred was black. FINALLY, in 1967, these revolting laws interfering with the love relationship of two American citizens were declared unconstitutional in Love v. Virginia
Right-wing Trumpers don’t want their children to learn about racism in American schools, advancing ridiculous justifications. Our children, dim-eyed Maga people would say, will feel guilty for atrocities that occurred years ago. People like the over-educated, yet moronic, Governor of Florida show their utter lack of wisdom in censoring American history. Young people will not let a book-burning, neo-Nazi dictate what they are allowed to learn. Young, anti-Vietnam student protesters in the 1960s defied their ultra-conservative, pro-Nixon parents. Truth among young people will overcome pea-brain Maga efforts to create Hitler youth. Intelligent, truth-seeking young people will not allow government and narrow-minded, incompetent parents to dictate their academic curriculum.
For Florida (led by Strangelove DeSantis) and Neanderthal book-burning in other states, young students need to have a history lesson. Disgustingly, we now have a racist former president who seeks reelection. Trump will endorse and pardon racist and other unethical behavior.
We must be what we have already become, a diverse population. Therefore, we have to be focused upon fairness and equality for all our citizens, first and foremost. Republicans have no platform, let alone a constructive one. President Biden is an empathetic leader who can carry the banner of eliminating racism in our country with great conviction. We have made progress in curtailing racism in recent years. We will learn more from our racist history on how we can efficiently eradicate the racial hate that still exists. The Democratic platform for 2024 must emphasize racial equality programs. We have black judges, lawyers, prosecutors, doctors and many elected officials, both men and women. Our President can build upon what has been achieved with his leadership. He is the sincere leader among us—not the sleazy con artist who cares only for himself.
Racism does not characterize all of us Americans. In fact, racists are a minority of us. We, the anti-racists, are the majority of voters and we’re more than simply not racists. We are anti-racism in our country. We are against this evil and we won’t tolerate it. We will advocate equality and live what we preach.
Your point about segregation, unrecognized by most white people, is complex today, but still prevalent. You can make a law, but changing people’s hearts, minds, and behavior is beyond law. I’ve been married to a well educated mixed lady from Chicago. I’ve also been with a dark skinned lady from Tuskegee, Alabama for 17 years. Her family covers the range of success and struggle, some are professionals, others are gang members,(some dead). I’m a Caucasian man from the foothills of Appalachia. When I’m with my own race, I get asked questions about being with a black woman. I found, when I lived in Massachusetts, virulent racism, and a delusional idea that only the south was racist. FALSE. Everytime they tried to integrate Boston schools with poor black folks, blood flowed. My best friend from Martha’s Vineyard, black and Native American, and I, once walked into a morning diner in northern Vermont…the crowd, all white, became quiet. How easy it is to pretend you’re not racist when there are few black folks you live with, nearby, or know. Because so many black folks still live in the south, most of us have been taught not to use the slur ni**er. I’ve heard it in Florida, California, Oregon, and Ohio. Anyone who believes there aren’t millions of racists in this country are kidding themselves. Black folks also tend to socialize with other black folks. I can understand their reluctance given our country’s history. Sub cultures exist for a reason. Many years ago Dr. Suess was my favorite author as a kid. He wrote a great book about being a snob based on looks…The Sneetches. The ones born with ‘stars on thars’, their stomachs, looked down on those with no stars. They congregated only with those with stars, banned the others from joining them in games, etc. Sure enough, a con man, Mr. Monkey McBean came along, and had a machine that could add stars. Soon the lower caste Sneetches spent money to look like the others. Then those with stars paid to remove theirs so they could remain in the superior group. They all went back and forth until all their money was spent and no one could remember which group they originally belonged to. As Mr. McBean drove away with all their cash, he opined ‘sneetches never learn’. BUT they did learn, and decided all the hoopla over stars on bellys was silly and no one was superior to anyone else. A great lesson from a children’s book! The question is will WE ever learn? Since 1619, the jury is still out.
I grew up in a Mississippi town that was 80% black, yet the mayor, police chief, sheriff, doctors, lawyers, corporate executives were all white. Not only that, the sack boys at the grocery stores and the clerks in all the other stores were white. Segregation was complete. This didn’t mean you never saw black people. You just didn’t interact with them much if at all. That was sixty years ago. Today the make-up of elected officials and store clerks, etc have changed, but not much else. Oh, thank God you don’t see any tar paper shacks anymore, but rather pleasant looking government or low income housing. Things are better. However, the resentment of a lot of whites for the North, the news media and Democrats embarrassing them and forcing them to change certain things still burns deep in their hearts.
One of the big reasons for the embarrassment and resentment was the way the rest of the country looked down on us, yet they were just as bad. In the last seventy years I have lived in more places than I have hairs on the top of my head and I will tell you there are racist from California to Maine. Don’t kid yourself. And they vote. Perhaps if national figures like Gavin Newsom would in some way acknowledge this fact in a way that got through to all the people in this country this generational resentment of Southerners could be dissipated. I don’t know. The resentment I feel from tv shows like the Beverly Hillbillies and the like may never go away. But I will tell you one thing, all our childish hurt feelings that seem to be motivating Americans on both sides can’t go on for much longer in such a large and powerful country as ours.
Scott and Walter, Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences that amplify the issues we face in America. I was naive when I went to law school Boston, many years ago. I sat in a room with friends, one of whom came from a tough black community in NYC. I said that it was great to be in such a liberal city where we don’t see racism. My black friend interrupted me, “That’s because you’re white.” I never forgot it.
Well-meaning white people don’t see the prejudice and hatred that is all around them.