RACE IN AMERICA AND DONALD T****
No-one can rationally suggest or pretend that racism in America is a thing of the past. In truth, it is deeply ingrained in our nation’s history and culture; it has become part of who we are. There are racists and bigots in America and probably always will be. But it goes deeper than that.
Systemic racism exists when policies, practices, and institutions create or maintain racial inequality. It is seen in disparities across key areas of society like education, housing, employment, healthcare, and criminal justice. The overt prejudice of bigots is not a factor in this equation
For example: Black Americans are more likely to attend underfunded schools due to a history of redlining, housing discrimination and school funding based on property taxes. They’re more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, and convicted than white Americans (Blacks constitute about 13% of the U.S. population but make up roughly 37% of incarcerated adults). Studies show that Blacks, who are overrepresented among the least wealthy in America, have less access to affordable healthcare, have higher maternal mortality rates and shorter lifespans. In employment, Blacks are still often the “last hired and first fired,” and résumés get fewer callbacks when the names sound like the applicants are African American. Blacks are sparsely represented in the elite ranks of business and government.
These patterns aren’t explained by individual racist choices. They reflect structures that disadvantage some while privileging others. Bottom line: Systemic racism isn’t about intent, it’s about outcomes. And when inequality is predictable by race, it is because of an ingrained system that has been part of the nation’s history and culture since its inception.
But yes, there are racists and bigots in America, millions of them to be sure. There is one school of thought which suggests that this is part of human nature; history can attest to that. But there is another school which suggests that race hatred defies humanity and defiles civilization. History can attest to that, too.
In America the struggle to subsume racism and affirm humanity is etched in ethos and bathed in blood, and there has always been a deep sense of wrongness about race hatred. This even in the Old South, where slavery was referred to as “our peculiar institution.” They knew it was wrong.
Since Abraham Lincoln, only Andrew Johnson and Woodrow Wilson were openly avowed racists and white supremacists. Most other presidents, even those with racist personal beliefs or policies at least gave public statements supporting the idea of racial harmony or equality, even if their actions did not always align with those statements.
Yet, unlike most of these, Donald T**** does not even give lip service to the idea of promoting equality of opportunity in America. His obsession with the term “DEI”” and his efforts to wipe away all traces of “woke” programs designed to promote DEI objectives are concrete proof of this. The same goes for his attempts to re-write American history. References to subjects like slavery, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement, voting rights, Black achievements and contributions to American life and culture have by his order disappeared from official government websites and museums.
At T****’s command, at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis books about the experiences and contributions of Blacks to the war effort during World War II, specifically including the Tuskegee Airmen, the public roles of African-American women, Travon Martin and the broader issues of racial profiling, and the history of feminism in America were all culled form that university’s library. Apparently, those who will be charged with defending our nation are not worthy of learning it’s true history.
The truth is that our nation’s MAGA-in-Chief, Donald T****, is a racist with a long history of bigotry and prejudice.
In the 1970’s, allegations that he and his father refused to rent apartments to Black tenants led to a federal lawsuit. In 1989 Trump took out full-page newspaper ads calling for the death penalty for five Black and Latino teenagers accused of rape. They were innocent. When announcing his first presidential run in 2016, he said, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
During that first term T**** called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” and he imposed travel bans on several majority-Muslim countries. He told four U.S. congresswomen of color to “go back” to the “crime-infested countries from which they came,” even though all are U.S. citizens. And after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville where a counter-protester was killed, he alleged that they were “very fine people.”
Donald T**** and the MAGA/Conservative bigots who now control our country’s government draw a direct correlation between race (ie: being Black) and competency. They use the phrase “DEI hire” as a dog whistle to people of their own kind. The racist nod here is that there is no résumé a Black person could present that would qualify them for high-level corporate or government appointments.
The understood and unspoken implication among Conservatives ranging from the MAGA’s to the ultra-Right Christian Nationalists and white supremacists is that the country should be run by white people. These are T****’s people; he curries their favor, they support him. He is one of them.
I am not. My people are not. Most Americans are not. We are right; they are wrong. It’s as simple as that. The fact that the American government is being led by an unabashed and unashamed bigot and racist is patently offensive to people of good conscience. And so it should be.
The question of slavery in this country was settled on the battlefield over a century and a half ago. Jim Crow was abolished and voting rights affirmed in our lifetime. History shows that our nation has won this battle against bigotry and racism before. And we can win it again.
There is a way to do this. There is a way for people of good faith and conscience to remove the stain of this horrid little man our land, a way to take back what is ours: our country. With our votes we can remove all of his cult-following MAGA lemmings everywhere from office. And our hearts and minds can we resolve to defy Donald T****, everywhere, all the time. We can resolve to take the One Path Forward.
RESISTANCE
